Web API - Send binary string of document

Question

Hello! When sending a document via a Web API, I am aware that the document is sent via binary streaming. When received by the calling system, the document itself is received. Is there a configuration of httpHeaders in Appian that would send the binary string itself? We are wanting to call the Appian Web API, receive the binary string, and write it to an external (to Appian) DB table. We are trying to achieve this with a Web API so the external system can do most of the heavy lifting; Appian would only fetch the document and return the binary string. Thank you!

Robert Shankin · Accepted Answer

Thanks - I follow you now, glennw 
 So - if you're already leveraging the database with good reason - I wonder if you might consider base64 instead of binary. Typically, as I understand it, in general, a better use case for binary is when you're intent is to stream the binary string to an immediate materialization of a document. (I'm open to dialog on that point, though). 
 If the 3rd party system supports base64 to document conversion you're practically home free. 
 Check out this shared component , base64 document database tools. When you visit the shared component page, make sure to scoll down to the bottom and grab the documentation on how to operate the smart services enabled by the plugin. With the "insert document as base64 into database" smart service, you can insert the document as well as all the metadata you want into a single table in one statement. From there, the third party system can pick up this data and hopefully convert the base64 string back into doc. 
 Keep in mind with your volume, these strings - binary or base64 are going to get large - make sure you account for the disk you'll use and clean up when you can. 
 Does that help? Thanks, Rob

Web API - Send binary string of document

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