How to display JPEG in JSP w/o IMG tag?

Question

I have a working application where a jpeg image is ecoded on the server via a JavaBean. The bean is then forwarded to a JSP, which gets the unique jpeg filename from the bean and displays it with an html <IMG> tag. All's fine and well, but I'd like to get away from having lots of image files laying around on the server and just display the image encoded in the current request. I tried creating a custom tag to encode and display the jpeg using the com.sun.image.codec.jpeg.* package in this manner:
ServletResponse res = pageContext.getResponse();
OutputStream os = res.getOutputStream();
JPEGImageEncoder encoder = JPEGCodec.createJPEGEncoder(os);
encoder.encode(imageRef); //-- imageRef is instance of BufferedImage
and in the JSP:
html, other tags, etc.
<graph:image imageRef='<%= imageBean.getImage() %>'/>
The image displays, but nothing else in the JSP (ie. html, other custom tags). In all other tags I've written, JSPWriter is used for output, but I need an OutputStream for the createJPEGEncoder() method.
Can anyone tell me if what I want to do is possible? I'm chasing my tail at the moment.
TIA Mark

Answer 1

Would this work for you:
Create the IMG tag in the JSP with the SRC as a servlet.
Also, add any parameters you may need to tell the servlet what image to send back.
Something like this:out.print("<IMG SRC=\"/servlet/ImageProducerServlet?WhichImage=");
out.print("MySpecialImage");
...The ImageProducerServlet can be setup to send back the JPEG image file.