getOutputStream() has already been called for this response

I google the error message getOutputStream() has already been called for this response and many people said it is because of the space or newline after <% or %>, but in my code , there is no a space or a newline. I am using tomcat6 on linux.

<%@
    page import="java.servlet.*,
    javax.servlet.http.*,
    java.io.*,
    java.util.*,
    com.lowagie.text.pdf.*,
    com.lowagie.text.*"
    %><%
    response.setContentType("application/pdf");
    Document document = new Document();
    try{
        ByteArrayOutputStream buffer = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
        PdfWriter.getInstance(document, buffer);
        document.open();
        PdfPTable table = new PdfPTable(2);
        table.addCell("1");
        table.addCell("2");
        table.addCell("3");
        table.addCell("4");
        table.addCell("5");
        table.addCell("6");
        document.add(table);
        document.close();
        DataOutput dataOutput = new DataOutputStream(response.getOutputStream());
        byte[] bytes = buffer.toByteArray();
        response.setContentLength(bytes.length);
        for(int i = 0; i < bytes.length; i++)
        {
        dataOutput.writeByte(bytes[i]);
        }
    }catch(DocumentException e){
        e.printStackTrace();
    }

%>

~

org.apache.jasper.JasperException: java.lang.IllegalStateException: getOutputStream() has already been called for this response
    org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServletWrapper.handleJspException(JspServletWrapper.java:522)
    org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServletWrapper.service(JspServletWrapper.java:410)
    org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.serviceJspFile(JspServlet.java:342)
    org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.service(JspServlet.java:267)
    javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:717)

root cause

java.lang.IllegalStateException: getOutputStream() has already been called for this response
    org.apache.catalina.connector.Response.getWriter(Response.java:610)
    org.apache.catalina.connector.ResponseFacade.getWriter(ResponseFacade.java:198)
    org.apache.jasper.runtime.JspWriterImpl.initOut(JspWriterImpl.java:125)
    org.apache.jasper.runtime.JspWriterImpl.flushBuffer(JspWriterImpl.java:118)
    org.apache.jasper.runtime.PageContextImpl.release(PageContextImpl.java:188)
    org.apache.jasper.runtime.JspFactoryImpl.internalReleasePageContext(JspFactoryImpl.java:118)
    org.apache.jasper.runtime.JspFactoryImpl.releasePageContext(JspFactoryImpl.java:77)
    org.apache.jsp.Account.Domain.testPDF_jsp._jspService(testPDF_jsp.java:94)
    org.apache.jasper.runtime.HttpJspBase.service(HttpJspBase.java:70)
    javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:717)
    org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServletWrapper.service(JspServletWrapper.java:374)
    org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.serviceJspFile(JspServlet.java:342)
    org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.service(JspServlet.java:267)
    javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:717)

Solution 1:

Ok, you should be using a servlet not a JSP but if you really need to... add this directive at the top of your page:

<%@ page trimDirectiveWhitespaces="true" %>

Or in the jsp-config section your web.xml

<jsp-config>
  <jsp-property-group>
    <url-pattern>*.jsp</url-pattern>
    <trim-directive-whitespaces>true</trim-directive-whitespaces>
  </jsp-property-group>
</jsp-config>

Also flush/close the OutputStream and return when done.

dataOutput.flush();
dataOutput.close();
return;

Solution 2:

The issue here is that your JSP is talking directly to the response OutputStream. This technically isn't forbidden, but it's very much not a good idea.

Specifically, you call response.getOutputStream() and write data to that. Later, when the JSP engine tries to flush the response, it fails because your code has already "claimed" the response. An application can either call getOutputStream or getWriter on any given response, it's not allowed to do both. JSP engines use getWriter, and so you cannot call getOutputStream.

You should be writing this code as a Servlet, not a JSP. JSPs are only really suitable for textual output as contained in the JSP. You can see that there's no actual text output in your JSP, it only contains java.