Return HTTP 204 on null with spring @RestController

You can use the @ResponseStatus annotation. This way you can have a void method and you don't have to build a ResponseEntity.

@DeleteMapping(value = HERO_MAPPING)@ResponseStatus(value = HttpStatus.NO_CONTENT)public void delete(@PathVariable Long heroId) {    heroService.delete(heroId);}

BTW returning 200 when the object exists and 204 otherwise it's a bit unusual regarding API REST design. It's common to return a 404 (not found) when the requested object is not found. And this can be achieved using a ControllerAdvice.

In Spring REST it's better to handle Exceptions with a Exception handler instead of putting logic to decide the response status, etc. This is an example using the @ControllerAdvice annotation: http://www.jcombat.com/spring/exception-handling-in-spring-restful-web-service

Of course yes.

Option 1 :

@RestControllerpublic class RepoController {    @RequestMapping(value = "/document/{id}", method = RequestMethod.GET)    public Object getDocument(@PathVariable long id, HttpServletResponse response) {       Object object = getObject();       if( null == object ){          response.setStatus( HttpStatus.SC_NO_CONTENT);       }       return object ;    }}

Option 2 :

@RestControllerpublic class RepoController {    @RequestMapping(value = "/document/{id}", method = RequestMethod.GET)    public Object getDocument(@PathVariable long id) {       Object object = getObject();       if ( null == object ){          return new ResponseEntity<Void>(HttpStatus.NO_CONTENT);       }       return object ;    }}

Might have typos, but you get the concept.

I solved this problem with a filter. It's global and simple.

package your.package.filter;import org.springframework.http.HttpStatus;import org.springframework.web.filter.OncePerRequestFilter;import javax.servlet.*;import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;import java.io.IOException;public class NoContentFilter extends OncePerRequestFilter {    @Override    protected void doFilterInternal(HttpServletRequest httpServletRequest, HttpServletResponse httpServletResponse, FilterChain filterChain) throws ServletException, IOException {        filterChain.doFilter(httpServletRequest, httpServletResponse);        if (httpServletResponse.getContentType() == null ||                httpServletResponse.getContentType().equals("")) {            httpServletResponse.setStatus(HttpStatus.NO_CONTENT.value());        }    }}

and add the following in your web.xml

<filter>    <filter-name>restNoContentFilter</filter-name>    <filter-class>your.package.filter.NoContentFilter</filter-class></filter><filter-mapping>    <filter-name>restNoContentFilter</filter-name>    <url-pattern>/rest/*</url-pattern></filter-mapping>