Create UTF-8 file using HttpServletResponse

Question

I am trying to create a UTF-8 file "myFile.aaa" using HttpServletResponse (HttpServlet). The reason why I need this to be UTF-8 is because it might contain special non-printable characters.

However, code below seems to create ANSI-encoded file. At least that is what Notepad++ says, and what I can see reading chars from this file. What am I doing wrong?

Thanks

public void doPost(HttpServletRequest req, HttpServletResponse res)
    throws ServletException, IOException
    {
        res.setHeader("Content-Type", "application/octet-stream; charset=UTF-8");
        res.setHeader("Content-Disposition","attachment;filename=myFile.aaa");
        res.setCharacterEncoding("UTF-8");
        ServletOutputStream os = res.getOutputStream();
        os.print("Hello World");
        os.flush();
        os.close();
    }

Jaynajayne

Why would you want to specify charset on an octet-stream? – Mccullers

Answer 1

You need to use the character writer of the response, not the byte output stream.

Replace

ServletOutputStream os = res.getOutputStream();
os.print("Hello World");
os.flush();
os.close();

by

res.getWriter().write("Some UTF-8");

Further, I'd recommend setting content type to text/plain, not to an overly generic one which implies binary content, not character content.

I'm not sure about Notepad++, but in Notepad, if the text document does not contain any characters beyond the ANSI range, it will be interpreted as ANSI. Don't mislead you by this behaviour.

Velasco

Answer 2

Here is my sample:

private static final String KALIMAH = "\u0644\u064e\u0622 \u0625\u0650\u0644\u0670\u0647\u064e \u0625\u0650\u0644\u0651\u064e\u0627 \u0627\u0644\u0644\u0647\u064f \u0645\u064f\u062d\u064e\u0645\u0651\u064e\u062f\u064c \u0631\u0651\u064e\u0633\u064f\u0648\u0652\u0644\u064f \u0627\u0644\u0644\u0647\u0650";

protected void printGreeting (HttpServletResponse res) throws IOException {
    res.setContentType( "text/html" );
    res.setCharacterEncoding( "UTF-8" );
    PrintWriter out = res.getWriter();
    out.write( KALIMAH );
    out.close();
}

Promycelium