1. RestTemplate

About

RestTemplate is a high-level, synchronous HTTP client provided by the Spring Framework, used to simplify communication with RESTful web services. It abstracts away the boilerplate code involved in interacting with HTTP-based APIs, allowing developers to focus on business logic rather than HTTP plumbing.

By handling HTTP requests and responses, serialization and deserialization of Java objects, and error management, RestTemplate enables seamless integration between microservices or external systems within a Spring-based application.

When & Why it was Introduced ?

In the early days of REST adoption, developers were left to implement low-level HTTP clients using libraries like HttpURLConnection or Apache HttpClient. These solutions were verbose and error-prone, requiring manual configuration for headers, content types, serialization, and error handling.

To streamline this process, Spring introduced RestTemplate as part of the Spring Web module. It offered a declarative, reusable, and idiomatic way to consume REST APIs within the familiar Spring programming model. The goal was to reduce repetitive code, enforce type safety, and provide out-of-the-box support for JSON and XML mapping using Spring's HttpMessageConverters.

Deprecation notice

While RestTemplate remains supported and widely used in production applications, it is considered legacy in newer Spring projects.

Spring introduced WebClient as part of Spring WebFlux, which supports asynchronous, non-blocking, and reactive HTTP communication. WebClient offers better scalability and performance in modern microservice or reactive systems.

Spring officially states:

"The RestTemplate will be in maintenance mode, with no major enhancements going forward. For non-blocking HTTP calls, prefer WebClient."

That said, RestTemplate is still a reliable choice for:

• Synchronous applications

• Traditional Spring MVC stacks

• Systems that don't use reactive programming

Characteristics

Characteristic	Description
Synchronous	Calls are blocking. The thread is held until the response arrives.
Template-Based	Encourages reusable, declarative code for REST operations.
Thread-safe	Can be used as a singleton across multiple threads (with proper configuration).
Rich API	Provides methods like getForObject, postForEntity, exchange, and more.
Serialization Support	Uses Spring’s HttpMessageConverters (e.g., Jackson) for JSON/XML conversion.
Exception Handling	Can be customized via ResponseErrorHandler.
Pluggable	Custom interceptors, request factories, and converters can be injected.
Mature and Stable	Battle-tested and well-documented across the Spring ecosystem.

Typical Usage Scenario

Imagine a system where our Spring Boot application needs to call another microservice to retrieve user details or perform a payment:

ResponseEntity<UserDetails> response = restTemplate.getForEntity(
    "http://user-service/api/users/42", UserDetails.class
);

In this simple example:

• A GET request is made to an external service

• The response body is converted to a Java object (UserDetails)

• The HTTP response metadata (status code, headers) is accessible

It eliminates the need to manually open connections, handle streams, or parse JSON.

Some common real-world uses:

• Calling payment gateways (e.g., Stripe, Razorpay)

• Fetching catalog information from external APIs

• Internal service-to-service communication in monolithic-to-microservice migrations

• Performing health checks or diagnostics of dependent services

When to Use RestTemplate ?

Use Case	Explanation
Synchronous communication is acceptable	When the client can afford to wait for the response, RestTemplate provides a clear and simple abstraction for REST calls.
Traditional Spring MVC applications	It integrates well with Spring Boot apps that do not use reactive programming or WebFlux.
Simple API interaction with predictable behavior	Perfect for straightforward REST operations (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE) where advanced control over connection or flow isn’t needed.
Stable legacy systems	When working within a system that already uses RestTemplate extensively, introducing WebClient might not justify the cost unless there are performance concerns.
Quick prototypes or PoCs	Easier to set up and use for rapid development cycles or temporary internal tools.
Blocking behavior is intentional	In some applications (like financial workflows or audit trails), it’s desirable to wait until the operation completes successfully before moving forward.

When Not to Use RestTemplate ?

Situation	Why Not
Need for non-blocking or reactive I/O	RestTemplate is blocking. If our app is reactive (using WebFlux or functional endpoints), use WebClient instead.
High-concurrency or scalability requirements	Blocking threads do not scale well. In systems that handle thousands of concurrent requests, WebClient is more efficient.
Streaming APIs or long polling	RestTemplate is not optimized for data streams or server-sent events (SSE).
Modern microservices architecture	If our architecture favors reactive patterns, event-driven communication, or non-blocking behavior, RestTemplate becomes a bottleneck.
Heavy customization of HTTP layer	While we can customize RestTemplate, WebClient offers finer control over connection settings, filters, timeouts, etc.