How to handle Images using WebAPI

Question

Questions

1. What are the different ways to POST/GET images to my service? I think I can either use Base-64 text in JSON or stay native as binary. My understanding is that by converting the image into text, there is a significant increase is package size.

2. If I send the image (from a web form, from a native client, from another service), should I add a Image Controller/Handler or use a Formatter? Is this even an either/or question?

I have researched and found many competing examples but I am not sure which direction I should be heading.

Is there a site/blog article that lays out the pros and cons for this?

Answer 1

I did some research and you can see the implementation I came up with here: http://jamessdixon.wordpress.com/2013/10/01/handling-images-in-webapi/

Answer 2

For preservation's sake - here's the outline of what Jamie's blog said:

Use a Controller:

Get:

public HttpResponseMessage Get(int id) {     var result = new HttpResponseMessage(HttpStatusCode.OK);     String filePath = HostingEnvironment.MapPath("~/Images/HT.jpg");     FileStream fileStream = new FileStream(filePath, FileMode.Open);     Image image = Image.FromStream(fileStream);     MemoryStream memoryStream = new MemoryStream();     image.Save(memoryStream, ImageFormat.Jpeg);     result.Content = new ByteArrayContent(memoryStream.ToArray());     result.Content.Headers.ContentType = new MediaTypeHeaderValue("image/jpeg");      return result; } 

Delete:

public void Delete(int id) {     String filePath = HostingEnvironment.MapPath("~/Images/HT.jpg");     File.Delete(filePath); } 

Post:

public HttpResponseMessage Post() {     var result = new HttpResponseMessage(HttpStatusCode.OK);     if (Request.Content.IsMimeMultipartContent())     {         //For larger files, this might need to be added:         //Request.Content.LoadIntoBufferAsync().Wait();         Request.Content.ReadAsMultipartAsync<MultipartMemoryStreamProvider>(                 new MultipartMemoryStreamProvider()).ContinueWith((task) =>         {             MultipartMemoryStreamProvider provider = task.Result;             foreach (HttpContent content in provider.Contents)             {                 Stream stream = content.ReadAsStreamAsync().Result;                 Image image = Image.FromStream(stream);                 var testName = content.Headers.ContentDisposition.Name;                 String filePath = HostingEnvironment.MapPath("~/Images/");                 //Note that the ID is pushed to the request header,                 //not the content header:                 String[] headerValues = (String[])Request.Headers.GetValues("UniqueId");                 String fileName = headerValues[0] + ".jpg";                 String fullPath = Path.Combine(filePath, fileName);                 image.Save(fullPath);             }         });         return result;     }     else     {         throw new HttpResponseException(Request.CreateResponse(                 HttpStatusCode.NotAcceptable,                 "This request is not properly formatted"));     }  }