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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-27T12:40:16+00:00

Here with another question on Images ( which seems to be more difficult than

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Here with another question on Images ( which seems to be more difficult than I initialy predicted) I’m working on a java Web app with JSF 2.0 ( apache myFaces) and I want this app to be able to upload a picture to a destination on the server it’s going to run on. I have a Windows r2 2008 Server running a mySQL Db, but I don’t want to store the image in the db, I’d rather store it somewhere in the server and then just save the path as a string in the db.

I was told this is the best way, but I can’t seem to find an example on how to save it on the server. I run the app on the Apache tomcat Server as a WAR file. so I don’t know if I have to save the file to a path on the server drive (i.e. C:\images) or a special folder in the project itself ( within the java, html files) any help at all is greatly appreciated. I’m totally lost and have been stuck the whole day trying to figure this out.

The code I use to upload the image to the java class is this ( courtesy of CodyS):

InputStream is = uploadedFile.getInputStream();  
byte[] buffer = new byte[(int) uploadedFile.getSize()];
is.read(buffer); 
File f = new File("C:\\temp\\" + this.patient.getPk() + ".jpeg");   
f.createNewFile();  
FileOutputStream fos = new FileOutputStream(f);  
fos.write(buffer);  //This is where I write it to the C Drive
fos.close();
is.close();

instead of writing it to my C drive I’m going to run it on the server, but where should I store the image to later retriev and display in an xhtml file? I hope I’m being clear on what I need, let me know if I am not and I’ll try to explain in another way.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    instead of writing it to my C drive I’m going to run it on the server, but where should I store the image to later retriev and display in an xhtml file?

    That depends on how much control you have over configuring the server. Ideal would be to configure a fixed path outside the Tomcat webapps folder. For example, /var/webapp/upload. You can set this path as a VM argument or environment variable so that your webapp can retrieve it programmatically without the need to change the code.

    For example, when specifying as VM argument -Dupload.location=/var/webapp/upload, you can complete the upload as follows:

    Path folder = Paths.get(System.getProperty("upload.location"));
String filename = FilenameUtils.getBaseName(uploadedFile.getName()); 
String extension = FilenameUtils.getExtension(uploadedFile.getName());
Path file = Files.createTempFile(folder, filename + "-", "." + extension);

try (InputStream input = uploadedFile.getInputStream()) {
    Files.copy(input, file, StandardCopyOption.REPLACE_EXISTING);
}

String uploadedFileName = file.getFileName().toString();
// Now store it in DB.

    As to serving the file back, most ideal would be to add the upload location as a separate <Context> to Tomcat. E.g.

    <Context docBase="/var/webapp/upload" path="/uploads" />

    This way you can access it directly by http://example.com/uploads/foo-123456.ext

    If you have zero control over configuring the server, then, well, storing in the DB or sending to a 3rd party host such as Amazon S3 is your best bet.

    See also:

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