Android: Uploading image without losing Exif data

Question

In our app users have been uploading millions of images for years using (roughly) this code:

BitmapFactory.Options bmOptions = new BitmapFactory.Options();
bmOptions.inJustDecodeBounds = true;
BitmapFactory.decodeFile(postFilePath, bmOptions);
Bitmap roughBitmap = BitmapFactory.decodeFile(postFilePath, bmOptions);

ByteArrayOutputStream stream = new ByteArrayOutputStream();

roughBitmap.compress(Bitmap.CompressFormat.JPEG, 70, stream);
InputStream fis = new ByteArrayInputStream(stream.toByteArray());

int fileSize = stream.toByteArray().length;
conn.setRequestProperty("Content-Length", Integer.toString(fileSize));
conn.setFixedLengthStreamingMode(fileSize);

...

if (fis != null) {
    byte[] buf = new byte[10240];

    int read;

    while ((read = fis.read(buf)) > 0) {
        os.write(buf, 0, read);
        totalBytesRead += read;
        if (uploadProgressListener != null) {
            try {
                uploadProgressListener.onBytesUploaded(read);
            } catch (Exception e) {
                Log.e(e);
            }
        }
    }

    fis.close();
}

Recently we saw the need to preserve the Exif data of uploaded images. The problem is that the image Exif data is lost when compressing the bitmap. I thought of using ExifInterface for extracting this data from the original file:

ExifInterface oldExif = new ExifInterface(postFilePath);
String value = oldExif.getAttribute(ExifInterface.TAG_DATETIME);

..and then adding it to the InputStream fis and then continue uploading the file. The problem is that ExifInterface cannot save Exif data to an InputStream.

How can Exif data be retained in the images when they'er uploaded to the server?

It's not a duplicate: Just to clarify deeper, I've tried using the suggested duplicate question by using this method:

public static void copyExif(String originalPath, InputStream newStream) throws IOException {

    String[] attributes = new String[]
            {
                    ExifInterface.TAG_DATETIME,
                    ExifInterface.TAG_DATETIME_DIGITIZED,
                    ExifInterface.TAG_EXPOSURE_TIME,
                    ExifInterface.TAG_FLASH,
                    ExifInterface.TAG_FOCAL_LENGTH,
                    ExifInterface.TAG_GPS_ALTITUDE,
                    ExifInterface.TAG_GPS_ALTITUDE_REF,
                    ExifInterface.TAG_GPS_DATESTAMP,
                    ExifInterface.TAG_GPS_LATITUDE,
                    ExifInterface.TAG_GPS_LATITUDE_REF,
                    ExifInterface.TAG_GPS_LONGITUDE,
                    ExifInterface.TAG_GPS_LONGITUDE_REF,
                    ExifInterface.TAG_GPS_PROCESSING_METHOD,
                    ExifInterface.TAG_GPS_TIMESTAMP,
                    ExifInterface.TAG_MAKE,
                    ExifInterface.TAG_MODEL,
                    ExifInterface.TAG_ORIENTATION,
                    ExifInterface.TAG_SUBSEC_TIME,
                    ExifInterface.TAG_WHITE_BALANCE
            };

    ExifInterface oldExif = new ExifInterface(originalPath);
    ExifInterface newExif = new ExifInterface(newStream);

    if (attributes.length > 0) {
        for (int i = 0; i < attributes.length; i++) {
            String value = oldExif.getAttribute(attributes[i]);
            if (value != null)
                newExif.setAttribute(attributes[i], value);
        }
        newExif.saveAttributes();
    }
}

.. but got the exception java.io.IOException: ExifInterface does not support saving attributes for the current input. after newExif.saveAttributes(); because I'm trying to save the attributes to an InputStream. How else can I do it?

Answer 1

My solution:

As @amuttsch and @CommonsWare suggested, I:

1. saved the scaled/compressed bitmap to a temp file
2. copied the exif from the original file to the temp file
3. converted the temp file to a byte array and sent it to upload

.. then I found out that the server strips the Exif again while generating image variants :-P but that's another story which server guys are now working to correct.

Main code:

...
// Copy original Exif to scaledBitmap
String tempFilePath = getTempFilePath(postFilePath);
try {
    FileOutputStream out = new FileOutputStream(tempFilePath);
    scaledBitmap.compress(Bitmap.CompressFormat.JPEG, 70, out);
    copyExif(postFilePath, tempFilePath);
} catch (Exception e) {
    e.printStackTrace();
}

// Get stream from temp (exif loaded) file
File tempFile = new File(tempFilePath);
byte[] byteFile = readFile(tempFile);
fis = new ByteArrayInputStream(byteFile);

// Remove the temp file
boolean deleted = tempFile.delete();

// Finalize
int fileSize = byteFile.length;
conn.setRequestProperty("Content-Length", Integer.toString(fileSize));
conn.setFixedLengthStreamingMode(fileSize);
...

getTempFilePath():

private String getTempFilePath(String filename) {
    String temp = "_temp";
    int dot = filename.lastIndexOf(".");
    String ext = filename.substring(dot + 1);

    if (dot == -1 || !ext.matches("\\w+")) {
        filename += temp;
    } else {
        filename = filename.substring(0, dot) + temp + "." + ext;
    }

    return filename;
}

copyExif():

public static void copyExif(String originalPath, String newPath) throws IOException {

    String[] attributes = new String[]
            {
                    ExifInterface.TAG_DATETIME,
                    ExifInterface.TAG_DATETIME_DIGITIZED,
                    ExifInterface.TAG_EXPOSURE_TIME,
                    ExifInterface.TAG_FLASH,
                    ExifInterface.TAG_FOCAL_LENGTH,
                    ExifInterface.TAG_GPS_ALTITUDE,
                    ExifInterface.TAG_GPS_ALTITUDE_REF,
                    ExifInterface.TAG_GPS_DATESTAMP,
                    ExifInterface.TAG_GPS_LATITUDE,
                    ExifInterface.TAG_GPS_LATITUDE_REF,
                    ExifInterface.TAG_GPS_LONGITUDE,
                    ExifInterface.TAG_GPS_LONGITUDE_REF,
                    ExifInterface.TAG_GPS_PROCESSING_METHOD,
                    ExifInterface.TAG_GPS_TIMESTAMP,
                    ExifInterface.TAG_MAKE,
                    ExifInterface.TAG_MODEL,
                    ExifInterface.TAG_ORIENTATION,
                    ExifInterface.TAG_SUBSEC_TIME,
                    ExifInterface.TAG_WHITE_BALANCE
            };

    ExifInterface oldExif = new ExifInterface(originalPath);
    ExifInterface newExif = new ExifInterface(newPath);

    if (attributes.length > 0) {
        for (int i = 0; i < attributes.length; i++) {
            String value = oldExif.getAttribute(attributes[i]);
            if (value != null)
                newExif.setAttribute(attributes[i], value);
        }
        newExif.saveAttributes();
    }
}

readFile():

public static byte[] readFile(File file) throws IOException {
    // Open file
    RandomAccessFile f = new RandomAccessFile(file, "r");
    try {
        // Get and check length
        long longlength = f.length();
        int length = (int) longlength;
        if (length != longlength)
            throw new IOException("File size >= 2 GB");
        // Read file and return data
        byte[] data = new byte[length];
        f.readFully(data);
        return data;
    } finally {
        f.close();
    }
}

Answer 2

The problem is that the image Exif data is lost when compressing the bitmap

The EXIF data is lost when reading in the Bitmap. A Bitmap has no EXIF tags.

How can Exif data be retained in the images when they'er uploaded to the server?

Stop reading in the Bitmap. Just upload the contents of postFilePath as-is. It will contain whatever EXIF tags it contains.

My assumption is that you are reading in the Bitmap in the hope that saving it again in 70% JPEG quality will result in meaningful bandwidth savings. I suspect that you are not saving very much, and you may be increasing the bandwidth in some cases (e.g., postFilePath points to a PNG). Your costs are a chunk of CPU time, an increased risk of an OutOfMemoryError, and the loss of your EXIF tags.

If, instead, the convert-to-70%-JPEG is some sort of data normalization approach, do that work on the server, where you have more CPU power, more disk space, more RAM, and continuous power.