XML + byte array?

[wangdong]

Please, help me out! How to set a picture content into a XML file?

Thank you,

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[timw]

If this is a pure XML question I think there's a forum for that. Or are you wanting help specifically on how to do it with Java APIs?

Tim

 

[sedj]

Read the image into a byte[] array.
Then you have two options - put the byte[] array into a CDATA section inside a tag, or encode the byte[] array as Base64, and then add that to a tag's content.

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[timw]

I think you should base64 encode the image data and put that into your XML between appropriate tags. If your just building an XML file you could just write the XML out to file as text and include your image data along with it. If it's a pre-existing XML file that you're inserting data into, you may want to use a DOM API.

Tim

 

[wangdong]

I will go with Base64 solution, but there is another problem here, how does the server know that this field is not a string?

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[timw]

What server? You'd use a tag which identifies its contents as Base64 encoded image data.

Tim

 

[sedj]

Base64 data IS a string.
BTW, I really would consider using a CDATA section. Base64 will explode your image file size quite substantially.

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[timw]

sedj, what are the chances of a byte sequence within the image looking like a CDATA termination string ']]>'? Also, doesn't stuff inside the CDATA still have to conform to the charset of the XML message?

Tim

 

[sedj]

Good points Tim ... not sure on either actually. Perhaps base64 would be better - its just sooooo bloated !

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[timw]

Agreed

I tried putting a hash character in a CDATA block and it complained straight away with the default char encoding. I can only image what raw image data would do.

Tim