download a file from Spring boot rest service

The below Sample code worked for me and might help someone.

import org.springframework.core.io.ByteArrayResource;
import org.springframework.core.io.Resource;
import org.springframework.http.HttpHeaders;
import org.springframework.http.MediaType;
import org.springframework.http.ResponseEntity;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMethod;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestParam;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RestController;

import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.nio.file.Files;
import java.nio.file.Path;
import java.nio.file.Paths;

@RestController
@RequestMapping("/app")
public class ImageResource {

    private static final String EXTENSION = ".jpg";
    private static final String SERVER_LOCATION = "/server/images";

    @RequestMapping(path = "/download", method = RequestMethod.GET)
    public ResponseEntity<Resource> download(@RequestParam("image") String image) throws IOException {
        File file = new File(SERVER_LOCATION + File.separator + image + EXTENSION);

        HttpHeaders header = new HttpHeaders();
        header.add(HttpHeaders.CONTENT_DISPOSITION, "attachment; filename=img.jpg");
        header.add("Cache-Control", "no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate");
        header.add("Pragma", "no-cache");
        header.add("Expires", "0");

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

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

}

I want to share a simple approach for downloading files with JavaScript (ES6), React and a Spring Boot backend:

1. Spring boot Rest Controller
   

Resource from org.springframework.core.io.Resource

    @SneakyThrows
    @GetMapping("/files/{filename:.+}/{extraVariable}")
    @ResponseBody
    public ResponseEntity<Resource> serveFile(@PathVariable String filename, @PathVariable String extraVariable) {

        Resource file = storageService.loadAsResource(filename, extraVariable);
        return ResponseEntity.ok()
               .header(HttpHeaders.CONTENT_DISPOSITION, "attachment; filename=\"" + file.getFilename() + "\"")
               .body(file);
    }

2. React, API call using AXIOS
   

Set the responseType to arraybuffer to specify the type of data contained in the response.

export const DownloadFile = (filename, extraVariable) => {
let url = 'http://localhost:8080/files/' + filename + '/' + extraVariable;
return axios.get(url, { responseType: 'arraybuffer' }).then((response) => {
    return response;
})};

Final step > downloading
with the help of js-file-download you can trigger browser to save data to file as if it was downloaded.

DownloadFile('filename.extension', 'extraVariable').then(
(response) => {
    fileDownload(response.data, filename);
}
, (error) => {
    // ERROR 
});

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);
}

I would suggest using a StreamingResponseBody since with it, the application can write directly to the response (OutputStream), without holding up the Servlet container thread. It is a good approach if you are downloading a very large file.

@GetMapping("download")
public StreamingResponseBody downloadFile(HttpServletResponse response, @PathVariable Long fileId) {

    FileInfo fileInfo = fileService.findFileInfo(fileId);
    response.setContentType(fileInfo.getContentType());
    response.setHeader(
        HttpHeaders.CONTENT_DISPOSITION, "attachment;filename=\"" + fileInfo.getFilename() + "\"");

    return outputStream -> {
        int bytesRead;
        byte[] buffer = new byte[BUFFER_SIZE];
        InputStream inputStream = fileInfo.getInputStream();
        while ((bytesRead = inputStream.read(buffer)) != -1) {
            outputStream.write(buffer, 0, bytesRead);
        }
    };
}

Ps.: When using StreamingResponseBody, it is highly recommended to configure TaskExecutor used in Spring MVC for executing asynchronous requests. TaskExecutor is an interface that abstracts the execution of a Runnable.

More info: https://medium.com/swlh/streaming-data-with-spring-boot-restful-web-service-87522511c071