JAX-RS Accept Images as input

Question

For quite some time now, I've been developing JAX-RS web services for my development needs. All the methods that I've written so far accept java Strings or primitive types as input.

An example of such a method:

@POST  
@Path("MyMethod")  
@Produces(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON)  
public String MyMethod(@FormParam("username")String username, @FormParam("password")String passowrd)

What I'm trying to do now is accept images as input. I read a lot of articles regarding this. Some suggested accepting the base64 encoding as input and others suggested accepting an actual InputSteam.

However, i'm yet to see a full blown example on how to accept an InputStream. I read about the @consumer annotation and @Provider but i still can't wrap my head around it. Is there an article, documentation or an example that somehow guides me toward this? i.e. A step by step process on how to implement rather than displaying theory.

I know that the base64 encoding works but out of curiosity i would like to know how the other approach works as well...Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

This should work:

import org.apache.commons.io.IOUtils;
@POST
@Path("MyMethod") 
@Consumes("*/*") // to accept all input types 
public String MyMethod(InputStream stream) {
    byte[] image = IOUtils.toByteArray(stream);
    return "done";
}