JAX-RS Tip of the Day: Using YUI2 and YUI3 DataTables with Jersey and jQuery

This is a great example (if I do say so myself) that demonstrates some really cool capabilities of Jersey combined with Yahoo User Interface versions 2 and 3 combined with jQuery to demonstrate interoperability of multiple technologies.

The example code that I have included uses GlassFish 3.1.1 with Jersey 1.11 and was developed using NetBeans 7.1 RC2. The data is from the default sample database included in NetBeans. Here is the code: jsonp-database.zip

The YUI2, YUI3, and jQuery libraries are provided by Yahoo and Google CDN. This is a further example of a truly RESTful application where the application is provided as a mashup of multiple web resources.

Yahoo User Interface (YUI) is an incredibly well developed UI framework for the web. The DataSource implementation is easy to use and is extremely adaptable. It is also very stable, and Yahoo eats its own dogfood like Google so it is battle tested. YUI3 is the next generation code, and the DataTable implementation includes a number of new features.

jQuery is an extremely popular Javascript framework with great AJAX functionality. I have included two examples (YUI2/YUI3) in which jQuery provides JSON data to the Yahoo DataSource.

Jersey provides the heavy lifting. In all of the examples I provide the data in a variety of formats, but I focus on providing both JSON and JSONP. JSONP allows us to use have cross-domain capabilities. The code also demonstrates how to use Jettison to encapsulate POJOs. The best part is that the data can be tested not only using your browser, but can also be tested using curl. This provides a very simple visual means of verifying data.

So what does it look like... look at the images below. The results speak for themselves.

YUI2 DataTable using JSP

YUI3 DataTable with JSONP and JAX-RS (Jersey)

Now for the most important part, how do you get here.

Technical Details

The CustomerFacadeREST class is the most interesting. The JSP and HTML pages have the details of how to use the various YUI DataSources along with jQuery. I will not print the pages out, and suggest that you simply download the code and examine it.

CustomerFacadeREST.java

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CODE

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Here is the code: jsonp-database.zip