Android - Having problems managing server endpoints in app client

Question

I have following server Urls:

server-base-url/method1
server-base-url/method2
server-base-url/method3
...
server-base-url/method100

I am currently using a properties file to store the URLs. When I need to consume some of the server URLs, then I read the properties file and perform the http request using Spring 4 Android

I know that should be another way (and a better way) to do this. What is the best practice to achieve this?

Answer 1

Another Option is to use Plain Java:

public class ServerInfo {
     private static final String URL_BASE_DEBUG = "your base debug url";
     private static final String URL_BASE_RELEASE = "your base release url";

     public static String getBaseUrl() {
          //change if debug' release or whichever flavor
          return URL_BASE_DEBUG;
     } 
}

It's pretty straight forward...You can have all the information needed in a single Java Class

Now regarding the network comm It's really up to you...There are many choices...I personally like Retrofit 2 which is a wrapper on top of a networking library okhttp

A short example of how you can use Retrofit with the above method is:

Rest Api (like User Rest api)

public interface SomeRestApiEndPoints {
    @GET("api/method1")
    Call<ReturnValue> method1(params);

    @POST(api/method2)
    Call<ReturnObject> method2(params);
    ...
}

The Rest Client

public class RestClient {
   private static RestClient sRestClient;

   private Retrofit mRetrofit;
   private SomeRestApiEndPoints apiEndpoint;

   public static RestClient getRestClient () {
        if(sRestClient != null){
            return sRestClient;
        }

        synchronized (RestClient.class) {
            if(sRestClient == null) {
            //gson example
            Gson gson = new GsonBuilder().setFieldNamingPolicy(FieldNamingPolicy.LOWER_CASE_WITH_UNDERSCORES).create();
            RestClient client = new RestClient();
            client.mRetrofit = new Retrofit.Builder()
                    .baseUrl(ServerInfo.getBaseUrl()) //This is where you bind the base Url
                    .addConverterFactory(GsonConverterFactory.create(gson))
                    .build();     

            client.apiEndpoint = client.mRetrofit.create(SomeRestApiEndPoints.class);
            sRestClient = client;
        }
        return sRestClient;
    }


    public SomeRestApiEndPoints getApi() {
        return apiEndpoints;
    }

}

Usage Example

Call<ReturnValue> call = RestClient.getRestClient().getApi().method1(params);