Sending binary data to (Rails) RESTful endpoint via JSON/XML?

Question

I am currently putting together a rails-based web application which will only serve and receive data via json and xml. However, some requirements contain the ability to upload binary data (images).

Now to my understanding JSON is not entirely meant for that... but how do you in general tackle the problem of receiving binary files/data over those two entrypoints to your application?

Answer 1

I suggest encoding the binary data in something like base64. This would make it safe to use in XML or JSON format.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base64

Answer 2

maybe you could have a look on Base64 algorithm. This is used to "transform" everything to ascii char. You can code and decode it. It's used for webservices, or even on dotnet Serialization.

Hope this helps a little.

Edit: I saw "new post", while posting, someone was faster.Rails base64