Sending custom Content-Type with ResponseEntity<Resource>

Question

I am trying to use the ResponseEntity return type in my Spring WebMVC 3.0.5 controller. I am returning an image, so I want to set the Content Type to image/gif with the following code:

@RequestMapping(value="/*.gif")
public ResponseEntity<Resource> sendGif() throws FileNotFoundException {
    HttpHeaders headers = new HttpHeaders();
    headers.setContentType(MediaType.IMAGE_GIF);
    return new ResponseEntity<Resource>(ctx.getResource("/images/space.gif"), headers, HttpStatus.OK);
}

However, the return type is being overridden to text/html in ResourceHttpMessageConverter.

Other than implementing my own HttpMessageConverter and injecting this into the AnnotationMethodHandlerAdapter, is there any way for me to force the Content-Type?

Answer 1

Another proposition :

return ResponseEntity
                  .ok()
                  .contentType(MediaType.IMAGE_GIF)
                  .body(resource);

Answer 2

try injecting the HttpServletResponse object and force the content type from there.

 @RequestMapping(value="/*.gif") 
 public ResponseEntity<Resource> sendGif(final HttpServletResponse response) throws FileNotFoundException {
            HttpHeaders headers = new HttpHeaders();
            headers.setContentType(MediaType.IMAGE_GIF);
            response.setContentType("image/gif"); // set the content type
            return new ResponseEntity<Resource>(ctx.getResource("/images/space.gif"), headers, HttpStatus.OK);
        }