3

This maybe a simple question but I couldn't figure it out myself nor could I find an online resource for it.

I have to develop a REST API using spring boot. I see two options to accept the json payload (max payload size 3 MB in some cases)

Option 1: Ask clients to send json in request body. Let Jackson convert it to Java object

@RestController 
public class EmployeeController {
  
  @PostMapping
  public void createEmployees(@RequestBody List<Employee> employees) {
   // do something with employees 
  }

}

Option 2: Ask clients to upload a json file and let the controller accept Multipart payload

@RestController 
public class EmployeeController {

   @PostMapping(consumes = { MediaType.MULTIPART_FORM_DATA_VALUE })
  public void createEmployees(@RequestParam(name = "file") MultipartFile file) {
   // convert multipart file data to List of Employee objects
   //do something with employees 
  }

}

Which option is better and why?

Aman
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  • check answers here : https://stackoverflow.com/a/4083908/2165146 – muhammed ozbilici Nov 05 '22 at 07:43
  • @muhammedozbilici I am not asking for a solution for multipart file upload with metadata. The question is whether file upload is better choice than plain json payload and why? – Aman Nov 06 '22 at 05:45

3 Answers3

0

I think Option 1 is better. This is because if you use a file, you have to read the json payload written in the file and convert it to List<Employee>.

And if you use a multipartFile, you receive base64 encoded data. Since base64 encoded data expresses 8-bit data as 6-bit data, 33% increase in size occurs compared to the original.

changuk
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If we are talking about structured data your API uses directly, then better to upload it as application/json. If we are talking about some sort of attachment, which your API probably does not touch or touches it only a lot later e.g. images, PDF, etc. then better to use multipart/form-data and send a JSON with it, which describes the metadata of the attachment, e.g. it is a photo of a friend, etc. So I think it depends on the JSON and what you want to do with it. In your case since it will be processed, then better to send it as application/json. If you process it later, then still better to send it this way and make a transaction resource where you can follow the state of the processing, something like POST /transactions {json}.

inf3rno
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From this RFC 2388 the multipart/form-data media type came into life.

As described here

The multipart/form-data encoding has a high overhead and performance
impact if there are many fields with short values. However, in
practice, for the forms in use, for example, in HTML, the average
overhead is not significant.

So in case you just want to send a normal json with a large number of relative small fields like integers, booleans and small strings you should consider it affecting you badly in overhead and performance.

Panagiotis Bougioukos
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  • so, receiving a plain json in request body is a better choice in this case instead of a json file ? – Aman Nov 07 '22 at 04:26
  • @Aman if your `json` is just multiple (large number of fields) of fields containing relative small values then I think it could lead to overhead and performance impact. – Panagiotis Bougioukos Nov 07 '22 at 07:39