175: warning: BASE64Encoder is internal proprietary API and m ay be removed in a future release

[Farakh khan]

Hello,

I am getting this warning:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\Tomcat7.2\webapps\ROOT\WEB-INF\classes>javac *.java
UploadManager.java:175: warning: BASE64Encoder is internal proprietary API and m
ay be removed in a future release
                String encodedString = new sun.misc.BASE64Encoder().encode(fileC
ontent); // changes done.
                                                   ^
1 warning

I have downloaded base64coder.jar and placed into tomcat/lib, jdk/jre/lib/ext but still getting this warning. How can I fix it?

Best regards

[Jesper de Jong]

Where did you download that JAR file from?

Ofcourse downloading the JAR and putting it in your classpath is not enough. You'll also need to change your program to make use of the Base64 codec that's in the JAR file, instead of using class sun.misc.BASE64Encoder.

You get the error because sun.misc.BASE64Encoder is an internal API of the JDK. It's not part of the official public Java API, so you are not supposed to be using it. There's no guarantee that in a future Java update this class will still exist, and in other Java implementations (for example IBM's JVM) this class doesn't exist.

[Ulf Dittmer]

You're probably better off using the base64 classes of the Apache Commons Codec library.

[Farakh khan]

I am using it as

String encodedString = new sun.misc.BASE64Encoder().encode(fileContent);

but still throwing the same exception. What else I do?

Thanks for your reply

[Farakh khan]

Ulf Dittmer wrote:You're probably better off using the base64 classes of the Apache Commons Codec library.

Yes I downloaded from Apache Commons Codec Library

[Ulf Dittmer]

Good, now you just need to change your code to use it :-)

[Farakh khan]

import org.apache.commons.codec.*;

String encodedString = new sun.misc.BASE64Encoder().encode(fileContent);

These two changes I made but still getting the same warning. What else I have to change?

regards

[Ulf Dittmer]

Where do you think you are using the org.apache.commons.codec.binary.Base64 class?

[Farakh khan]

I think am using it here.
String encodedString = new sun.misc.BASE64Encoder().encode(fileContent);

thanks again for your prompt replies

[Ove Lindström]

Farakh khan wrote:I think am using it here.
String encodedString = new sun.misc.BASE64Encoder().encode(fileContent);

thanks again for your prompt replies

But this states that you are using the class sun.misc.BASE64Encoder. And that is an internal proprietary API and may be removed in a future release. If Sun/Oracle wants to do it.

[Jesper de Jong]

Really? Look again. Can you not see the difference between:

sun.misc.BASE64Encoder and org.apache.commons.codec.binary.Base64

[Farakh khan]

Ulf Dittmer wrote:Where do you think you are using the org.apache.commons.codec.binary.Base64 class?

I tied like this:

FileInputStream fin = new FileInputStream(f);
            byte[] fileContent = new byte[(int) f.length()];
            fin.read(fileContent);				

	     byte[] encoded = Base64.encodeBase64(fileContent.getBytes());
             String encodedString = new String(encoded);

Its throwing the following error:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\Tomcat7.2\webapps\ROOT\WEB-INF\classes>javac *.java
UploadManager.java:178: error: cannot find symbol
             byte[] encoded = Base64.encodeBase64(fileContent.getBytes());
                                                  ^
  symbol:   variable fileContents
  location: class UploadManager
1 error

[Ulf Dittmer]

How are you defining "fileContent"? Note that the error message talks about "fileContents" - a different variable.

fileContent is byte[], and you're trying to call its "getBytes" method?

[Jesper de Jong]

fileContent is a byte[] in your code, and in line 5 you are calling the method getBytes() on it. That is not going to work, because a byte[] doesn't have a getBytes() method.

Also, there are more reasons why this will not work. The method read() of class FileInputStream, that you are calling in line 3, does not necessarily read the entire content of the file. It might just read the first few bytes, or even nothing at all. Just calling read() the way that you are doing is not a good way to read the content of a file into a byte array.

[Farakh khan]

File f = new File(real);
            FileInputStream fin = new FileInputStream(f);
            byte[] fileContent = new byte[(int) f.length()];
            fin.read(fileContent);//sorry I forget it

	     byte[] encoded = Base64.encodeBase64(fileContent.getBytes());
             String encodedString = new String(encoded);

Thanks for help

[Rob Spoor]

You haven't modified anything?

[Jesper de Jong]

As I already mentioned above, this is not guaranteed to work correctly:

File f = new File(real);
FileInputStream fin = new FileInputStream(f);
byte[] fileContent = new byte[(int) f.length()];
fin.read(fileContent);//sorry I forget it

This will not always read the entire content of the file into the byte array. The API documentation of FileInputStream.read(byte[] b) explains:

API documentation wrote:
Reads up to b.length bytes of data from this input stream into an array of bytes. This method blocks until some input is available.

Returns: the total number of bytes read into the buffer, or -1 if there is no more data because the end of the file has been reached.

Note that it might not read the entire file. It might read only the first 10 bytes, for example. Note that the method returns the number of bytes read. To read an entire file into a byte array, you need to call this method in a loop until it returns -1, or until you've filled the whole array. Like this:

FileInputStream fin = new FileInputStream(f);
byte[] fileContent = new byte[(int) f.length()];

int offset = 0;
int numberOfBytesLeft = fileContent.length;

int count;
while (numberOfBytesLeft > 0 && (count = fin.read(fileContent, offset, numberOfBytesLeft)) != -1) {
    offset += count;
    numberOfBytesLeft -= count;
}

[Rob Spoor]

Or wrap the FileInputStream into a DataInputStream and use its readFully method. That essentially does the same.

[Farakh khan]

Thanks Jasper from the bottom of my heart. Now I change the code like this:

File f = new File(real);
		FileInputStream fin = new FileInputStream(f);
		byte[] fileContent = new byte[(int) f.length()];

		int offset = 0;
		int numberOfBytesLeft = fileContent.length;

		int count;
		while (numberOfBytesLeft > 0 && (count = fin.read(fileContent, offset, numberOfBytesLeft)) != -1) {
	    	offset += count;
    		numberOfBytesLeft -= count;
		}

		byte[] encoded = Base64.encodeBase64(fileContent.getBytes());  
              	String encodedString = new String(encoded);  

Its still throwing the following error:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\Tomcat7.2\webapps\ROOT\WEB-INF\classes>javac *.java
UploadManager.java:175: error: cannot find symbol
                byte[] encoded = Base64.encodeBase64(fileContent.getBytes());
                                                                ^
  symbol:   method getBytes()
  location: variable fileContent of type byte[]
1 error

[Ulf Dittmer]

Maybe you missed my earlier post:

fileContent is byte[], and you're trying to call its "getBytes" method?

And Jesper's:

fileContent is a byte[] in your code, and in line 5 you are calling the method getBytes() on it. That is not going to work, because a byte[] doesn't have a getBytes() method.

[Farakh khan]

Thanks all

The following piece of code solved my problem

String encodedString = Base64.encodeBase64String(fileContent);

Thanks again