Passing an image from a Wep Api service to another Web Api service - asp.net

Question

For security reasons, I am building two Web Api services. The first Web Api app will have access to an image generating service, and will act as a security proxy. The second Web Api app will call the first app from the internet and retrieve the image.
However, I can't seem to get to negotiate passage of the image correctly. My thought was to have the security proxy Web API to get the image, and then pass it as a byte array my other service which would allow a user to download the image. However, when my browser attempts to open the image, it is always corrupted.
Here is the security proxy getting the image, which I know is successful:
public byte[] Get(string invoice, string Customer)
{
object image;
try
{
image = _repo.GetImage(invoice, Customer);
}
catch (ApplicationException exc)
{
var resp = new HttpResponseMessage(HttpStatusCode.NotFound)
{
Content = new StringContent(string.Format("No Image with Invoice Number = {0}", invoice.ToString())),
ReasonPhrase = "Image Not Found"
};
throw new HttpResponseException(resp);
}
catch (Exception exc)
{
throw new HttpResponseException(new HttpResponseMessage(HttpStatusCode.NotFound));
}
return (byte[])image;
}
This returns an array with a length of 40133.
The calling Web API service looks like this:
public HttpResponseMessage Get(string invoice, string Customer)
{
HttpClient client = new HttpClient();
client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Accept.Add(new MediaTypeWithQualityHeaderValue("application/octet-stream"));
byte[] img = client.GetByteArrayAsync("http://localhost:1363/api/Image/" + invoice + "/" + Customer).Result;
HttpResponseMessage response = new HttpResponseMessage();
response.Content = new ByteArrayContent(img);
response.Content.Headers.ContentType = new System.Net.Http.Headers.MediaTypeHeaderValue("image/tiff");
var disposition = new ContentDispositionHeaderValue("attachment");
disposition.FileName = "ImageDocument.tif";
response.Content.Headers.ContentDisposition = disposition;
return response;
}
However, the length of the img byte array is 53514.
When the browser tries to open the image, it tells me it is corrupt. If I open the TIFF in notepad, I get :
"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
SNIP*
Anyone know what I am doing wrong?
Thanks!
Chris
Solved
If anyone is interested in the calling code that leverages the solution identified, here it is:
public HttpResponseMessage Get(string invoice, string Customer)
{
HttpClient client = new HttpClient();
client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Accept.Add(new MediaTypeWithQualityHeaderValue("image/tiff"));
byte[] img = client.GetByteArrayAsync("http://localhost:1363/api/Image/" + invoice + "/" + Customer).Result;
HttpResponseMessage response = new HttpResponseMessage();
response.Content = new ByteArrayContent(img);
response.Content.Headers.ContentType = new System.Net.Http.Headers.MediaTypeHeaderValue("image/tiff");
var disposition = new ContentDispositionHeaderValue("attachment");
disposition.FileName = "ImageDocument.tif";
response.Content.Headers.ContentDisposition = disposition;
return response;
}

Answer 1

With your above current return type (byte[]) of action, formatters of web api are probably handling them and hence you are seeing unexpected response.
can you try sending the image as a ByteArrayContent instead?(you need to have HttpResponseMessage as a return type here)
Example:
HttpResponseMessage response = new HttpResponseMessage(HttpStatusCode.OK);
response.Content = new ByteArrayContent(..your byte array here...);
response.Content.Headers.ContentType = new System.Net.Http.Headers.MediaTypeHeaderValue("image/jpeg");
return response;