<simpara>This project provides OpenFeign integrations for Spring Boot apps through autoconfiguration
and binding to the Spring Environment and other Spring programming model idioms.</simpara>
</preface>
<chapterxml:id="spring-cloud-feign">
<title>Declarative REST Client: Feign</title>
<simpara><linkxl:href="https://github.com/Netflix/feign">Feign</link> is a declarative web service client. It makes writing web service clients easier. To use Feign create an interface and annotate it. It has pluggable annotation support including Feign annotations and JAX-RS annotations. Feign also supports pluggable encoders and decoders. Spring Cloud adds support for Spring MVC annotations and for using the same <literal>HttpMessageConverters</literal> used by default in Spring Web. Spring Cloud integrates Ribbon and Eureka to provide a load balanced http client when using Feign.</simpara>
<sectionxml:id="netflix-feign-starter">
<title>How to Include Feign</title>
<simpara>To include Feign in your project use the starter with group <literal>org.springframework.cloud</literal>
and artifact id <literal>spring-cloud-starter-openfeign</literal>. See the <linkxl:href="https://projects.spring.io/spring-cloud/">Spring Cloud Project page</link>
<simpara>A central concept in Spring Cloud’s Feign support is that of the named client. Each feign client is part of an ensemble of components that work together to contact a remote server on demand, and the ensemble has a name that you give it as an application developer using the <literal>@FeignClient</literal> annotation. Spring Cloud creates a new ensemble as an
<literal>ApplicationContext</literal> on demand for each named client using <literal>FeignClientsConfiguration</literal>. This contains (amongst other things) an <literal>feign.Decoder</literal>, a <literal>feign.Encoder</literal>, and a <literal>feign.Contract</literal>.
It is possible to override the name of that ensemble by using the <literal>contextId</literal>
attribute of the <literal>@FeignClient</literal> annotation.</simpara>
<simpara>Spring Cloud lets you take full control of the feign client by declaring additional configuration (on top of the <literal>FeignClientsConfiguration</literal>) using <literal>@FeignClient</literal>. Example:</simpara>
<simpara>In this case the client is composed from the components already in <literal>FeignClientsConfiguration</literal> together with any in <literal>FooConfiguration</literal> (where the latter will override the former).</simpara>
<note>
<simpara><literal>FooConfiguration</literal> does not need to be annotated with <literal>@Configuration</literal>. However, if it is, then take care to exclude it from any <literal>@ComponentScan</literal> that would otherwise include this configuration as it will become the default source for <literal>feign.Decoder</literal>, <literal>feign.Encoder</literal>, <literal>feign.Contract</literal>, etc., when specified. This can be avoided by putting it in a separate, non-overlapping package from any <literal>@ComponentScan</literal> or <literal>@SpringBootApplication</literal>, or it can be explicitly excluded in <literal>@ComponentScan</literal>.</simpara>
</note>
<note>
<simpara>The <literal>serviceId</literal> attribute is now deprecated in favor of the <literal>name</literal> attribute.</simpara>
</note>
<note>
<simpara>Using <literal>contextId</literal> attribute of the <literal>@FeignClient</literal> annotation in addition to changing the name of
the <literal>ApplicationContext</literal> ensemble, it will override the alias of the client name
and it will be used as part of the name of the configuration bean created for that client.</simpara>
</note>
<warning>
<simpara>Previously, using the <literal>url</literal> attribute, did not require the <literal>name</literal> attribute. Using <literal>name</literal> is now required.</simpara>
</warning>
<simpara>Placeholders are supported in the <literal>name</literal> and <literal>url</literal> attributes.</simpara>
<simpara>Spring Cloud Netflix provides the following beans by default for feign (<literal>BeanType</literal> beanName: <literal>ClassName</literal>):</simpara>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<simpara><literal>Decoder</literal> feignDecoder: <literal>ResponseEntityDecoder</literal> (which wraps a <literal>SpringDecoder</literal>)</simpara>
<simpara><literal>Client</literal> feignClient: if Ribbon is enabled it is a <literal>LoadBalancerFeignClient</literal>, otherwise the default feign client is used.</simpara>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<simpara>The OkHttpClient and ApacheHttpClient feign clients can be used by setting <literal>feign.okhttp.enabled</literal> or <literal>feign.httpclient.enabled</literal> to <literal>true</literal>, respectively, and having them on the classpath.
You can customize the HTTP client used by providing a bean of either <literal>ClosableHttpClient</literal> when using Apache or <literal>OkHttpClient</literal> when using OK HTTP.</simpara>
<simpara>Spring Cloud Netflix <emphasis>does not</emphasis> provide the following beans by default for feign, but still looks up beans of these types from the application context to create the feign client:</simpara>
<simpara>Creating a bean of one of those type and placing it in a <literal>@FeignClient</literal> configuration (such as <literal>FooConfiguration</literal> above) allows you to override each one of the beans described. Example:</simpara>
public BasicAuthRequestInterceptor basicAuthRequestInterceptor() {
return new BasicAuthRequestInterceptor("user", "password");
}
}</programlisting>
<simpara>This replaces the <literal>SpringMvcContract</literal> with <literal>feign.Contract.Default</literal> and adds a <literal>RequestInterceptor</literal> to the collection of <literal>RequestInterceptor</literal>.</simpara>
<simpara><literal>@FeignClient</literal> also can be configured using configuration properties.</simpara>
<simpara>Default configurations can be specified in the <literal>@EnableFeignClients</literal> attribute <literal>defaultConfiguration</literal> in a similar manner as described above. The difference is that this configuration will apply to <emphasis>all</emphasis> feign clients.</simpara>
<simpara>If you prefer using configuration properties to configured all <literal>@FeignClient</literal>, you can create configuration properties with <literal>default</literal> feign name.</simpara>
<simpara>In the above example <literal>FeignClientsConfiguration.class</literal> is the default configuration
provided by Spring Cloud Netflix.</simpara>
</note>
<note>
<simpara><literal>PROD-SVC</literal> is the name of the service the Clients will be making requests to.</simpara>
</note>
<note>
<simpara>The Feign <literal>Contract</literal> object defines what annotations and values are valid on interfaces. The
autowired <literal>Contract</literal> bean provides supports for SpringMVC annotations, instead of
the default Feign native annotations.</simpara>
</note>
</section>
<sectionxml:id="spring-cloud-feign-hystrix">
<title>Feign Hystrix Support</title>
<simpara>If Hystrix is on the classpath and <literal>feign.hystrix.enabled=true</literal>, Feign will wrap all methods with a circuit breaker. Returning a <literal>com.netflix.hystrix.HystrixCommand</literal> is also available. This lets you use reactive patterns (with a call to <literal>.toObservable()</literal> or <literal>.observe()</literal> or asynchronous use (with a call to <literal>.queue()</literal>).</simpara>
<simpara>To disable Hystrix support on a per-client basis create a vanilla <literal>Feign.Builder</literal> with the "prototype" scope, e.g.:</simpara>
<simpara>Hystrix supports the notion of a fallback: a default code path that is executed when they circuit is open or there is an error. To enable fallbacks for a given <literal>@FeignClient</literal> set the <literal>fallback</literal> attribute to the class name that implements the fallback. You also need to declare your implementation as a Spring bean.</simpara>
@RequestMapping(method = RequestMethod.GET, value = "/hello")
Hello iFailSometimes();
}
static class HystrixClientFallback implements HystrixClient {
@Override
public Hello iFailSometimes() {
return new Hello("fallback");
}
}</programlisting>
<simpara>If one needs access to the cause that made the fallback trigger, one can use the <literal>fallbackFactory</literal> attribute inside <literal>@FeignClient</literal>.</simpara>
@RequestMapping(method = RequestMethod.GET, value = "/hello")
Hello iFailSometimes();
}
@Component
static class HystrixClientFallbackFactory implements FallbackFactory<HystrixClient> {
@Override
public HystrixClient create(Throwable cause) {
return new HystrixClient() {
@Override
public Hello iFailSometimes() {
return new Hello("fallback; reason was: " + cause.getMessage());
}
};
}
}</programlisting>
<warning>
<simpara>There is a limitation with the implementation of fallbacks in Feign and how Hystrix fallbacks work. Fallbacks are currently not supported for methods that return <literal>com.netflix.hystrix.HystrixCommand</literal> and <literal>rx.Observable</literal>.</simpara>
</warning>
</section>
<sectionxml:id="_feign_and_primary">
<title>Feign and <literal>@Primary</literal></title>
<simpara>When using Feign with Hystrix fallbacks, there are multiple beans in the <literal>ApplicationContext</literal> of the same type. This will cause <literal>@Autowired</literal> to not work because there isn’t exactly one bean, or one marked as primary. To work around this, Spring Cloud Netflix marks all Feign instances as <literal>@Primary</literal>, so Spring Framework will know which bean to inject. In some cases, this may not be desirable. To turn off this behavior set the <literal>primary</literal> attribute of <literal>@FeignClient</literal> to false.</simpara>
<simpara>These properties allow you to be selective about the compressed media types and minimum request threshold length.</simpara>
</section>
<sectionxml:id="_feign_logging">
<title>Feign logging</title>
<simpara>A logger is created for each Feign client created. By default the name of the logger is the full class name of the interface used to create the Feign client. Feign logging only responds to the <literal>DEBUG</literal> level.</simpara>