How to get raw binary data from a POST request processed by Spring?

Question

I need to write an application which would be able to process binary data sent by CUrl, such as:

curl localhost:8080/data --data-binary @ZYSF15A46K1.txt

I've created a POST processing method as follows:

@RequestMapping(method = RequestMethod.POST, value = "/data")
    public void acceptData(HttpEntity<byte[]> requestEntity) throws Exception {
        process(requestEntity.getBody());
    }

However it doesn't seem to be returning raw binary data. I've tried sending a GZip file and after going through Spring it is now longer decompressible, which leads me to believe I'm either getting too much data or too little data.

How do I solve this issue and get raw binary data?

Try to use `HttpServletDequest` as the input parameter of your controller and read raw data from it's `InputStream`. — Horsing, Apr 28 '16 at 00:02
@GeminiKeith tried that as well, it's always returning an empty object for some reason. — JonathanReez, Apr 28 '16 at 00:24
have you ever set the character encoding? You can check the `Content-Length` to make sure you get the right request. If `Content-Length` valid, you can read it from `InputStream` with specific length. If not please check your request. — Horsing, Apr 28 '16 at 00:33
@GeminiKeith Thank you! I looked a bit more into HttpServletRequest and the issue was solved (see my answer). — JonathanReez, Apr 28 '16 at 01:10

nimai · Accepted Answer · 2018-02-08T07:33:54.480

17

It's as easy as declaring an InputStream in your controller method's parameters:

@RequestMapping(method = RequestMethod.POST, value = "/data")
public void acceptData(InputStream dataStream) throws Exception {
    processText(dataStream);
}

You shouldn't need to disable HiddenHttpMethodFilter, if you do it's probably that your request is wrong in some way. See https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-boot/issues/5676.

edited Feb 08 '18 at 07:33

answered Feb 07 '18 at 22:28

nimai

2,083
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16

1

"wrong in some way" = check that `Content-Type` header is set in request and that it is not `multipart/form-data` or `application/x-www-form-url-encoded` – Foyta Sep 25 '18 at 08:32
1

what annotation shall I use to get binary data from postman to spring boot? – Jan 07 '20 at 11:08
it depends on how you send it with postman. See this https://learning.getpostman.com/docs/postman/sending-api-requests/requests/#sending-body-data. If you send "raw" data, you can use the declaration above as-is. – nimai Jan 07 '20 at 14:10

score 8 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 28 '16 at 01:09

I was able to resolve this using the following code:

@Bean
public FilterRegistrationBean registration(HiddenHttpMethodFilter filter) {
    FilterRegistrationBean registration = new FilterRegistrationBean(filter);
    registration.setEnabled(false);
    return registration;
}

@RequestMapping(method = RequestMethod.POST, value = "/data")
public void acceptData(HttpServletRequest requestEntity) throws Exception {
    byte[] processedText = IOUtils.toByteArray(requestEntity.getInputStream());
    processText(processedText);
}

Spring does pre-processing by default, which causes the HttpServletRequest to be empty by the time it reaches the RequestMapping. Adding the FilterRegistrationBean Bean solves that issue.

Yes, I've forgot that. Input Stream default can only be read once. — Horsing, Apr 28 '16 at 01:15
My hunch is that funky HiddenHttpMethodFilter disable is to turn off auto multipart filtering: https://stackoverflow.com/a/32790327/32453 — rogerdpack, Feb 05 '21 at 19:08

How to get raw binary data from a POST request processed by Spring?

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