retrofit 2 @path Vs @query

I am new to retrofit 2 library.I read several articles to get started as a beginner and I managed to fetch XML data from my RESTful API without specifying parameters.In my method that generated the XML resource is below.

@GET
@Path("/foods")
@Produces(MediaType.APPLICATION_XML)
public List<FoodPyramid> getFoodPyramid() {
    Session session = HibernateUtil.getSessionFactory().openSession();
    trans = session.beginTransaction();
    List<FoodPyramid> foodList = session.createQuery("from FoodPyramid").list();
    try {
        trans.commit();
        session.close();
    } catch (Exception e) {
        session.close();
        System.err.println("Food Pyramid fetch " + e);
    }
    System.err.println("Am in the food modal. . . . . . . .");
    return foodList;
}

Now when I tried to pass parameter in the interface

@GET("user/{username}/{password}")
Call<List<UserCredentail>> getUserOuth(@Query("username") String username, @Query("password") String password);  

It failed to run,no data was receive by a client . It took me a week trying to fix it though by using a non parameter call fetched the resources; So tried to change it to:

@GET("user/{username}/{password}")
Call<List<UserCredentail>> getUserOuth(@Path("username") String username, @Path("password") String password);  

and it worked fine. So My question is: When do I need to use @Query and @Path Annotation in retrofit 2?


Consider this is the url:

www.app.net/api/searchtypes/862189/filters?Type=6&SearchText=School

Now this is the call:

@GET("/api/searchtypes/{Id}/filters")
Call<FilterResponse> getFilterList(
          @Path("Id") long customerId,
          @Query("Type") String responseType,
          @Query("SearchText") String searchText
);

So we have:

www.app.net/api/searchtypes/{Path}/filters?Type={Query}&SearchText={Query}

Things that come after the ? are usually queries.


For example:

@GET("/user/{username}?type={admin}")

Here username is the path variable, and type is the query variable

@GET("/user/{username}?type={admin}")
void getUserOuth(@Path("username") String username, @Query("type") String type)

@Query

  • This annotation represents any query key value pair to be sent along with the network request

@Path

  • This annotation implies that the passed parameter will be swapped in the endpoint path

@Path annotation use for ordering parameters as your own way. And defined the order in url.

@GET("user/{username}/{password}")
Call<List<UserCredentail>> getUserOuth(@Path("username") String username, @Path("password") String password);

@Query annotation auto order of parameters and added with url including "?" symbol.

   @GET("user")
    Call<List<UserCredentail>> getUserOuth(@Query("username") String username, @Query("password") String password);

Kotlin Answer

For example, geting specific post from list with post id:

@GET("Posts/{post_id}")
suspend fun getPost(@Path("post_id") postId: String): Response<Post>

Note: In this example, Post is my data model class.