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The Binary Internals Web Server (BinaryInternalsWeb) is a self-contained HTTP server that brings the desktop viewer’s format analysis capabilities to a network-accessible interface. Instead of opening files through a Swing GUI, you send file bytes in an HTTP request and receive a structured JSON tree that describes every byte of the file — the same tree the desktop viewer renders interactively. This makes it straightforward to embed format analysis into CI pipelines, build tooling, or web applications without requiring a display.

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How it relates to the desktop viewer

The web server loads exactly the same format plug-ins that the desktop viewer uses (BMP, Class, JPEG, PNG, ZIP, and more). The plug-ins are discovered at runtime via ServiceLoader, so adding a new format module to the classpath is enough to make it available in both interfaces. The JSON response is a direct serialisation of the JTreeNodeFileComponent tree the plug-ins produce, meaning every field — byte offset, length, icon, and HTML description — is identical to what you see in the desktop view.

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Two use modes

Browser-based web UI — visiting GET / in a browser loads a single-page application that lets you upload a file and explore its structure visually, with collapsible nodes and icon decorations. REST API — any HTTP client can POST raw file bytes to /api/v1/parse and receive a JSON tree. This is suitable for automated tools, scripts, or other services that need machine-readable format analysis.

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Endpoints at a glance

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Concurrency model

Every HTTP request is handled on a Java virtual thread, created via Executors.newVirtualThreadPerTaskExecutor(). Virtual threads are lightweight and scale to thousands of simultaneous connections without the memory overhead of platform threads. Parse operations are further bounded by a semaphore (MAX_CONCURRENT_PARSES) so that a surge of large uploads cannot exhaust CPU or heap.

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Gzip compression

Responses that are 1 024 bytes or larger are automatically compressed with gzip when the client sends an Accept-Encoding: gzip header. Parse responses in particular benefit greatly from compression because the JSON trees repeat description text many times. Use curl --compressed or set the header in your HTTP client to take advantage of this. Image responses (image/png) are never gzip-compressed.

Configuration

All environment variables, Docker flags, CORS settings, and security recommendations.

API Reference

Full reference for every endpoint: request parameters, response shapes, and error codes.