Jersey 2.3 Setting Priority for ContainerRequestFilter

Question

public class MyApplication extends ResourceConfig {

    public MyApplication() {
       /* // Register resources and providers using package-scanning.
        packages("com.keylesson.service");

        // Register my custom provider - not needed if it's in my.package.
        register(TestFilter.class);
        register(TestFilter2.class);*/
    }
}

Above code after un-commenting is able to execute both filter classes but the sequenceing is TestFilter2 and then TestFilter. This Resourceconfig method is something I do not like much and I want to use old style web.xml for Jersey2.3. The jersey 1.x init-params for filters are not working in jersey2.3. Can anyone help me with sample web.xml for jersey2.3 that guarantees the execution of filters? and also in the sequence testfilter and then testfilter2?

Solution

You can configure priorities for your filters. A couple options

Option 1:

Use the @Priority for your filter classes, passing in a value (e.g. @Priority(1)). The lower the number, the higher the priority (Don't need for anything special in web.xml or Application subclass)

@Priority(6000)
public class MyFilter1 ... {}

@Priority(6001)
public class MyFilter2 ... {}

See Priorities

Option 2:

Configure it programmatically into the application via an inject-able Configurable. Something like

@ApplicationPath("/")
public class MyApplication extends Application {
    public MyApplication(@Context Configurable configurable) {
        configurable.register(MyFilter1.class, 1000);
        configurable.register(MyFilter2.class, 1001);
    }
}

Or with ResourceConfig simply calling register without the injected Configurable. See the API for overloaded register

public ResourceConfig register(Object component, int bindingPriority)

e.g.

public class MyApplication extends ResourceConfig {
    public MyApplication() {
        ...
        register(TestFilter.class, 6000);
        register(TestFilter2.class, 6001);*/
    }
}

Note:

Just an FYI, there are built in constants from the Priorites class.

public final class Priorities {
    private Priorities() { }

    public static final int AUTHENTICATION = 1000;
    public static final int AUTHORIZATION = 2000;
    public static final int HEADER_DECORATOR = 3000;
    public static final int ENTITY_CODER = 4000;
    public static final int USER = 5000;
}

These are used by some of the built in components of the framework, so you might want to consider these when giving a number to your priority. You could use these like

@Priority(Priorities.USER)
// or @Priority(Priorities.USER + 1)
public class MyFilter ... {}

Comments

[curiousengineer]

Thanks, it works. This is very helpful. However, I am not very clear on the "Application" annotation. I read the official doc also, but it confuses me. And the code you suggested works regardless of @Application annotation. Can you elaborate a bit on that as well?

[Paul Samsotha]

@ApplicationPath will auto configure the class as a JAX-RS application, so you don't need to configure it in XML. The Application class is the main JAX-RS application class. ResourceConfig extends from it. You can either subclass Application directly or with Jersey only, subclass ResourceConfig. ResourceConfig adds some helper methods to make configuration easier, but it is not portable, as only Jersey uses this class. Subclassing Application is portable. See Application Deployment

[Puce]

Injecting a Configurable to the constructor results in a NullPointerException. How can I obtain the Configurable?

[Puce]

I solved it by implementing and registring a custom Feature which registers the LoggingFilter.

[Waleed]

The answer is pretty well written however I'd like to point out that the register method in ResourceConfig doesn't work. This is probably true for all programatic ways of defining filter priorities in jersey. See following links: github.com/eclipse-ee4j/jersey/issues/3467 stackoverflow.com/questions/35914944/… stackoverflow.com/questions/34639434/…

[Leandro]

Does a subclass have the same priority as its parent?

[Paul Samsotha]

@Leandro that's a good question. It's not something I have ever tested.