Get Started with Java SDK and Live Preview

This guide will help you get started with Contentstack Java SDK to build apps powered by Contentstack.

Prerequisites

To get started with the Java SDK, you will need the following:

An IDE. You can use an IDE of your choice, but make sure it supports Java.
Java SDK version 1.8 or later.

SDK Installation and Setup

To install the Java SDK, choose either of the following methods (Maven or Gradle).

Add the following dependency code snippets into your project:

Maven

<dependency>
    <groupid>com.contentstack.sdk</groupid>
    <artifactid>java</artifactid>
    <version>{latest}</version>
</dependency>

Maven users need to add the above code in your pom.xml file under the <dependencies> section.

Gradle
```
compile 'com.contentstack.sdk:java:{latest}'
```
Gradle users need to add the above dependency code into your build.gradle file.

You can download the latest dependency version here.

Set the Configurations

To initialize the Live Preview feature, you need to configure certain settings:

Config config = new Config();
config.enableLivePreview(true).setLivePreviewHost("api.contentstack.io").setManagementToken("management_token");

Note: By default, the setLivePreviewHost() method points to the North America endpoint. If your website is hosted on the European data center, then pass the European endpoint against this method.

Initializing the Stack with Live Preview

Since the Live Preview Utils SDK is responsible for communication, you need to initialize it within your stack.

Use the following command to initialize the stack:

Stack stack = Contentstack.stack("APIKey", "deliveryToken", "environment", config);

Create an Interceptor

Use the following code to create an interceptor:

@Component
public class ServiceInterceptor implements HandlerInterceptor {
   @Override
   public boolean preHandle(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response, Object handler) {
       System.out.println("Pre Handle getQueryString: " + request.getQueryString());
       stack.livePreviewQuery(request.getQueryString())
       return true;
   }
}

For Server-side Rendered Websites

To install and initialize the Live Preview Utils SDK, you can refer to our SSR Live Preview Setup documentation.

Query Request

Contentstack SDKs let you interact with the Content Delivery APIs and retrieve content from Contentstack. They are read-only in nature. The SDKs fetch and deliver content from the nearest server via Fastly, our powerful and robust CDN.

To get an entry, you need to specify the content type UID and the UID of the entry.

Entry entry = stack.contentType("contentType").entry();
entry.fetch(new EntryResultCallBack() {
});