Put byte array to JSON and vice versa

The typical way to send binary in json is to base64 encode it.

Java provides different ways to Base64 encode and decode a byte[]. One of these is DatatypeConverter.

Very simply

byte[] originalBytes = new byte[] { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5};
String base64Encoded = DatatypeConverter.printBase64Binary(originalBytes);
byte[] base64Decoded = DatatypeConverter.parseBase64Binary(base64Encoded);

You'll have to make this conversion depending on the json parser/generator library you use.

Amazingly now org.json now lets you put a byte[] object directly into a json and it remains readable. you can even send the resulting object over a websocket and it will be readable on the other side. but i am not sure yet if the size of the resulting object is bigger or smaller than if you were converting your byte array to base64, it would certainly be neat if it was smaller.

It seems to be incredibly hard to measure how much space such a json object takes up in java. if your json consists merely of strings it is easily achievable by simply stringifying it but with a bytearray inside it i fear it is not as straightforward.

stringifying our json in java replaces my bytearray for a 10 character string that looks like an id. doing the same in node.js replaces our byte[] for an unquoted value reading <Buffered Array: f0 ff ff ...> the length of the latter indicates a size increase of ~300% as would be expected

Here is a good example of base64 encoding byte arrays. It gets more complicated when you throw unicode characters in the mix to send things like PDF documents. After encoding a byte array the encoded string can be used as a JSON property value.

Apache commons offers good utilities:

 byte[] bytes = getByteArr();
 String base64String = Base64.encodeBase64String(bytes);
 byte[] backToBytes = Base64.decodeBase64(base64String);

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Base64_encoding_and_decoding

Java server side example:

public String getUnsecureContentBase64(String url)
        throws ClientProtocolException, IOException {

            //getUnsecureContent will generate some byte[]
    byte[] result = getUnsecureContent(url);

            // use apache org.apache.commons.codec.binary.Base64
            // if you're sending back as a http request result you may have to
            // org.apache.commons.httpclient.util.URIUtil.encodeQuery
    return Base64.encodeBase64String(result);
}

JavaScript decode:

//decode URL encoding if encoded before returning result
var uriEncodedString = decodeURIComponent(response);

var byteArr = base64DecToArr(uriEncodedString);

//from mozilla
function b64ToUint6 (nChr) {

  return nChr > 64 && nChr < 91 ?
      nChr - 65
    : nChr > 96 && nChr < 123 ?
      nChr - 71
    : nChr > 47 && nChr < 58 ?
      nChr + 4
    : nChr === 43 ?
      62
    : nChr === 47 ?
      63
    :
      0;

}

function base64DecToArr (sBase64, nBlocksSize) {

  var
    sB64Enc = sBase64.replace(/[^A-Za-z0-9\+\/]/g, ""), nInLen = sB64Enc.length,
    nOutLen = nBlocksSize ? Math.ceil((nInLen * 3 + 1 >> 2) / nBlocksSize) * nBlocksSize : nInLen * 3 + 1 >> 2, taBytes = new Uint8Array(nOutLen);

  for (var nMod3, nMod4, nUint24 = 0, nOutIdx = 0, nInIdx = 0; nInIdx < nInLen; nInIdx++) {
    nMod4 = nInIdx & 3;
    nUint24 |= b64ToUint6(sB64Enc.charCodeAt(nInIdx)) << 18 - 6 * nMod4;
    if (nMod4 === 3 || nInLen - nInIdx === 1) {
      for (nMod3 = 0; nMod3 < 3 && nOutIdx < nOutLen; nMod3++, nOutIdx++) {
        taBytes[nOutIdx] = nUint24 >>> (16 >>> nMod3 & 24) & 255;
      }
      nUint24 = 0;

    }
  }

  return taBytes;
}