Something a fellow coworker (or two) suggested is what I think Paul was referring to, where somehow we post a multi-part content-type where by the first part is xml that describes the file, size, maybe anything else to go with it to be part of the specific api call, and then the rest of the file is the binary image itself. My coworker suggested the same thing, that the mail.jar library could probably handle the binary file part of it, where as the REST service could handle the initial xml that was the first part of the message. What I am not sure on at this point is how to go about this, haven't yet started looking into it. But I think this is what we both need Ashish. If anybody else on the list has already done something like this, it would be greatly appreciated to share the code and/or some info on how you did it. Otherwise, I am game for working with anyone else on not only making this work, but providing it as perhaps a "demo" app to Jersey on how
to do such a thing. I am guessing more people than just us will want/need this capability.
----- Original Message ----
From: Ashish Raniwala <Ashishr_at_coreobjects.com>
To: "users_at_jersey.dev.java.net" <users_at_jersey.dev.java.net>
Sent: Thursday, August 21, 2008 4:28:33 PM
Subject: RE: [Jersey] File uploads through Jesery
Hi Paul,
I am new user of JERSEY. What you explained here is exactly what
I am looking for. I need to support very large file uploads. Is there any
code/example you can refer me to?
My requirement is to support concurrent partial file uploads and
file size can be as large as 10 GB.
Thanks,
Ashish
From:Paul Sandoz
[mailto:Paul.Sandoz_at_Sun.COM]
Sent: Thursday, August 21, 2008 1:03 PM
To: users_at_jersey.dev.java.net
Subject: Re: [Jersey] File uploads through Jesery
Hi Kevin,
I would avoid embedding large binary files in XML as it
either requires them to be base 64 encoded or using some like MTOM which IMHO
is not really designed to be consumed directly (because to do so breaks the
layering of the XML infoset).
One solution is to explicitly use MIME multipart
(using say multipart/form-data or multipart/mixed). The first body part can be
the XML data and the second body part can be the binary file. This is much more
explicit that in the MTOM case and i think is much easier for clients to
produce/consume. You can use the JavaMail API for this, although there is
experimental support for "multipart/form-data" when using @FormParam.
We need to improve this area to make it easier and also improve the streaming
for certain cases.
Another solution is to make the resources for the binary
file separate from the meta-data. I think this is especially useful for large
files and if you want to manipulate the meta-data separate from the file
itself. It also means it is possible to support ETag/Last-Modified on the XML
and binary data separately and enable partial GETs of large files.
Combining the above it is possible to POST a MIME multipart
message to a resource from which it creates two separate resources, one
for the XML and one for the binary file. This makes it easier to get the XML
data separately from the binary file. A slightly
different variant (one that AtomPub specifies) is to POST the binary
file from which some default XML for the XML resource is created and then can
be modified (in AtomPub this is how you can create media-based Atom entries).
Another variant is to POST some XML data from which a ticket
URI is created from which to upload the binary file. if the client does not
upload the file within a certain period the ticket expires and the
"transaction" does not complete.
There are many ways :-) all much better IMHO than
embedding binary data in XML documents.
You can use InputStream as a type for parameters or a return
type of a resource method. You can also use the File type (when used for
consuming a temporary file will be created, when used for producing this is
efficient as it streams the contents of the file).
Hope this helps,
Paul.
On Aug 21, 2008, at 5:20 AM, Kevin Duffey wrote:
I am
curious if there is anyone on the list who has dealt with file uploads via a
REST call. My project will have this need sooner than later and rather than try
to reinvent the wheel, if anyone has already done this, and wouldn't mind
posting there code/thoughts on this subject, I'd appreciate it very much.
Primarily how do we attach a binary/text file to an xml body as part of a
request, then parse it on the other side.
Thanks.