Send file inside JSONObject to REST WebService

Question

I want to send a file to webservice, but i need send more informations, so i want to send them with a json. But when i put a file inside my jsonObject i get an error saying that it isn't a string. My question is, should i take my File and convert to a string, then put inside my json and on web service take it and convert that string to a file? Or is there another simple way?

Here is my code:

Client:

private void send() throws JSONException{
    ClientConfig config = new DefaultClientConfig();
    Client client = Client.create(config);
    client.addFilter(new LoggingFilter());
    WebResource service = client.resource("http://localhost:8080/proj/rest/file/upload_json");

    JSONObject my_data = new JSONObject();
    File file_upload = new File("C:/hi.txt");
    my_data.put("User", "Beth");
    my_data.put("Date", "22-07-2013");
    my_data.put("File", file_upload);

    ClientResponse client_response = service.accept(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON).post(ClientResponse.class, my_data);

    System.out.println("Status: "+client_response.getStatus());

    client.destroy();
}

WebService

@POST
@Path("/upload_json")

@Consumes(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON)
@Produces("text/plain")

public String receive(JSONObject json) throws JSONException {

    //Here I'll save my file and make antoher things..
    return "ok";
}

After all the answers, here is my code - thanks everyone:

WebService

import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import javax.ws.rs.Consumes;
import javax.ws.rs.POST;
import javax.ws.rs.Path;
import javax.ws.rs.Produces;
import javax.ws.rs.core.MediaType;
import org.codehaus.jettison.json.JSONException;
import org.codehaus.jettison.json.JSONObject;
import com.sun.jersey.core.util.Base64;

@Path("/file")
public class ReceiveJSONWebService {

    @POST
    @Path("/upload_json")

    @Consumes(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON)
    @Produces(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON)

    public JSONObject receiveJSON(JSONObject json) throws JSONException, IOException {
        convertFile(json.getString("file"), json.getString("file_name"));
        //Prints my json object
        return json;
    }

    //Convert a Base64 string and create a file
    private void convertFile(String file_string, String file_name) throws IOException{
        byte[] bytes = Base64.decode(file_string);
        File file = new File("local_path/"+file_name);
        FileOutputStream fop = new FileOutputStream(file);
        fop.write(bytes);
        fop.flush();
        fop.close();
    }
}

Client

import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.nio.file.Files;
import javax.ws.rs.core.MediaType;
import org.codehaus.jettison.json.JSONException;
import org.codehaus.jettison.json.JSONObject;
import com.sun.jersey.api.client.Client;
import com.sun.jersey.api.client.ClientResponse;
import com.sun.jersey.api.client.WebResource;
import com.sun.jersey.api.client.config.ClientConfig;
import com.sun.jersey.api.client.config.DefaultClientConfig;
import com.sun.jersey.api.client.filter.LoggingFilter;
import com.sun.jersey.core.util.Base64;
import com.sun.jersey.multipart.FormDataMultiPart;
import com.sun.jersey.multipart.file.FileDataBodyPart;
import com.sun.jersey.multipart.impl.MultiPartWriter;

public class MyClient {


    public static void main(String[] args) throws JSONException, IOException 
    {
        MyClient my_client = new MyClient();
        File file_upload = new File("local_file/file_name.pdf");
        my_client.sendFileJSON(file_upload);
    }


    private void sendFileJSON(File file_upload) throws JSONException, IOException{

        ClientConfig config = new DefaultClientConfig();
        Client client = Client.create(config);
        client.addFilter(new LoggingFilter());
        WebResource service = client.resource("my_rest_address_path");
        JSONObject data_file = new JSONObject();
        data_file.put("file_name", file_upload.getName());
        data_file.put("description", "Something about my file....");
        data_file.put("file", convertFileToString(file_upload));

        ClientResponse client_response = service.accept(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON).post(ClientResponse.class, data_file);

        System.out.println("Status: "+client_response.getStatus());

        client.destroy();

    }


    //Convert my file to a Base64 String
    private String convertFileToString(File file) throws IOException{
        byte[] bytes = Files.readAllBytes(file.toPath());   
        return new String(Base64.encode(bytes));
    }

}

Answer 1

You should convert the file data to Base64 encoding and then transfer it, e.g. like this:

byte[] bytes = Files.readAllBytes(file_upload.toPath());
dados.put("File", DatatypeConverter.printBase64Binary(bytes));

Answer 2

@POST
@Path("/uploadWeb")
@Consumes(MediaType.MULTIPART_FORM_DATA)
public Response uploadWeb(  @FormDataMultiPart("image")     InputStream uploadedInputStream,
                @FormDataParam("image")     FormDataContentDisposition fileDetail ) {

    int read = 0;
    byte[] bytes = new byte[1024];
    while ((read = uploadedInputStream.read(bytes)) != -1)
        System.out.write(bytes, 0, read);
    return Response.status(HttpStatus.SC_OK).entity(c).build();
 }

and of the client side (see this post):

HttpClient httpclient = new DefaultHttpClient();
HttpPost httppost = new HttpPost(url);
FileBody fileContent= new FileBody(new File(fileName));
StringBody comment = new StringBody("Filename: " + fileName);
MultipartEntity reqEntity = new MultipartEntity();
reqEntity.addPart("file", fileContent);
httppost.setEntity(reqEntity);
HttpResponse response = httpclient.execute(httppost);
HttpEntity resEntity = response.getEntity();

Answer 3

I know its an old post but I just thought I'd add a little to avoid the dependancy on external librarys.

//Convert my file to a Base64 String
public static final String convertFileToString(File file) throws IOException{
   byte[] bytes = Files.readAllBytes(file.toPath());   
   return new String(Base64.getEncoder().encode(bytes));
}

//Convert a Base64 string and create a file
public static final void convertFile(String file_string, String file_name) throws IOException{
   byte[] bytes = Base64.getDecoder().decode(file_string);
   File file = new File("local_path/"+file_name);
   FileOutputStream fop = new FileOutputStream(file);
   fop.write(bytes);
   fop.flush();
   fop.close();
}

Answer 4

I don't know what dados is referring to, possibly a Map<String, String>, but I think you want to be using the JSONObject you just created

JSONObject my_data = new JSONObject();
File file_upload = new File("C:/hi.txt");
my_data.put("User", "Beth");
my_data.put("Date", "22-07-2013");
my_data.put("File", file_upload);

However this is useless and might not be doing what you think. A File object doesn't hold a file, it holds the path to the file, ie. C:/hi.txt. If that's what you put in your JSON, it'll produce

{"File" : "C:/hi.txt"}

It won't contain the file content.

So you might as well just put the file path directly

JSONObject my_data = new JSONObject();
my_data.put("User", "Beth");
my_data.put("Date", "22-07-2013");
my_data.put("File", "C:/hi.txt");

If you're trying to do a file upload with JSON, one way is to read the bytes from the file with Java 7's NIO

byte[] bytes = Files.readAllBytes(file_upload .toPath());

Base64 encode those bytes and write them as a String in the JSONObject. Using Apache Commons Codec

Base64.encodeBase64(bytes);
my_data.put("File", new String(bytes));

Answer 5

Kindly change the machine address from localhost to ip address you want your client to connect with to call below mentioned service.

**CLIENT TO CALL REST WEBSERVICE**


    package in.india.client.downloadfiledemo;

    import java.io.BufferedInputStream;
    import java.io.File;
    import java.io.FileInputStream;
    import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
    import java.io.FileOutputStream;
    import java.io.IOException;

    import javax.ws.rs.core.MediaType;
    import javax.ws.rs.core.Response.Status;

    import com.sun.jersey.api.client.Client;
    import com.sun.jersey.api.client.ClientHandlerException;
    import com.sun.jersey.api.client.ClientResponse;
    import com.sun.jersey.api.client.UniformInterfaceException;
    import com.sun.jersey.api.client.WebResource;
    import com.sun.jersey.multipart.BodyPart;
    import com.sun.jersey.multipart.MultiPart;

    public class DownloadFileClient {

        private static final String BASE_URI = "http://localhost:8080/DownloadFileDemo/services/downloadfile";

        public DownloadFileClient() {

            try {
                Client client = Client.create();
                WebResource objWebResource = client.resource(BASE_URI);
                ClientResponse response = objWebResource.path("/")
                        .type(MediaType.TEXT_HTML).get(ClientResponse.class);

                System.out.println("response : " + response);
                if (response.getStatus() == Status.OK.getStatusCode()
                        && response.hasEntity()) {
                    MultiPart objMultiPart = response.getEntity(MultiPart.class);
                    java.util.List<BodyPart> listBodyPart = objMultiPart
                            .getBodyParts();
                    BodyPart filenameBodyPart = listBodyPart.get(0);
                    BodyPart fileLengthBodyPart = listBodyPart.get(1);
                    BodyPart fileBodyPart = listBodyPart.get(2);

                    String filename = filenameBodyPart.getEntityAs(String.class);
                    String fileLength = fileLengthBodyPart
                            .getEntityAs(String.class);
                    File streamedFile = fileBodyPart.getEntityAs(File.class);

                    BufferedInputStream objBufferedInputStream = new BufferedInputStream(
                            new FileInputStream(streamedFile));

                    byte[] bytes = new byte[objBufferedInputStream.available()];

                    objBufferedInputStream.read(bytes);

                    String outFileName = "D:/"
                            + filename;
                    System.out.println("File name is : " + filename
                            + " and length is : " + fileLength);
                    FileOutputStream objFileOutputStream = new FileOutputStream(
                            outFileName);
                    objFileOutputStream.write(bytes);
                    objFileOutputStream.close();
                    objBufferedInputStream.close();
                    File receivedFile = new File(outFileName);
                    System.out.print("Is the file size is same? :\t");
                    System.out.println(Long.parseLong(fileLength) == receivedFile
                            .length());
                }
            } catch (UniformInterfaceException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            } catch (ClientHandlerException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            } catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            } catch (IOException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }

        }

        public static void main(String... args) {
            new DownloadFileClient();
        }

    }


**SERVICE TO RESPONSE CLIENT** 

package in.india.service.downloadfiledemo;

import javax.ws.rs.GET;
import javax.ws.rs.Path;
import javax.ws.rs.Produces;
import javax.ws.rs.core.MediaType;
import javax.ws.rs.core.Response;

import com.sun.jersey.multipart.MultiPart;

@Path("downloadfile")
@Produces("multipart/mixed")
public class DownloadFileResource {

    @GET
    public Response getFile() {

        java.io.File objFile = new java.io.File(
                "D:/DanGilbert_2004-480p-en.mp4");
        MultiPart objMultiPart = new MultiPart();
        objMultiPart.type(new MediaType("multipart", "mixed"));
        objMultiPart
                .bodyPart(objFile.getName(), new MediaType("text", "plain"));
        objMultiPart.bodyPart("" + objFile.length(), new MediaType("text",
                "plain"));
        objMultiPart.bodyPart(objFile, new MediaType("multipart", "mixed"));

        return Response.ok(objMultiPart).build();

    }

}

**JAR NEEDED** 

jersey-bundle-1.14.jar
jersey-multipart-1.14.jar
mimepull.jar

**WEB.XML**


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<web-app xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee" xmlns:web="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd"
    id="WebApp_ID" version="2.5">
    <display-name>DownloadFileDemo</display-name>
    <servlet>
        <display-name>JAX-RS REST Servlet</display-name>
        <servlet-name>JAX-RS REST Servlet</servlet-name>
        <servlet-class>com.sun.jersey.spi.container.servlet.ServletContainer</servlet-class>
        <init-param>
             <param-name>com.sun.jersey.config.property.packages</param-name> 
             <param-value>in.india.service.downloadfiledemo</param-value>
        </init-param>
        <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
    </servlet>
    <servlet-mapping>
        <servlet-name>JAX-RS REST Servlet</servlet-name>
        <url-pattern>/services/*</url-pattern>
    </servlet-mapping>
    <welcome-file-list>
        <welcome-file>index.jsp</welcome-file>
    </welcome-file-list>
</web-app>

Answer 6

You need to convert your file to a byte array and then send it within the json.

see the following:send file to webservice