Returning an excel document via a Java REST service with Apache Wink

Question

I need to return a Microsoft Excel file from a Java REST service. I'm using WebSphere 8.5 which inherently uses Apache Wink as it's JAX-RS implementation; that's a requirement which I can not change. I am also using Java 7 JDK. Here is the error I'm receiving:

org.apache.wink.server.internal.handlers.FlushResultHandler handleResponse The system could not find a javax.ws.rs.ext.MessageBodyWriter or a DataSourceProvider class for the com.somewhere.else.message.core.BaseResponseMessage type and application/vnd.ms-excel mediaType. Ensure that a javax.ws.rs.ext.MessageBodyWriter exists in the JAX-RS application for the type and media type specified.

Here is my Java Resource class method:

@GET
@Path("/report")
@Produces("application/vnd.ms-excel")
public Response getReport() { 

    int fileSize = 0;

    byte[] reportByteArray = null;

    ResponseBuilder responseBuilder = null;
    InputStream report = null;

    BaseResponseMessage<InputStream> baseResponseMessage = new  
    BaseResponseMessage<InputStream>();

    Path reportPath = null;

    String localPath = "C:/Users/me/Report.xls";

    responseBuilder = Response.ok(baseResponseMessage); 

    responseBuilder.header("Content-Description", "File Transfer");
    responseBuilder.header("Content-Disposition", "attachment; 
         filename=Report.xls");
    responseBuilder.header("Content-Transfer-Encoding", "binary");
    responseBuilder.header("Connection", "Keep-Alive");

    reportPath = Paths.get(localPath);

    if (Files.exists(reportPath)) {

        if (Files.isReadable(reportPath)) {

            reportByteArray = Files.readAllBytes(reportPath);

            report = new ByteArrayInputStream(reportByteArray);
        }
    }

    fileSize = report.available();

    responseBuilder.header("Content-Length", fileSize);

    baseResponseMessage.setPayload(report);

    return responseBuilder.build();
}

I do know from looking at the debugger that the path and the excel file are found correctly, and the fileSize is populated correctly as well.

I will gladly provide any more information that is needed. Thank you for your time!

Paolo Forgia · Accepted Answer · 2020-08-10 08:18:04Z

6

I think the problem is on the @Produces annotation. JAX-RS may not know how to handle "application/vnd.ms-excel" by default. You can try using

@Produces( MediaType.APPLICATION_OCTET_STREAM)

Here is the sample code,

Create a JEE 6 web project

Created an Application Class

import javax.ws.rs.ApplicationPath;  
import javax.ws.rs.core.Application; 

@ApplicationPath("/services/*")  
public class MyApplication extends Application {  

}

Created a REST Resource class,

import java.io.File;  
import javax.ws.rs.GET;  
import javax.ws.rs.Path;  
import javax.ws.rs.Produces;  
import javax.ws.rs.core.MediaType;  
import javax.ws.rs.core.Response;  
import javax.ws.rs.core.Response.ResponseBuilder;  


@Path("/hello")  
public class HelloResource {  

    @GET  
    @Path("excel")  
    @Produces(MediaType.APPLICATION_OCTET_STREAM)  
    public Response test2() {  
        File file = new File("C:/users/arun/rest-test.xlsx");  
        ResponseBuilder rb = Response.ok(file);  
        rb.header("content-disposition", "attachment; filename=rest-test.xlsx");  
        return rb.build();  
    }  
}

edited Aug 10, 2020 at 8:18

Paolo Forgia

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answered Sep 6, 2016 at 19:15

Arun Chandrasekaran

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1 Comment

risingTide Over a year ago

Apparently that was not the issue as I receive this when making that change:

org.apache.wink.server.internal.handlers.FlushResultHandler handleResponse The system could not find a javax.ws.rs.ext.MessageBodyWriter or a DataSourceProvider class for the com.somewhere.else.message.core.BaseResponseMessage type and application/octet-stream mediaType. Ensure that a javax.ws.rs.ext.MessageBodyWriter exists in the JAX-RS application for the type and media type specified.

Perhaps it has something to do with the response being returned in a BaseResponseMessage instead of directly?

risingTide · Accepted Answer · 2016-09-15 14:45:09Z

0

The problem was the existence of the BaseResponseMessage. Apparently because I was actually returning the BaseResponseMessage in the Response object instead of the actual InputStream JAX-RS didn't know how to process it since (as the error states) there isn't a MessageBodyWriter or DataSourceProvider specifically associated with that combination. Funny how the error message actually revealed the actual problem had I read it more closely! :p

When the code above is modified to remove the BaseResponseMessage and do something like this:

responseBuilder = Response.ok(report);

then it will work just fine.

[As an aside, returning an InputStream is not really a good idea anyway; the code has since been modified to return a StreamingOutput object.]

edited Sep 15, 2016 at 14:45

answered Sep 15, 2016 at 14:39

risingTide

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