What is the best way to return different types of ResponseEntity in Spring MVC or Spring-Boot

Question

I have written simple rest application using Spring MVC 4 (or Spring-Boot). Within the controller I have return ResponseEntity. But in some cases I want to give

Answer 1

I used to use a class like this. The statusCode is set when there is an error with the error message set in message. Data is stored either in the Map or in a List as and when appropriate.

/**
* 
*/
package com.test.presentation.response;

import java.util.Collection;
import java.util.Map;

/**
 * A simple POJO to send JSON response to ajax requests. This POJO enables  us to
 * send messages and error codes with the actual objects in the application.
 * 
 * 
 */
@SuppressWarnings("rawtypes")
public class GenericResponse {

/**
 * An array that contains the actual objects
 */
private Collection rows;

/**
 * An Map that contains the actual objects
 */
private Map mapData;

/**
 * A String containing error code. Set to 1 if there is an error
 */
private int statusCode = 0;

/**
 * A String containing error message.
 */
private String message;

/**
 * An array that contains the actual objects
 * 
 * @return the rows
 */
public Collection getRows() {
    return rows;
}

/**
 * An array that contains the actual objects
 * 
 * @param rows
 *            the rows to set
 */
public void setRows(Collection rows) {
    this.rows = rows;
}

/**
 * An Map that contains the actual objects
 * 
 * @return the mapData
 */
public Map getMapData() {
    return mapData;
}

/**
 * An Map that contains the actual objects
 * 
 * @param mapData
 *            the mapData to set
 */
public void setMapData(Map mapData) {
    this.mapData = mapData;
}

/**
 * A String containing error code.
 * 
 * @return the errorCode
 */
public int getStatusCode() {
    return statusCode;
}

/**
 * A String containing error code.
 * 
 * @param errorCode
 *            the errorCode to set
 */
public void setStatusCode(int errorCode) {
    this.statusCode = errorCode;
}

/**
 * A String containing error message.
 * 
 * @return the errorMessage
 */
public String getMessage() {
    return message;
}

/**
 * A String containing error message.
 * 
 * @param errorMessage
 *            the errorMessage to set
 */
public void setMessage(String errorMessage) {
    this.message = errorMessage;
}

}

Hope this helps.