How to return a PNG image from Jersey REST service method to the browser

Question

I have a web server running with Jersey REST resources up and I wonder how to get an image/png reference for the browsers img tag; after submitting a Form or getting an Ajax

Answer 1

in regard of answer from @Perception, its true to be very memory-consuming when working with byte arrays, but you could also simply write back into the outputstream

@Path("/picture")
public class ProfilePicture {
  @GET
  @Path("/thumbnail")
  @Produces("image/png")
  public StreamingOutput getThumbNail() {
    return new StreamingOutput() {
      @Override
      public void write(OutputStream os) throws IOException, WebApplicationException {
        //... read your stream and write into os
      }
    };
  }
}