Here’s an example:
@GET
@Path("retrieve/{uuid}")
public Response retrieveSomething(@PathParam("uuid") String uuid) {
if(uuid == null || uuid.trim().length() == 0) {
return Response.serverError().entity("UUID cannot be blank").build();
}
Entity entity = service.getById(uuid);
if(entity == null) {
return Response.status(Response.Status.NOT_FOUND).entity("Entity not found for UUID: " + uuid).build();
}
String json = //convert entity to json
return Response.ok(json, MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON).build();
}
Take a look at the Response class.
Note that you should always specify a content type, especially if you are passing multiple content types, but if every message will be represented as JSON, you can just annotate the method with @Produces("application/json")