When to use @RestController vs @RepositoryRestResource

Question

I have been looking at various examples of how to use Spring with REST. Our end target is a Spring HATEOAS/HAL setup

I have seen two d

Answer 1

@RepositoryRestController override default generated Spring Data REST controllers from exposed repository.

To take advantage of Spring Data REST’s settings, message converters, exception handling, and more, use the @RepositoryRestController annotation instead of a standard Spring MVC @Controller or @RestController

E.g this controllers use spring.data.rest.basePath Spring Boot setting as base path for routing.

See Overriding Spring Data REST Response Handlers.

Be aware of adding @ResponseBody as it is missed in @RepositoryRestController

If you not exposed repository (marked as @RepositoryRestResource(exported = false)), use @BasePathAwareController annotation instead

Also be aware of bags

ControllerLinkBuilder does not take Spring Data REST's base path into account and @RequestMapping shouldn't be used on class/type level

and

Base path doesn't show up in HAL

Workaround to fix link: https://stackoverflow.com/a/51736503/548473

UPDATE: at last I prefer not to use @RepositoryRestController due to lot of workarounds.