Should REST Get request return image or image URL?

Question

What's the best way to return image data from a RESTful service?

The image is part of a model (e.g. a User model which may have a 'photo' property) which is being returned by the method call.

Is it best to return the binary data with the GET request. Or is it best to return a URL from which the client can access the image.

The former seems like it would be easier to encapsulate and allow for authentication.

I'm using Django and the Django Rest Framework.

Thanks

Answer 1

The GET response have more data than the binary file?.

• If the answer is Yes, you must return your data in response + URL with the binary in the json data.

• If the answer is No, you can return the raw image with the correct
  content-type.

In general, mix text data and binary data is a bad idea.

Django, as a modern framework, allows you to securize the URL's in a easy way.