Added ApplicationEvent handling and annotation-based extension mechanism.

spring-data-rest-core/src/main/java/org/springframework/data/rest/core/util/RestHelper.java

@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+package org.springframework.data.rest.core.util;
+
+import org.springframework.http.HttpEntity;
+import org.springframework.http.HttpHeaders;
+import org.springframework.http.HttpStatus;
+import org.springframework.http.ResponseEntity;
+
+/**
+ * @author Jon Brisbin <jon@jbrisbin.com>
+ */
+public class RestHelper<T> {
+
+  public HttpStatus status;
+  public HttpHeaders headers = new HttpHeaders();
+  public T body;
+
+  private RestHelper(T body) {
+    this.body = body;
+  }
+
+  public static <T> RestHelper<T> resource(T body) {
+    return new RestHelper<T>(body);
+  }
+
+  public RestHelper<T> header(String key, String value) {
+    headers.add(key, value);
+    return this;
+  }
+
+  public RestHelper<T> status(HttpStatus status) {
+    this.status = status;
+    return this;
+  }
+
+  public HttpEntity<T> asHttpEntity() {
+    return new HttpEntity<T>(body, headers);
+  }
+
+  public ResponseEntity<T> asResponseEntity() {
+    return new ResponseEntity<T>(body, headers, status);
+  }
+
+}