How do I log response in Spring RestTemplate?

Depending on which method of making the HTTP connection you are using, you could look at turning up the logging within the actual HTTP connection classes.

For example, if you are using commons HttpClient, you can set

log4j.logger.httpclient.wire=DEBUG

The commons-httpclient project has an entire page in the documentation on their logging practices.

Configure your logging as follows:

log4j.logger.org.springframework.web.client=DEBUG

Then use a curl command to see the output, eg

curl  -H 'Accept: application/xml' -H 'Content-Type: application/xml' http://localhost:8080/ser/data

By default, restTemplate uses HttpURlConnection (via SimpleClientHttpRequest), so you might need to switch to jakarta httpclient to see the log statement. Otherwise the above log configuration will out show you the response

    <bean id="httpClientFactory" class="org.springframework.http.client.CommonsClientHttpRequestFactory">
        <constructor-arg><bean  class="org.apache.commons.httpclient.HttpClient"/></constructor-arg>
    </bean>
    <bean id="restTemplate" class="org.springframework.web.client.RestTemplate">
        <constructor-arg ref="httpClientFactory"/>
        <property name="messageConverters">
...

You can use spring-rest-template-logger to log RestTemplate HTTP traffic.

Add a dependency to your Maven project:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.hobsoft.spring</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-rest-template-logger</artifactId>
    <version>2.0.0</version>
</dependency>

Then customize your RestTemplate as follows:

RestTemplate restTemplate = new RestTemplateBuilder()
    .customizers(new LoggingCustomizer())
    .build()

Ensure that debug logging is enabled in application.properties:

logging.level.org.hobsoft.spring.resttemplatelogger.LoggingCustomizer = DEBUG

Now all RestTemplate HTTP traffic will be logged to org.hobsoft.spring.resttemplatelogger.LoggingCustomizer at debug level.

DISCLAIMER: I wrote this library.