Reading File Input from a Multipart/Form-Data Post

Reading file input from a multipart/form-data POST

You may take a look at the following blog post which illustrates a technique that could be used to parse multipart/form-data on the server using the Multipart Parser:

public void Upload(Stream stream)
{
    MultipartParser parser = new MultipartParser(stream);
    if (parser.Success)
    {
        // Save the file
        SaveFile(parser.Filename, parser.ContentType, parser.FileContents);
    }
}

Another possibility is to enable aspnet compatibility and use HttpContext.Current.Request but that's not a very WCFish way.

How to upload file to server with HTTP POST multipart/form-data?

Here's my final working code. My web service needed one file (POST parameter name was "file") & a string value (POST parameter name was "userid").

/// <summary>
/// Occurs when upload backup application bar button is clicked. Author : Farhan Ghumra
 /// </summary>
private async void btnUploadBackup_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    var dbFile = await ApplicationData.Current.LocalFolder.GetFileAsync(Util.DBNAME);
    var fileBytes = await GetBytesAsync(dbFile);
    var Params = new Dictionary<string, string> { { "userid", "9" } };
    UploadFilesToServer(new Uri(Util.UPLOAD_BACKUP), Params, Path.GetFileName(dbFile.Path), "application/octet-stream", fileBytes);
}

/// <summary>
/// Creates HTTP POST request & uploads database to server. Author : Farhan Ghumra
/// </summary>
private void UploadFilesToServer(Uri uri, Dictionary<string, string> data, string fileName, string fileContentType, byte[] fileData)
{
    string boundary = "----------" + DateTime.Now.Ticks.ToString("x");
    HttpWebRequest httpWebRequest = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(uri);
    httpWebRequest.ContentType = "multipart/form-data; boundary=" + boundary;
    httpWebRequest.Method = "POST";
    httpWebRequest.BeginGetRequestStream((result) =>
    {
        try
        {
            HttpWebRequest request = (HttpWebRequest)result.AsyncState;
            using (Stream requestStream = request.EndGetRequestStream(result))
            {
                WriteMultipartForm(requestStream, boundary, data, fileName, fileContentType, fileData);
            }
            request.BeginGetResponse(a =>
            {
                try
                {
                    var response = request.EndGetResponse(a);
                    var responseStream = response.GetResponseStream();
                    using (var sr = new StreamReader(responseStream))
                    {
                        using (StreamReader streamReader = new StreamReader(response.GetResponseStream()))
                        {
                            string responseString = streamReader.ReadToEnd();
                            //responseString is depend upon your web service.
                            if (responseString == "Success")
                            {
                                MessageBox.Show("Backup stored successfully on server.");
                            }
                            else
                            {
                                MessageBox.Show("Error occurred while uploading backup on server.");
                            } 
                        }
                    }
                }
                catch (Exception)
                {

                }
            }, null);
        }
        catch (Exception)
        {

        }
    }, httpWebRequest);
}

/// <summary>
/// Writes multi part HTTP POST request. Author : Farhan Ghumra
/// </summary>
private void WriteMultipartForm(Stream s, string boundary, Dictionary<string, string> data, string fileName, string fileContentType, byte[] fileData)
{
    /// The first boundary
    byte[] boundarybytes = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes("--" + boundary + "\r\n");
    /// the last boundary.
    byte[] trailer = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes("\r\n--" + boundary + "--\r\n");
    /// the form data, properly formatted
    string formdataTemplate = "Content-Dis-data; name=\"{0}\"\r\n\r\n{1}";
    /// the form-data file upload, properly formatted
    string fileheaderTemplate = "Content-Dis-data; name=\"{0}\"; filename=\"{1}\";\r\nContent-Type: {2}\r\n\r\n";

    /// Added to track if we need a CRLF or not.
    bool bNeedsCRLF = false;

    if (data != null)
    {
        foreach (string key in data.Keys)
        {
            /// if we need to drop a CRLF, do that.
            if (bNeedsCRLF)
                WriteToStream(s, "\r\n");

            /// Write the boundary.
            WriteToStream(s, boundarybytes);

            /// Write the key.
            WriteToStream(s, string.Format(formdataTemplate, key, data[key]));
            bNeedsCRLF = true;
        }
    }

    /// If we don't have keys, we don't need a crlf.
    if (bNeedsCRLF)
        WriteToStream(s, "\r\n");

    WriteToStream(s, boundarybytes);
    WriteToStream(s, string.Format(fileheaderTemplate, "file", fileName, fileContentType));
    /// Write the file data to the stream.
    WriteToStream(s, fileData);
    WriteToStream(s, trailer);
}

/// <summary>
/// Writes string to stream. Author : Farhan Ghumra
/// </summary>
private void WriteToStream(Stream s, string txt)
{
    byte[] bytes = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(txt);
    s.Write(bytes, 0, bytes.Length);
}

/// <summary>
/// Writes byte array to stream. Author : Farhan Ghumra
/// </summary>
private void WriteToStream(Stream s, byte[] bytes)
{
    s.Write(bytes, 0, bytes.Length);
}

/// <summary>
/// Returns byte array from StorageFile. Author : Farhan Ghumra
/// </summary>
private async Task<byte[]> GetBytesAsync(StorageFile file)
{
    byte[] fileBytes = null;
    using (var stream = await file.OpenReadAsync())
    {
        fileBytes = new byte[stream.Size];
        using (var reader = new DataReader(stream))
        {
            await reader.LoadAsync((uint)stream.Size);
            reader.ReadBytes(fileBytes);
        }
    }

    return fileBytes;
}

I am very much thankful to Darin Rousseau for helping me.

POST data using the Content-Type multipart/form-data

Here's some sample code.

In short, you'll need to use the mime/multipart package to build the form.

package main

import (
    "bytes"
    "fmt"
    "io"
    "mime/multipart"
    "net/http"
    "net/http/httptest"
    "net/http/httputil"
    "os"
    "strings"
)

func main() {

    var client *http.Client
    var remoteURL string
    {
        //setup a mocked http client.
        ts := httptest.NewTLSServer(http.HandlerFunc(func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
            b, err := httputil.DumpRequest(r, true)
            if err != nil {
                panic(err)
            }
            fmt.Printf("%s", b)
        }))
        defer ts.Close()
        client = ts.Client()
        remoteURL = ts.URL
    }

    //prepare the reader instances to encode
    values := map[string]io.Reader{
        "file":  mustOpen("main.go"), // lets assume its this file
        "other": strings.NewReader("hello world!"),
    }
    err := Upload(client, remoteURL, values)
    if err != nil {
        panic(err)
    }
}

func Upload(client *http.Client, url string, values map[string]io.Reader) (err error) {
    // Prepare a form that you will submit to that URL.
    var b bytes.Buffer
    w := multipart.NewWriter(&b)
    for key, r := range values {
        var fw io.Writer
        if x, ok := r.(io.Closer); ok {
            defer x.Close()
        }
        // Add an image file
        if x, ok := r.(*os.File); ok {
            if fw, err = w.CreateFormFile(key, x.Name()); err != nil {
                return
            }
        } else {
            // Add other fields
            if fw, err = w.CreateFormField(key); err != nil {
                return
            }
        }
        if _, err = io.Copy(fw, r); err != nil {
            return err
        }

    }
    // Don't forget to close the multipart writer.
    // If you don't close it, your request will be missing the terminating boundary.
    w.Close()

    // Now that you have a form, you can submit it to your handler.
    req, err := http.NewRequest("POST", url, &b)
    if err != nil {
        return
    }
    // Don't forget to set the content type, this will contain the boundary.
    req.Header.Set("Content-Type", w.FormDataContentType())

    // Submit the request
    res, err := client.Do(req)
    if err != nil {
        return
    }

    // Check the response
    if res.StatusCode != http.StatusOK {
        err = fmt.Errorf("bad status: %s", res.Status)
    }
    return
}

func mustOpen(f string) *os.File {
    r, err := os.Open(f)
    if err != nil {
        panic(err)
    }
    return r
}

What is the right way to POST multipart/form-data using curl?

The following syntax fixes it for you:

curl -v -F key1=value1 -F upload=@localfilename URL

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