How can I make a multipart/form-data POST request using Java?

Question

In the days of version 3.x of Apache Commons HttpClient, making a multipart/form-data POST request was possible (an example from 2004). Unfortunately this is no longer possi

Answer 1

Here's a solution that does not require any libraries.

This routine transmits every file in the directory d:/data/mpf10 to urlToConnect

String boundary = Long.toHexString(System.currentTimeMillis());
URLConnection connection = new URL(urlToConnect).openConnection();
connection.setDoOutput(true);
connection.setRequestProperty("Content-Type", "multipart/form-data; boundary=" + boundary);
PrintWriter writer = null;
try {
    writer = new PrintWriter(new OutputStreamWriter(connection.getOutputStream(), "UTF-8"));
    File dir = new File("d:/data/mpf10");
    for (File file : dir.listFiles()) {
        if (file.isDirectory()) {
            continue;
        }
        writer.println("--" + boundary);
        writer.println("Content-Disposition: form-data; name=\"" + file.getName() + "\"; filename=\"" + file.getName() + "\"");
        writer.println("Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8");
        writer.println();
        BufferedReader reader = null;
        try {
            reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(new FileInputStream(file), "UTF-8"));
            for (String line; (line = reader.readLine()) != null;) {
                writer.println(line);
            }
        } finally {
            if (reader != null) {
                reader.close();
            }
        }
    }
    writer.println("--" + boundary + "--");
} finally {
    if (writer != null) writer.close();
}
// Connection is lazily executed whenever you request any status.
int responseCode = ((HttpURLConnection) connection).getResponseCode();
// Handle response