Does JAX-WS require that attachments be base64 encoded?

[Ravi Danum]

Hello,

I am tasked with writing a web service which uploads and downloads various file types. The files could be very large. I don't want to use base64 encoding for the transport. I can use either JAX-WS or SAAJ. Does JAX-WS require that the data be base64 encoded? Thank you for any help you can give.

Ravi

[Peer Reynders]

Not if you are using attachments (JAX-WS: Binary Attachments (MTOM)).

base64 encoding is only used if you intend to include the non-XML content inside the XML payload of the SOAP envelope (binary data without attachments).

The problem with the various attachment technologies is that they aren't equally well supported by all client SOAP stacks - so base64 encoding may be preferable.

[Ravi Danum]

Thank you so much. That is a good start.