How do I use a FileChannel to read data into a Buffer?

The example below show how to use a FileChannel to read some data into a Buffer. We create a FileChannel from a FileInputStream instance. Because a channel reads data into buffer we need to create a ByteBuffer and set its capacity. Read data from a channel into buffer using the FileChannel.read() method.

To read out the data from the buffer we need to flip the buffer first using the Buffer.flip() method. The method will change the buffer from writing-mode into reading-mode. After the entire buffer is read clear the buffer using the clear() method call.

package org.kodejava.io;

import java.io.FileInputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.nio.ByteBuffer;
import java.nio.channels.FileChannel;

public class FileRead {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String path = "D:/Temp/source.txt";
        try (FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream(path);
             FileChannel fileChannel = fis.getChannel()) {

            ByteBuffer buffer = ByteBuffer.allocate(64);

            int bytesRead = fileChannel.read(buffer);
            while (bytesRead != -1) {
                buffer.flip();

                while (buffer.hasRemaining()) {
                    System.out.print((char) buffer.get());
                }

                buffer.clear();
                bytesRead = fileChannel.read(buffer);
            }
        } catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}

How do I create a NIO Buffer?

This post show you how to use the java.nio buffer such as ByteBuffer, CharBuffer, DoubleBuffer, etc. To create a buffer you can use the allocate(int capacity) method. Each buffer object has the allocate(int capacity) method. You need to pass the value of the capacity of the buffer to be created when calling this method.

package org.kodejava.io;

import java.nio.*;

public class BufferAllocate {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        ByteBuffer byteBuffer = ByteBuffer.allocate(64);
        CharBuffer charBuffer = CharBuffer.allocate(64);
        ShortBuffer shortBuffer = ShortBuffer.allocate(64);
        IntBuffer intBuffer = IntBuffer.allocate(64);
        LongBuffer longBuffer = LongBuffer.allocate(64);
        FloatBuffer floatBuffer = FloatBuffer.allocate(64);
        DoubleBuffer doubleBuffer = DoubleBuffer.allocate(64);
    }
}

How do I copy file using FileChannel class?

The example below show you how to copy a file using the java.nio.channels.FileChannel class.

package org.kodejava.io;

import java.io.*;
import java.nio.channels.FileChannel;

public class FileCopy {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        //// Define the source and target file
        File source = new File("D:/Temp/source.txt");
        File target = new File("D:/Temp/target.txt");

        // Create the source and target channel
        try (FileChannel sourceChannel = new FileInputStream(source).getChannel();
             FileChannel targetChannel = new FileOutputStream(target).getChannel()) {

            // Copy data from the source channel into the target channel
            targetChannel.transferFrom(sourceChannel, 0, sourceChannel.size());
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}

How do I create zip file in Servlet for download?

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?

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