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:1st_place_medal: Java SDK to use the IBM Watson services.
https://github.com/watson-developer-cloud/java-sdk

bluemix gradle hacktoberfest iam ibm-cloud ibm-watson-services java java-sdk sdk watson-apis watson-services

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:1st_place_medal: Java SDK to use the IBM Watson services.

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# Watson APIs Java SDK

[![Build and Test](https://github.com/watson-developer-cloud/java-sdk/actions/workflows/build-test.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/watson-developer-cloud/java-sdk/actions/workflows/build-test.yml)

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[![CLA assistant](https://cla-assistant.io/readme/badge/watson-developer-cloud/java-sdk)](https://cla-assistant.io/watson-developer-cloud/java-sdk)



## Deprecated builds

[![Build Status](https://travis-ci.org/watson-developer-cloud/java-sdk.svg?branch=master)](https://travis-ci.org/watson-developer-cloud/java-sdk)



Java client library to use the [Watson APIs][wdc].



## Before you begin

* You need an [IBM Cloud][ibm-cloud-onboarding] account.



## Installation



##### Maven

All the services:



```xml



	com.ibm.watson

	ibm-watson

	13.0.0



```



Only Discovery:



```xml



	com.ibm.watson

	discovery

	13.0.0



```



##### Gradle

All the services:



```gradle

'com.ibm.watson:ibm-watson:13.0.0'

```



Only Assistant:



```gradle

'com.ibm.watson:assistant:13.0.0'

```



Now, you are ready to see some [examples](https://github.com/watson-developer-cloud/java-sdk/tree/master/examples/src/main/java/com/ibm/watson).



## Usage



The examples within each service assume that you already have service credentials. If not,

you will have to [create a service](#getting-credentials) in IBM Cloud.



If you are running your application in IBM Cloud (or other platforms based on Cloud Foundry), you don't need to specify the

credentials; the library will get them for you by looking at the [`VCAP_SERVICES`][vcap_services] environment variable.



## Running in IBM Cloud



When running in IBM Cloud (or other platforms based on Cloud Foundry), the library will automatically get the credentials from [`VCAP_SERVICES`][vcap_services].

If you have more than one plan, you can use `CredentialUtils` to get the service credentials for an specific plan.



## Authentication



Watson services are migrating to token-based Identity and Access Management (IAM) authentication.



As of `v9.2.1`, the preferred approach of initializing an authenticator is the builder pattern. This pattern supports 

constructing the authenticator with only the properties that you need. Also, if you're authenticating to a Watson service 

on Cloud Pak for Data that supports IAM, you must use the builder pattern.



- You can initialize the authenticator with either of the following approaches:

    - In the builder of the authenticator (builder pattern).

    - In the constructor of the authenticator (deprecated, but still available).

- With some service instances, you authenticate to the API by using **[IAM](#iam)**.

- In other instances, you authenticate by providing the **[username and password](#username-and-password)** for the service instance.

- If you're using a Watson service on Cloud Pak for Data, you'll need to authenticate in a [specific way](#cloud-pak-for-data).



### Getting credentials



To find out which authentication to use, view the service credentials. You find the service credentials for authentication the same way for all Watson services:



1.  Go to the IBM Cloud [Dashboard](https://cloud.ibm.com/) page.

1.  Either click an existing Watson service instance in your [resource list](https://cloud.ibm.com/resources) or click [**Create resource > AI**](https://cloud.ibm.com/catalog?category=ai) and create a service instance.

1. Click on the **Manage** item in the left nav bar of your service instance.



On this page, you should be able to see your credentials for accessing your service instance.



In your code, you can use these values in the service constructor or with a method call after instantiating your service.



### Supplying credentials



There are two ways to supply the credentials you found above to the SDK for authentication.



#### Credential file (easier!)



With a credential file, you just need to put the file in the right place and the SDK will do the work of parsing it and authenticating. You can get this file by clicking the **Download** button for the credentials in the **Manage** tab of your service instance.



The file downloaded will be called `ibm-credentials.env`. This is the name the SDK will search for and **must** be preserved unless you want to configure the file path (more on that later). The SDK will look for your `ibm-credentials.env` file in the following places (in order):



- Your system's home directory

- The top-level directory of the project you're using the SDK in



As long as you set that up correctly, you don't have to worry about setting any authentication options in your code. So, for example, if you created and downloaded the credential file for your Discovery instance, you just need to do the following:



```java

Discovery service = new Discovery("2019-04-30");

```



And that's it!



If you're using more than one service at a time in your code and get two different `ibm-credentials.env` files, just put the contents together in one `ibm-credentials.env` file and the SDK will handle assigning credentials to their appropriate services.



If you would like to configure the location/name of your credential file, you can set an environment variable called `IBM_CREDENTIALS_FILE`. **This will take precedence over the locations specified above.** Here's how you can do that:



```bash

export IBM_CREDENTIALS_FILE=""

```



where `` is something like `/home/user/Downloads/.env`.



#### Manually



If you'd prefer to set authentication values manually in your code, the SDK supports that as well. The way you'll do this depends on what type of credentials your service instance gives you.



##### IAM



Some services use token-based Identity and Access Management (IAM) authentication. IAM authentication uses a service API key to get an access token that is passed with the call. Access tokens are valid for approximately one hour and must be regenerated.



You supply either an IAM service **API key** or an **access token**:



- Use the API key to have the SDK manage the lifecycle of the access token. The SDK requests an access token, ensures that the access token is valid, and refreshes it if necessary.

- Use the access token if you want to manage the lifecycle yourself. For details, see [Authenticating with IAM tokens](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/watson?topic=watson-iam).



Supplying the IAM API key:



Builder pattern approach:



```java

// letting the SDK manage the IAM token

Authenticator authenticator = new IamAuthenticator.Builder()

            .apikey("")

            .build();

Discovery service = new Discovery("2019-04-30", authenticator);

```



Deprecated constructor approach:



```java

// letting the SDK manage the IAM token

Authenticator authenticator = new IamAuthenticator("");

Discovery service = new Discovery("2019-04-30", authenticator);

```



Supplying the access token:



```java

// assuming control of managing IAM token

Authenticator authenticator = new BearerTokenAuthenticator("");

Discovery service = new Discovery("2019-04-30", authenticator);

```



#### Username and password



Builder pattern approach:



```java

Authenticator authenticator = new BasicAuthenticator.Builder()

            .username("")

            .password("")

            .build();

Discovery service = new Discovery("2019-04-30", authenticator);

```



Deprecated constructor approach:



```java

Authenticator authenticator = new BasicAuthenticator("", "");

Discovery service = new Discovery("2019-04-30", authenticator);

```



#### ICP

Authenticating with ICP is similar to the basic username and password method, except that you need to make sure to disable SSL verification to authenticate properly. See [here](#configuring-the-http-client) for more information.



```java

Authenticator authenticator = new BasicAuthenticator("", "");

Discovery service = new Discovery("2019-04-30", authenticator);



HttpConfigOptions options = new HttpConfigOptions.Builder()

  .disableSslVerification(true)

  .build();



service.configureClient(options);

```



#### Cloud Pak for Data

Like IAM, you can pass in credentials to let the SDK manage an access token for you or directly supply an access token to do it yourself.



Builder pattern approach:



```java

// letting the SDK manage the token

Authenticator authenticator = new CloudPakForDataAuthenticator.Builder()

            .url("")

            .username("")

            .password("")

            .disableSSLVerification(true)

            .headers(null)

            .build();

Discovery service = new Discovery("2019-04-30", authenticator);

service.setServiceUrl("");

```



Deprecated constructor approach:



```java

// letting the SDK manage the token

Authenticator authenticator = new CloudPakForDataAuthenticator(

  "",

  "",

  "",

  true, // disabling SSL verification

  null,

);

Discovery service = new Discovery("2019-04-30", authenticator);

service.setServiceUrl("");

```



```java

// assuming control of managing the access token

Authenticator authenticator = new BearerTokenAuthenticator("");

Discovery service = new Discovery("2019-04-30", authenticator);

service.setServiceUrl("");

```



Be sure to both disable SSL verification when authenticating and set the endpoint explicitly to the URL given in Cloud Pak for Data.



#### MCSP

To use the SDK through a third party cloud provider (such as AWS), use the `MCSPAuthenticator`. This will require the base endpoint URL for the MCSP token service (e.g. https://iam.platform.saas.ibm.com) and an apikey. 



```java

// letting the SDK manage the token

Authenticator authenticator = new MCSPAuthenticator.Builder()

            .apikey("apikey")

            .url("token_service_endpoint")

            .build();

Assistant service = new Assistant("2023-06-15", authenticator);

service.setServiceUrl("");

```



## Using the SDK



### Parsing responses



No matter which method you use to make an API request (`execute()`, `enqueue()`, or `reactiveRequest()`), you'll get back an object of form `Response`, where `T` is the model representing the specific response model.



Here's an example of how to parse that response and get additional information beyond the response model:



```java

// listing our workspaces with an instance of the Assistant v1 service

Response response = service.listWorkspaces().execute();



// pulling out the specific API method response, which we can manipulate as usual

WorkspaceCollection collection = response.getResult();

System.out.println("My workspaces: " + collection.getWorkspaces());



// grabbing headers that came back with our API response

Headers responseHeaders = response.getHeaders();

System.out.println("Response header names: " + responseHeaders.names());

```



### Configuring the HTTP client



The HTTP client can be configured by using the `setProxy()` method on your authenticator and using the `configureClient()` method on your service object, passing in an `HttpConfigOptions` object. For a full list of configurable options look at this linked Builder class for [HttpConfigOptions](https://github.com/IBM/java-sdk-core/blob/c053e1ccf4bc4267b0ce0be5538564fac088f57b/src/main/java/com/ibm/cloud/sdk/core/http/HttpConfigOptions.java#L95). Currently, the following options are supported:

- Disabling SSL verification (only do this if you really mean to!) ⚠️

- Setting gzip compression

- Setting max retry and retry interval

- Using a proxy (more info here: [OkHTTPClient Proxy authentication how to?](https://stackoverflow.com/a/35567936/456564))

- Setting HTTP logging verbosity



Here's an example of setting the above:



```java

Proxy proxy = new Proxy(Proxy.Type.HTTP, new InetSocketAddress("proxyHost", 8080));

IamAuthenticator authenticator = new IamAuthenticator(apiKey);

authenticator.setProxy(proxy);



Discovery service = new Discovery("2019-04-30", authenticator);



// setting configuration options

HttpConfigOptions options = new HttpConfigOptions.Builder()

  .disableSslVerification(true)

  .proxy(proxy)

  .loggingLevel(HttpConfigOptions.LoggingLevel.BASIC)

  .build();



service.configureClient(options);

```



### Making asynchronous API calls



The basic, synchronous way to make API calls with this SDK is through the use of the `execute()` method. Using this method looks something like this:

```java

// make API call

Response response = service.listEnvironments().execute();



// continue execution

```



However, if you need to perform these calls in the background, there are two other methods to do this asynchronously: `enqueue()` and `reactiveRequest()`.



#### `enqueue()`



This method allows you to set a callback for the service response through the use of the `ServiceCallback` object. Here's an example:

```java

// make API call in the background

service.listEnvironments().enqueue(new ServiceCallback() {

  @Override

  public void onResponse(Response response) {

    System.out.println("We did it! " + response);

  }



  @Override

  public void onFailure(Exception e) {

    System.out.println("Whoops...");

  }

});



// continue working in the meantime!

```



#### `reactiveRequest()`



If you're a fan of the [RxJava](https://github.com/ReactiveX/RxJava) library, this method lets you leverage that to allow for "reactive" programming. The method will return a `Single` which you can manipulate how you please. Example:

```java

// get stream with request

Single> observableRequest

  = service.listEnvironments().reactiveRequest();



// make API call in the background

observableRequest

  .subscribeOn(Schedulers.single())

  .subscribe(response -> System.out.println("We did it with s~t~r~e~a~m~s! " + response));



// continue working in the meantime!

```



### Default headers



Default headers can be specified at any time by using the `setDefaultHeaders(Map headers)` method.



The example below sends the `X-Watson-Learning-Opt-Out` header in every request preventing Watson from using the payload to improve the service.



```java

PersonalityInsights service = new PersonalityInsights("2017-10-13", new NoAuthAuthenticator());



Map headers = new HashMap();

headers.put(WatsonHttpHeaders.X_WATSON_LEARNING_OPT_OUT, "true");



service.setDefaultHeaders(headers);



// All the api calls from now on will send the default headers

```



### Sending request headers



Custom headers can be passed with any request. To do so, add the header to the `ServiceCall` object before executing the request. For example, this is what it looks like to send the header `Custom-Header` along with a call to the Watson Assistant service:



```java

Response workspaces = service.listWorkspaces()

  .addHeader("Custom-Header", "custom_value")

  .execute();

```



### Canceling requests



It's possible that you may want to cancel a request you make to a service. For example, you may set some timeout threshold and just want to cancel an asynchronous if it doesn't respond in time. You can do that by calling the `cancel()` method on your `ServiceCall` object. For example:



```java

// time to consider timeout (in ms)

long timeoutThreshold = 3000;



// storing ServiceCall object we'll use to list our Assistant v1 workspaces

ServiceCall call = service.listWorkspaces();



long startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();

call.enqueue(new ServiceCallback() {

  @Override

  public void onResponse(Response response) {

    // store the result somewhere

    fakeDb.store("my-key", response.getResult());

  }



  @Override

  public void onFailure(Exception e) {

    System.out.println("The request failed :(");

  }

});



// keep waiting for the call to complete while we're within the timeout bounds

while ((fakeDb.retrieve("my-key") == null) && (System.currentTimeMillis() - startTime < timeoutThreshold)) {

  Thread.sleep(500);

}



// if we timed out and it's STILL not complete, we'll just cancel the call

if (fakeDb.retrieve("my-key") == null) {

    call.cancel();

}

```



Doing so will call your `onFailure()` implementation.



### Transaction IDs



Every SDK call returns a response with a transaction ID in the `X-Global-Transaction-Id` header. This transaction ID is useful for troubleshooting and accessing relevant logs from your service instance.



```java

Assistant service = new Assistant("2019-02-28");

ListWorkspacesOptions options = new ListWorkspacesOptions.Builder().build();

Response response;



try {

  // In a successful case, you can grab the ID with the following code.

  response = service.listWorkspaces(options).execute();

  String transactionId = response.getHeaders().values("X-Global-Transaction-Id").get(0);

} catch (ServiceResponseException e) {

  // This is how you get the ID from a failed request.

  // Make sure to use the ServiceResponseException class or one of its subclasses!

  String transactionId = e.getHeaders().values("X-Global-Transaction-Id").get(0);

}

```



However, the transaction ID isn't available when the API doesn't return a response for some reason. In that case, you can set your own transaction ID in the request. For example, replace `` in the following example with a unique transaction ID.

```java

Authenticator authenticator = new IamAuthenticator("apiKey");

service = new Assistant("{version-date}", authenticator);

service.setServiceUrl("{serviceUrl}");



Map headers = new HashMap<>();

headers.put("X-Global-Transaction-Id", "");

service.setDefaultHeaders(headers);



MessageOptions options = new MessageOptions.Builder(workspaceId).build();

MessageResponse result = service.message(options).execute().getResult();

```



## FAQ



### Does this SDK play well with Android?



It does! You should be able to plug this dependency into your Android app without any issue. In addition, we have an Android SDK meant to be used with this library that adds some Android-specific functionality, which you can find [here](https://github.com/watson-developer-cloud/android-sdk).



### How can I contribute?



Great question (and please do)! You can find contributing information [here](.github/CONTRIBUTING.md).



### Where can I get more help with using Watson APIs?



If you have issues with the APIs or have a question about the Watson services, see [Stack Overflow](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/ibm-watson+java).



### Does IBM have any other open source work?



We do :sunglasses:  http://ibm.github.io/



[wdc]: https://www.ibm.com/watson/developer/

[ibm_cloud]: https://cloud.ibm.com

[apache_maven]: http://maven.apache.org/

[vcap_services]: https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/watson?topic=watson-vcapServices

[ibm-cloud-onboarding]: http://cloud.ibm.com/registration?target=/developer/watson&cm_sp=WatsonPlatform-WatsonServices-_-OnPageNavLink-IBMWatson_SDKs-_-Java



## Featured projects

We'd love to highlight cool open-source projects that use this SDK! If you'd like to get your project added to the list, feel free to make an issue linking us to it.



[jar]: https://github.com/watson-developer-cloud/java-sdk/releases/download/v13.0.0/ibm-watson-13.0.0-jar-with-dependencies.jar



## Contributors ✨



Thanks goes to these wonderful people ([emoji key](https://allcontributors.org/docs/en/emoji-key)):



  

    
Logan Patino
💻 🎨 🐛

    
Ajiemar Santiago
💻 🎨 🐛

    
German Attanasio
💻 🎨 📖 ⚠️

    
Kevin Kowalski
💻 🎨 🐛 📖 ⚠️ 💬️

    
Jeff Arn
💻 🎨 🐛 📖 ⚠️ 💬️

    
Angelo Paparazzi
💻 🎨 🐛 📖 ⚠️ 💬️ 🥷🏼

  



This project follows the [all-contributors](https://github.com/all-contributors/all-contributors) specification. Contributions of any kind welcome!