Quickstart

ZombieLink works by allowing you to describe a remote service on an interface using annotations and giving you a proxy implementation of that interface which can be used to invoke the remote service.

####1. Defining an endpoint.

Use @Endpoint to annotate the interface which describes the remote service. It requires a URI for locating the remote service.

@Endpoint("https://api.github.com")
public interface GitHubEndpoint {

}

####2. Defining a request.

Add an aptly named abstract method and annotate it to identify the HTTP method to be used. This annotation accepts the request path.

Most web APIs today follow a RESTful pattern. In this case you may need to parameterize the path using a suitable name enclosed in curly braces, eg. {param}. The path parameter can be supplied as an argument when invoking the request. Identify this argument by annotating a request parameter with @PathParam("param").

The method return type indicates the response content you wish to receive. Request definitions with a return type of String will give you the raw response body, e.g. a JSON string.

@Endpoint("https://api.github.com")
public interface GitHubEndpoint {

    @GET("/users/{user}/repos")
    String getRepos(@PathParam("user") String user);
}

####3. Using models and deserializers.

It would be convenient if the request gave you a deserialized model instead of a plain JSON string. To achieve this, create a simple POJO with variables names which match the JSON object.

public class Repo {

    private String id;
    private String name;
    private boolean fork;
    private int stargazers_count;
    
    ...
}

Next, annotate either the endpoint or the request with @Deserialize and specify the content type with Entity.ContentType. Since the response gives you an array of Repo JSON objects, you can redefine the return type as List<Repo>.

import static com.lonepulse.zombielink.annotation.Entity.ContentType.JSON;

@Deserialize(JSON)
@Endpoint("https://api.github.com")
public interface GitHubEndpoint {

    @GET("/users/{user}/repos")
    List<Repo> getRepos(@PathParam("user") String user);
}

####4. Injecting the endpoint.

You can use of this endpoint in an object by declaring a variable of the interface type and injecting proxy implementation of it. All such proxies are thread-safe and exist as a singleton.

To inject an endpoint proxy, annotate the variable with @Bite invoke Zombie.infect(...) on the instance.

public class ProfileService implements ProfileManager {

    @Bite
    private GitHubEndpoint gitHubEndpoint;
    {
        Zombie.infect(this);
    }

    @Override
    public void addGitHubRepos() {

        List<Repo> repos = gitHubEndpoint.getRepos("sahan");

        ...
    }
}