java - download a file from Spring boot rest service

Question

I am trying to download a file from a Spring boot rest service.

@RequestMapping(path="/downloadFile",method=RequestMethod.GET)
    @Consumes(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON_VALUE)
    public  ResponseEntity<InputStreamReader> downloadDocument(
                String acquistionId,
                String fileType,
                Integer expressVfId) throws IOException {
        File file2Upload = new File("C:\Users\admin\Desktop\bkp\1.rtf");
        HttpHeaders headers = new HttpHeaders();
        headers.add("Cache-Control", "no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate");
        headers.add("Pragma", "no-cache");
        headers.add("Expires", "0");
        InputStreamReader i = new InputStreamReader(new FileInputStream(file2Upload));
        System.out.println("The length of the file is : "+file2Upload.length());

        return ResponseEntity.ok().headers(headers).contentLength(file2Upload.length())
                .contentType(MediaType.parseMediaType("application/octet-stream"))
                .body(i);
        }

When I tried to download the file from the browser, it starts the download, but always fails. Is there anything wrong with the service which is causing the download to fail?

Answer 1

Option 1 using an InputStreamResource

Resource implementation for a given InputStream.

Should only be used if no other specific Resource implementation is > applicable. In particular, prefer ByteArrayResource or any of the file-based Resource implementations where possible.

@RequestMapping(path = "/download", method = RequestMethod.GET)
public ResponseEntity<Resource> download(String param) throws IOException {

    // ...

    InputStreamResource resource = new InputStreamResource(new FileInputStream(file));

    return ResponseEntity.ok()
            .headers(headers)
            .contentLength(file.length())
            .contentType(MediaType.APPLICATION_OCTET_STREAM)
            .body(resource);
}

---

Option2 as the documentation of the InputStreamResource suggests - using a ByteArrayResource:

@RequestMapping(path = "/download", method = RequestMethod.GET)
public ResponseEntity<Resource> download(String param) throws IOException {

    // ...

    Path path = Paths.get(file.getAbsolutePath());
    ByteArrayResource resource = new ByteArrayResource(Files.readAllBytes(path));

    return ResponseEntity.ok()
            .headers(headers)
            .contentLength(file.length())
            .contentType(MediaType.APPLICATION_OCTET_STREAM)
            .body(resource);
}