web api odata action method to return image

Question

We are using asp.net web api odata entitysetcontroller to get user profiles. The url that represents a single user profile looks like this

http://www.domain.com/api/org/staff(123)

Now bussiness asked us to provide user image as part of the user profile. So I added a odata action method to the exisitng controller.

var staff = builder.EntitySet<Contact>("staff");  //regiester controller
var staffAction = staff.EntityType.Action("picture");  //register action method          
staffAction.Returns<System.Net.Http.HttpResponseMessage>();

The odata action method in controller as below

[HttpPost]
public HttpResponseMessage Picture([FromODataUri] int key)
    {
        var folderName = "App_Data/Koala.jpg";
        string path = System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath("~/" + folderName);

        using (FileStream mem = new FileStream(path,FileMode.Open))
        {
            StreamContent sc = new StreamContent(mem);
            HttpResponseMessage response = new HttpResponseMessage();                
            response.Content = sc;
            response.Content.Headers.ContentType = new MediaTypeHeaderValue("image/jpeg");
            response.Content.Headers.ContentLength = mem.Length;
            response.StatusCode = HttpStatusCode.OK;
            return response;
        }
    }

I tried the following url to test and the method executed successfully. However the problem is that I always recieve the error message with status 504 as a final response.

http://www.domain.com/api/org/staff(123)/picture

"ReadResponse() failed: The server did not return a response for this request."

Kiran · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-12 01:56:06Z

4

I think the problem is with closing the FileStream.

Do not close the stream as Web API's hosting layers take care of closing it. Also, you need not set the content-length explicitly.StreamContent sets this for you.

[HttpPost]
public HttpResponseMessage Picture([FromODataUri] int key)
{
    var folderName = "App_Data/Koala.jpg";
    string path = System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath("~/" + folderName);

    StreamContent sc = new StreamContent(new FileStream(path,FileMode.OpenRead));
        HttpResponseMessage response = new HttpResponseMessage();                
        response.Content = sc;
        response.Content.Headers.ContentType = new MediaTypeHeaderValue("image/jpeg");
        response.StatusCode = HttpStatusCode.OK;
        return response;
}

edited Jun 12, 2013 at 1:56

answered Jun 11, 2013 at 20:46

Kiran

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2 Comments

CoffeeCode Over a year ago

@Kiran-Challa What about uploading files? I couldn't find any good example for doing this with wep api odata

Josh Over a year ago

I've got the same question as @CoffeeCode. What are you doing for upload? Not finding great examples on the web. Thanks.

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