rest - Spring HATEOAS: Only show links when paging without serializing the resource/entity -

according spring hateoas guide, list of resources serialized in way each resource shown content , links:

{     "content": [ {         "price": 499.00,         "description": "apple tablet device",         "name": "ipad",         "links": [ {             "rel": "self",             "href": "http://localhost:8080/product/1"         } ],         "attributes": {             "connector": "socket"         }     }, {         "price": 49.00,         "description": "dock iphone/ipad",         "name": "dock",         "links": [ {             "rel": "self",             "href": "http://localhost:8080/product/3"         } ],         "attributes": {             "connector": "plug"         }     } ],     "links": [ {         "rel": "product.search",         "href": "http://localhost:8080/product/search"     } ] }    

in case of large data structures, think better provide links resources , not resources (especially when paging):

{     "_links": {       "items": [{           "href": "http://localhost:8080/product/1"       },{           "href": "http://localhost:8080/product/3"       }]     } } 

aside fact decrease size of transferred bytes, suggested hal specification. i'm doing way

@requestmapping(method = requestmethod.get, produces = mediatype.application_json_value) public responseentity root(pageable pageable, final pagedresourcesassembler<entity> assembler) {     page<entity> entities = entityrepository.findall(pageable);      pagedresources<resource> paged = assembler.toresource(entities,             entityresourceassembler.getinstance());      collection<resource> resources = paged.getcontent();     resourcesupport support = new resourcesupport();      (resource r : resources) {         link selflink = r.getlink(link.rel_self);         support.add(new link(selflink.gethref(), "items"));     }      return new responseentity<resourcesupport>(support, httpstatus.ok); } 

but bit ugly "manually" need fetch self link resources. there better/smarter way achieve want?

i'm going ignore why don't want embed sub-resources (and have less request-response cycles, more expensive part of client request) , answer question best can.

you cannot use built in pagedresourceassembler want. instead derive resourcesupport , add links yourself. in situations want link instead of embedding resource (because resource not available hal)

public class pageresource extends resourcesupport {      @xmlattribute(name = "page")     @jsonproperty("page")     private pagemeta pagemeta;      public pageresource() {         this.pagemeta = new pagemeta();     }      public pagemeta getpagemeta() {         return pagemeta;     }      public void setpagemeta(pagemeta pagemeta) {         this.pagemeta = pagemeta;     }      public static class pagemeta {         //number of resources on page.         @xmlattribute @jsonproperty private long size;         //total number of matching resources         @xmlattribute @jsonproperty private long totalelements;         //total number of page         @xmlattribute @jsonproperty private long totalpages;         //current page number         @xmlattribute @jsonproperty private long number;          public pagemeta() {         }          public pagemeta(long size, long totalelements, long totalpages, long number) {             this.size = size;             this.totalelements = totalelements;             this.totalpages = totalpages;             this.number = number;         }          public long getsize() {             return size;         }          public void setsize(long size) {             this.size = size;         }          public long gettotalelements() {             return totalelements;         }          public void settotalelements(long totalelements) {             this.totalelements = totalelements;         }          public long gettotalpages() {             return totalpages;         }          public void settotalpages(long totalpages) {             this.totalpages = totalpages;         }          public long getnumber() {             return number;         }          public void setnumber(long number) {             this.number = number;         }     } } 

is simple implementation, in controller responsible adding next , prev links, along item links.

at point build own pagedresourceassembler links instead of embedding sub-resources.

small aside...you should consider adding links rel "item" , not "items". it's tempting think of collection of links , give json field key plural name, remember hal spec uses field key link relationship.

compare in html form

<link rel="items" src="http://1"/> <link rel="items" src="http://2"/> 

to

<link rel="item" src="http://1"/> <link rel="item" src="http://2"/> 

and it's apparent each link's target shared item relationship collection, not "items" each link targets single item in collection.