How do I create zip file in Servlet for download?

By Wayan in Servlet 15 Comments

The example below is a servlet that shows you how to create a zip file and send the generated zip file for user to download. The compressing process is done by the zipFiles method of this class.

For a servlet to work you need to configure it in the web.xml file of your web application which can be found after the code snippet below.

package org.kodejava.servlet;

import javax.servlet.ServletException;
import javax.servlet.ServletOutputStream;
import javax.servlet.annotation.WebServlet;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;
import java.io.*;
import java.util.zip.ZipEntry;
import java.util.zip.ZipOutputStream;

@WebServlet(urlPatterns = "/zipservlet")
public class ZipDownloadServlet extends HttpServlet {
    public static final String FILE_SEPARATOR = System.getProperty("file.separator");

    protected void doPost(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response)
            throws ServletException, IOException {
        doGet(request, response);
    }

    protected void doGet(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response)
            throws ServletException, IOException {
        try {
            // The path below is the root directory of data to be
            // compressed.
            String path = getServletContext().getRealPath("data");

            File directory = new File(path);
            String[] files = directory.list();

            // Checks to see if the directory contains some files.
            if (files != null && files.length > 0) {

                // Call the zipFiles method for creating a zip stream.
                byte[] zip = zipFiles(directory, files);

                // Sends the response back to the user / browser. The
                // content for zip file type is "application/zip". We
                // also set the content disposition as attachment for
                // the browser to show a dialog that will let user 
                // choose what action will he do to the content.
                ServletOutputStream sos = response.getOutputStream();
                response.setContentType("application/zip");
                response.setHeader("Content-Disposition", "attachment; filename=\"DATA.ZIP\"");

                sos.write(zip);
                sos.flush();
            }
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }

    /**
     * Compress the given directory with all its files.
     */
    private byte[] zipFiles(File directory, String[] files) throws IOException {
        try (ByteArrayOutputStream baos = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
             ZipOutputStream zos = new ZipOutputStream(baos)) {
            byte[] bytes = new byte[2048];

            for (String fileName : files) {
                String path = directory.getPath() +
                        ZipDownloadServlet.FILE_SEPARATOR + fileName;
                try (FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream(path);
                     BufferedInputStream bis = new BufferedInputStream(fis)) {

                    zos.putNextEntry(new ZipEntry(fileName));

                    int bytesRead;
                    while ((bytesRead = bis.read(bytes)) != -1) {
                        zos.write(bytes, 0, bytesRead);
                    }
                    zos.closeEntry();
                }
            }

            zos.close();
            return baos.toByteArray();
        }
    }
}

Maven dependencies

<dependency>
    <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
    <artifactId>javax.servlet-api</artifactId>
    <version>4.0.1</version>
</dependency>

Maven Central

How do I convert Map into JSON?

By Wayan in Google Gson 1 Comment

This example show you how to convert a java.util.Map into JSON string and back to Map again.

package org.kodejava.gson;

import com.google.gson.Gson;
import com.google.gson.reflect.TypeToken;

import java.lang.reflect.Type;
import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.Map;

public class MapToJson {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Map<String, String> colours = new HashMap<>();
        colours.put("BLACK", "#000000");
        colours.put("RED", "#FF0000");
        colours.put("GREEN", "#008000");
        colours.put("BLUE", "#0000FF");
        colours.put("YELLOW", "#FFFF00");
        colours.put("WHITE", "#FFFFFF");

        // Convert a Map into JSON string.
        Gson gson = new Gson();
        String json = gson.toJson(colours);
        System.out.println("json = " + json);

        // Convert JSON string back to Map.
        Type type = new TypeToken<Map<String, String>>() {
        }.getType();
        Map<String, String> map = gson.fromJson(json, type);
        for (String key : map.keySet()) {
            System.out.println("map.get = " + map.get(key));
        }
    }
}

Here is the result of the program:

json = {"RED":"#FF0000","WHITE":"#FFFFFF","BLUE":"#0000FF","BLACK":"#000000","YELLOW":"#FFFF00","GREEN":"#008000"}
map.get = #FF0000
map.get = #FFFFFF
map.get = #0000FF
map.get = #000000
map.get = #FFFF00
map.get = #008000

Maven Dependencies

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.google.code.gson</groupId>
    <artifactId>gson</artifactId>
    <version>2.11.0</version>
</dependency>

Maven Central

How do I convert collections into JSON?

By Wayan in Google Gson 0 Comment

This example show you how to convert Java collections object into JSON string. For Student class use in this example you can find it the previous example on How do I convert object into JSON?.

package org.kodejava.gson;

import com.google.gson.Gson;
import com.google.gson.reflect.TypeToken;
import org.kodejava.gson.support.Student;

import java.lang.reflect.Type;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Calendar;
import java.util.Date;
import java.util.List;

public class CollectionToJson {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        // Converts a collection of string object into JSON string.
        List<String> names = new ArrayList<>();
        names.add("Alice");
        names.add("Bob");
        names.add("Carol");
        names.add("Mallory");

        Gson gson = new Gson();
        String jsonNames = gson.toJson(names);
        System.out.println("jsonNames = " + jsonNames);

        // Converts a collection Student object into JSON string
        Student a = new Student("Alice", "Apple St", getDOB(2000, 10, 1));
        Student b = new Student("Bob", "Banana St", null);
        Student c = new Student("Carol", "Grape St", getDOB(2000, 5, 21));
        Student d = new Student("Mallory", "Mango St", null);

        List<Student> students = new ArrayList<>();
        students.add(a);
        students.add(b);
        students.add(c);
        students.add(d);

        gson = new Gson();
        String jsonStudents = gson.toJson(students);
        System.out.println("jsonStudents = " + jsonStudents);

        // Converts JSON string into a collection of Student object.
        Type type = new TypeToken<List<Student>>() {
        }.getType();
        List<Student> studentList = gson.fromJson(jsonStudents, type);

        for (Student student : studentList) {
            System.out.println("student.getName() = " + student.getName());
        }
    }

    private static Date getDOB(int year, int month, int date) {
        Calendar calendar = Calendar.getInstance();
        calendar.set(Calendar.YEAR, year);
        calendar.set(Calendar.MONTH, month - 1);
        calendar.set(Calendar.DATE, date);
        calendar.set(Calendar.HOUR, 0);
        calendar.set(Calendar.MINUTE, 0);
        calendar.set(Calendar.SECOND, 0);
        return calendar.getTime();
    }
}

Here is the result of our program:

jsonNames = ["Alice","Bob","Carol","Mallory"]
jsonStudents = [{"name":"Alice","address":"Apple St","dateOfBirth":"Oct 1, 2000, 12:00:00 AM"},{"name":"Bob","address":"Banana St"},{"name":"Carol","address":"Grape St","dateOfBirth":"May 21, 2000, 12:00:00 AM"},{"name":"Mallory","address":"Mango St"}]
student.getName() = Alice
student.getName() = Bob
student.getName() = Carol
student.getName() = Mallory

Maven Dependencies

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.google.code.gson</groupId>
    <artifactId>gson</artifactId>
    <version>2.11.0</version>
</dependency>

Maven Central

How do I convert array into JSON?

By Wayan in Google Gson 2 Comments

In the example below you can see how to convert an array into JSON string. We serialize the array to JSON using the Gson.toJson() method. To deserialize a string of JSON into array we use the Gson.fromJson() method.

package org.kodejava.gson;

import com.google.gson.Gson;

public class ArrayToJson {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        int[] numbers = {1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13};
        String[] days = {"Sun", "Mon", "Tue", "Wed", "Thu", "Fri", "Sat"};

        // Create a new instance of Gson
        Gson gson = new Gson();

        // Convert numbers array into JSON string.
        String numbersJson = gson.toJson(numbers);

        // Convert strings array into JSON string
        String daysJson = gson.toJson(days);

        System.out.println("numbersJson = " + numbersJson);
        System.out.println("daysJson = " + daysJson);

        // Convert from JSON string to a primitive array of int.
        int[] fibonacci = gson.fromJson(numbersJson, int[].class);
        for (int number : fibonacci) {
            System.out.print(number + " ");
        }
        System.out.println();

        // Convert from JSON string to a string array.
        String[] weekDays = gson.fromJson(daysJson, String[].class);
        for (String weekDay : weekDays) {
            System.out.print(weekDay + " ");
        }
        System.out.println();

        // Converting multidimensional array into JSON
        int[][] data = {{1, 2, 3}, {3, 4, 5}, {4, 5, 6}};
        String json = gson.toJson(data);
        System.out.println("Data = " + json);

        // Convert JSON string into multidimensional array of int.
        int[][] dataMap = gson.fromJson(json, int[][].class);
        for (int[] i : dataMap) {
            for (int j : i) {
                System.out.print(j + " ");
            }
            System.out.println();
        }
    }
}

Here is our code result:

numbersJson = [1,1,2,3,5,8,13]
daysJson = ["Sun","Mon","Tue","Wed","Thu","Fri","Sat"]
1 1 2 3 5 8 13 
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 
Data = [[1,2,3],[3,4,5],[4,5,6]]
1 2 3 
3 4 5 
4 5 6

Maven Dependencies

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.google.code.gson</groupId>
    <artifactId>gson</artifactId>
    <version>2.11.0</version>
</dependency>

Maven Central

How does Gson handles object fields?

By Wayan in Google Gson 0 Comment

In this example you’ll see how the Gson library handles the object fields. For object fields to be serialized into JSON string it doesn’t need to use any annotations, it can even read private fields. If you have a null value field it will not be serialized into JSON string. To exclude a field from serialization you can mark the field with the transient keyword.

In the snippet below we create a People object. This object has a null value field named age, this will not include in the serialization because we didn’t assign any value to it. The secret field is also not serialized because we mark it with transient keyword.

package org.kodejava.gson;

import com.google.gson.Gson;
import org.kodejava.gson.support.People;

import java.util.Calendar;

public class GsonFieldExample {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Calendar dob = Calendar.getInstance();
        dob.set(1980, Calendar.NOVEMBER, 11);
        People people = new People("John", "350 Banana St.", dob.getTime());
        people.setSecret("This is a secret!");

        Gson gson = new Gson();
        String json = gson.toJson(people);
        System.out.println("json = " + json);
    }
}

If your run the code above you’ll see the following line printed:

json = {"name":"John","address":"350 Banana St.","dateOfBirth":"Nov 11, 1980, 8:43:01 AM"}

Here is the People class.

package org.kodejava.gson.support;

import java.util.Date;

public class People {
    private String name;
    private String address;
    private Date dateOfBirth;
    private Integer age;
    private transient String secret;

    public People(String name, String address, Date dateOfBirth) {
        this.name = name;
        this.address = address;
        this.dateOfBirth = dateOfBirth;
    }

    public String getSecret() {
        return secret;
    }

    public void setSecret(String secret) {
        this.secret = secret;
    }
}

Maven Dependencies

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.google.code.gson</groupId>
    <artifactId>gson</artifactId>
    <version>2.11.0</version>
</dependency>

Maven Central