Retrofit

A type-safe HTTP client for Android and Java

Introduction

 public interface GitHubService {
  @GET("users/{user}/repos")
  Call<List<Repo>> listRepos(@Path("user") String user);
}

The Retrofit class generates an implementation of the GitHubService interface.

Retrofit retrofit = new Retrofit.Builder()
    .baseUrl("https://api.github.com/")
    .build();

GitHubService service = retrofit.create(GitHubService.class);

Each Call from the created GitHubService can make a synchronous or asynchronous HTTP request to the remote webserver.

Call<List<Repo>> repos = service.listRepos("octocat");

Use annotations to describe the HTTP request:

• URL parameter replacement and query parameter support
• Object conversion to request body (e.g., JSON, protocol buffers)
• Multipart request body and file upload

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API Declaration

Annotations on the interface methods and its parameters indicate how a request will be handled.

Request Method

Every method must have an HTTP annotation that provides the request method and relative URL. There are five built-in annotations: GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, and HEAD. The relative URL of the resource is specified in the annotation.

@GET("users/list")

You can also specify query parameters in the URL.

@GET("users/list?sort=desc")

URL Manipulation

A request URL can be updated dynamically using replacement blocks and parameters on the method. A replacement block is an alphanumeric string surrounded by { and }. A corresponding parameter must be annotated with @Path using the same string.

@GET("group/{id}/users")
Call<List<User>> groupList(@Path("id") int groupId);

Query parameters can also be added.

@GET("group/{id}/users")
Call<List<User>> groupList(@Path("id") int groupId, @Query("sort") String sort);

For complex query parameter combinations a Map can be used.

@GET("group/{id}/users")
Call<List<User>> groupList(@Path("id") int groupId, @QueryMap Map<String, String> options);

Request Body

An object can be specified for use as an HTTP request body with the @Body annotation.

@POST("users/new")
Call<User> createUser(@Body User user);

The object will also be converted using a converter specified on the Retrofit instance. If no converter is added, only RequestBody can be used.

Form Encoded and Multipart

Methods can also be declared to send form-encoded and multipart data.

Form-encoded data is sent when @FormUrlEncoded is present on the method. Each key-value pair is annotated with @Field containing the name and the object providing the value.

@FormUrlEncoded
@POST("user/edit")
Call<User> updateUser(@Field("first_name") String first, @Field("last_name") String last);

Multipart requests are used when @Multipart is present on the method. Parts are declared using the @Part annotation.

@Multipart
@PUT("user/photo")
Call<User> updateUser(@Part("photo") RequestBody photo, @Part("description") RequestBody description);

Multipart parts use one of Retrofit’s converters or they can implement RequestBody to handle their own serialization.

Header Manipulation

You can set static headers for a method using the @Headers annotation.

@Headers("Cache-Control: max-age=640000")
@GET("widget/list")
Call<List<Widget>> widgetList();

@Headers({
    "Accept: application/vnd.github.v3.full+json",
    "User-Agent: Retrofit-Sample-App"
})
@GET("users/{username}")
Call<User> getUser(@Path("username") String username);

Note that headers do not overwrite each other. All headers with the same name will be included in the request.

A request Header can be updated dynamically using the @Header annotation. A corresponding parameter must be provided to the @Header. If the value is null, the header will be omitted. Otherwise, toString will be called on the value, and the result used.

@GET("user")
Call<User> getUser(@Header("Authorization") String authorization)

Headers that need to be added to every request can be specified using an OkHttp interceptor.

Gradle

compile 'com.squareup.retrofit2:retrofit:(insert latest version)'

ProGuard

If you are using ProGuard in your project add the following lines to your configuration:

# Platform calls Class.forName on types which do not exist on Android to determine platform.
-dontnote retrofit2.Platform
# Platform used when running on Java 8 VMs. Will not be used at runtime.
-dontwarn retrofit2.Platform$Java8
# Retain generic type information for use by reflection by converters and adapters.
-keepattributes Signature
# Retain declared checked exceptions for use by a Proxy instance.
-keepattributes Exceptions