How to display an image from the DB in JSP? - mysql

Question

I need to retrieve image from MySQL DB.
I got a code snippet from somewhere but could not display the image properly in the jQuery panel.
The code runs in a new JSP page.
Can anyone tell me how to use outputstream effectively in my application?
The code I have is:
<% #page import = "java.sql.*" %>
<% #page import = "java.io.*" %>
<% Blob image = null;
Connection con = null;
byte[] imgData = null;
Statement stmt = null;
ResultSet rs = null;
try {
Class.forName("com.mysql.jdbc.Driver");
con = DriverManager.getConnection("jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/aes", "root", "password");
stmt = con.createStatement();
rs = stmt.executeQuery("select PHOTO from tab_1 where name ='" + name + "'");
if (rs.next()) {
image = rs.getBlob(1);
imgData = image.getBytes(1, (int) image.length());
} else {
out.println("image not found for given id>");
return;
}
// display the image
response.setContentType("image/gif");
OutputStream o = response.getOutputStream();
o.write(imgData);
o.flush();
o.close();
} catch (Exception e) {
out.println("Unable To Display image");
out.println("Image Display Error=" + e.getMessage());
return;
} finally {
try {
rs.close();
stmt.close();
con.close();
} catch (SQLException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
%>

Answer 1

JSP is the wrong tool for this. JSP is a view technology. Any whitespace outside the <% %> will also be printed/sent to the response. It's in your case exactly that whitespace which malforms the binary integrity of the image and thus the image ends up being corrupted and unrenderable.
You have basically 2 options.
The simple/lazy way: remove all, I really mean all, whitespace outside <% %> including newlines.
Use the right tool: create a class which extends HttpServlet and move the code which you've there in the JSP into the doGet() method. Finally just call that servlet instead of the JSP.