Is there any way to Convert byte array to String in modelAttribute? - arrays

Question

I have a model class called "Post" which has an attribute "postContent" as a byteArray.
public class Post{
byte[] postContnet;
//getters
//setters
...
}
So, I am using spring boot and spring form tag for getting the user's input using modelAttribute. The reason I am using byte array is I am using Ckeditor to get the WYSIWYG content.
<form:form ...... modelAttribute="post">
...
<form:textarea path="postContect" id="editor1">
....
</form:form>
While inserting the post to DB, I did not convert anything and it is inserted in MySQL DB where the postContent column is Blob type. However, when I am retrieving the content back for the edit purpose, I am getting byte array rather it should be a String. In a controller, I am getting and sending the data to JSP as below:
....
Post post = postService.findByPostId(postId);
if (post != null) {
mv.addObject("title", "Edit Post");
mv.addObject("post", post);
...
So, when I use JSTL in JSP, it prints the postContect as an array. I could get many references where converting the String to byte array and wise versa but here since I am using spring form and modelAttribute I am not sure where should I edit. How could I get back String in between?
Thanks.

Answer 1

I have found out the answer and it works for me. I am adding the comment here because someone who has a similar issue will get an idea.
I created Spring converter for a string to byte array
#Component
public class StringBase64ToByteArray implements Converter {
#Override
public byte[] convert(String source) {
byte[] byteSource = null;
System.out.println("StringBase64ToByteArray is called");
try {
byteSource = Base64.getEncoder().encode(source.getBytes("UTF-8"));
} catch (UnsupportedEncodingException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
return byteSource;
}
}
Then I created another converter to byte array to string
#Component
public class ByteArrayToStringBase64 implements Converter{
#Override
public String convert(byte[] source) {
byte[] decodedString = Base64.getDecoder().decode(source);
return new String(decodedString);
}
}
I have registered both converters to spring boot configuration
#Configuration
public class WebMvcConfig implements WebMvcConfigurer{
#Override
public void addFormatters(FormatterRegistry registry) {
registry.addConverter(new StringBase64ToByteArray());
registry.addConverter(new ByteArrayToStringBase64());
}
}