Upload files with HTTPWebrequest (multipart/form-data)

Question

Is there any class, library or some piece of code which will help me to upload files with HTTPWebrequest?

Edit 2:

I do not

Answer 1

There is another working example with some my comments :

        List<MimePart> mimeParts = new List<MimePart>();

        try
        {
            foreach (string key in form.AllKeys)
            {
                StringMimePart part = new StringMimePart();

                part.Headers["Content-Disposition"] = "form-data; name=\"" + key + "\"";
                part.StringData = form[key];

                mimeParts.Add(part);
            }

            int nameIndex = 0;

            foreach (UploadFile file in files)
            {
                StreamMimePart part = new StreamMimePart();

                if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(file.FieldName))
                    file.FieldName = "file" + nameIndex++;

                part.Headers["Content-Disposition"] = "form-data; name=\"" + file.FieldName + "\"; filename=\"" + file.FileName + "\"";
                part.Headers["Content-Type"] = file.ContentType;

                part.SetStream(file.Data);

                mimeParts.Add(part);
            }

            string boundary = "----------" + DateTime.Now.Ticks.ToString("x");

            req.ContentType = "multipart/form-data; boundary=" + boundary;
            req.Method = "POST";

            long contentLength = 0;

            byte[] _footer = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes("--" + boundary + "--\r\n");

            foreach (MimePart part in mimeParts)
            {
                contentLength += part.GenerateHeaderFooterData(boundary);
            }

            req.ContentLength = contentLength + _footer.Length;

            byte[] buffer = new byte[8192];
            byte[] afterFile = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes("\r\n");
            int read;

            using (Stream s = req.GetRequestStream())
            {
                foreach (MimePart part in mimeParts)
                {
                    s.Write(part.Header, 0, part.Header.Length);

                    while ((read = part.Data.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length)) > 0)
                        s.Write(buffer, 0, read);

                    part.Data.Dispose();

                    s.Write(afterFile, 0, afterFile.Length);
                }

                s.Write(_footer, 0, _footer.Length);
            }

            return (HttpWebResponse)req.GetResponse();
        }
        catch
        {
            foreach (MimePart part in mimeParts)
                if (part.Data != null)
                    part.Data.Dispose();

            throw;
        }

And there is example of using :

            UploadFile[] files = new UploadFile[] 
            { 
                new UploadFile(@"C:\2.jpg","new_file","image/jpeg") //new_file is id of upload field
            };

            NameValueCollection form = new NameValueCollection();

            form["id_hidden_input"] = "value_hidden_inpu"; //there is additional param (hidden fields on page)


            HttpWebRequest req = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(full URL of action);

            // set credentials/cookies etc. 
            req.CookieContainer = hrm.CookieContainer; //hrm is my class. i copied all cookies from last request to current (for auth)
            HttpWebResponse resp = HttpUploadHelper.Upload(req, files, form);

            using (Stream s = resp.GetResponseStream())
            using (StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(s))
            {
                string response = sr.ReadToEnd();
            }
             //profit!

Answer 2

VB Example (converted from C# example on another post):

Private Sub HttpUploadFile( _
    ByVal uri As String, _
    ByVal filePath As String, _
    ByVal fileParameterName As String, _
    ByVal contentType As String, _
    ByVal otherParameters As Specialized.NameValueCollection)

    Dim boundary As String = "---------------------------" & DateTime.Now.Ticks.ToString("x")
    Dim newLine As String = System.Environment.NewLine
    Dim boundaryBytes As Byte() = Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(newLine & "--" & boundary & newLine)
    Dim request As Net.HttpWebRequest = Net.WebRequest.Create(uri)

    request.ContentType = "multipart/form-data; boundary=" & boundary
    request.Method = "POST"
    request.KeepAlive = True
    request.Credentials = Net.CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials

    Using requestStream As IO.Stream = request.GetRequestStream()

        Dim formDataTemplate As String = "Content-Disposition: form-data; name=""{0}""{1}{1}{2}"

        For Each key As String In otherParameters.Keys

            requestStream.Write(boundaryBytes, 0, boundaryBytes.Length)
            Dim formItem As String = String.Format(formDataTemplate, key, newLine, otherParameters(key))
            Dim formItemBytes As Byte() = Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(formItem)
            requestStream.Write(formItemBytes, 0, formItemBytes.Length)

        Next key

        requestStream.Write(boundaryBytes, 0, boundaryBytes.Length)

        Dim headerTemplate As String = "Content-Disposition: form-data; name=""{0}""; filename=""{1}""{2}Content-Type: {3}{2}{2}"
        Dim header As String = String.Format(headerTemplate, fileParameterName, filePath, newLine, contentType)
        Dim headerBytes As Byte() = Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(header)
        requestStream.Write(headerBytes, 0, headerBytes.Length)

        Using fileStream As New IO.FileStream(filePath, IO.FileMode.Open, IO.FileAccess.Read)

            Dim buffer(4096) As Byte
            Dim bytesRead As Int32 = fileStream.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length)

            Do While (bytesRead > 0)

                requestStream.Write(buffer, 0, bytesRead)
                bytesRead = fileStream.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length)

            Loop

        End Using

        Dim trailer As Byte() = Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(newLine & "--" + boundary + "--" & newLine)
        requestStream.Write(trailer, 0, trailer.Length)

    End Using

    Dim response As Net.WebResponse = Nothing

    Try

        response = request.GetResponse()

        Using responseStream As IO.Stream = response.GetResponseStream()

            Using responseReader As New IO.StreamReader(responseStream)

                Dim responseText = responseReader.ReadToEnd()
                Diagnostics.Debug.Write(responseText)

            End Using

        End Using

    Catch exception As Net.WebException

        response = exception.Response

        If (response IsNot Nothing) Then

            Using reader As New IO.StreamReader(response.GetResponseStream())

                Dim responseText = reader.ReadToEnd()
                Diagnostics.Debug.Write(responseText)

            End Using

            response.Close()

        End If

    Finally

        request = Nothing

    End Try

End Sub

Answer 3

UPDATE: Using .NET 4.5 (or .NET 4.0 by adding the Microsoft.Net.Http package from NuGet) this is possible without external code, extensions, and "low level" HTTP manipulation. Here is an example:

// Perform the equivalent of posting a form with a filename and two files, in HTML:
// <form action="{url}" method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data">
//     <input type="text" name="filename" />
//     <input type="file" name="file1" />
//     <input type="file" name="file2" />
// </form>
private async Task<System.IO.Stream> UploadAsync(string url, string filename, Stream fileStream, byte [] fileBytes)
{
    // Convert each of the three inputs into HttpContent objects

    HttpContent stringContent = new StringContent(filename);
    // examples of converting both Stream and byte [] to HttpContent objects
    // representing input type file
    HttpContent fileStreamContent = new StreamContent(fileStream);
    HttpContent bytesContent = new ByteArrayContent(fileBytes);

    // Submit the form using HttpClient and 
    // create form data as Multipart (enctype="multipart/form-data")

    using (var client = new HttpClient())
    using (var formData = new MultipartFormDataContent()) 
    {
        // Add the HttpContent objects to the form data

        // <input type="text" name="filename" />
        formData.Add(stringContent, "filename", "filename");
        // <input type="file" name="file1" />
        formData.Add(fileStreamContent, "file1", "file1");
        // <input type="file" name="file2" />
        formData.Add(bytesContent, "file2", "file2");

        // Invoke the request to the server

        // equivalent to pressing the submit button on
        // a form with attributes (action="{url}" method="post")
        var response = await client.PostAsync(url, formData);

        // ensure the request was a success
        if (!response.IsSuccessStatusCode)
        {
            return null;
        }
        return await response.Content.ReadAsStreamAsync();
    }
}

Answer 4

I had to deal with this recently - another way to approach it is to use the fact that WebClient is inheritable, and change the underlying WebRequest from there:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.net.webclient.getwebrequest(VS.80).aspx

I prefer C#, but if you're stuck with VB the results will look something like this:

Public Class BigWebClient
    Inherits WebClient
    Protected Overrides Function GetWebRequest(ByVal address As System.Uri) As System.Net.WebRequest
        Dim x As WebRequest = MyBase.GetWebRequest(address)
        x.Timeout = 60 * 60 * 1000
        Return x
    End Function
End Class

'Use BigWebClient here instead of WebClient

Answer 5

I can never get the examples to work properly, I always receive a 500 error when sending it to the server.

However I came across a very elegant method of doing it in this url

It is easily extendible and obviously works with binary files as well as XML.

You call it using something similar to this

class Program
{
    public static string gsaFeedURL = "http://yourGSA.domain.com:19900/xmlfeed";

    static void Main()
    {
        try
        {
            postWebData();
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
        }
    }

    // new one I made from C# web service
    public static void postWebData()
    {
        StringDictionary dictionary = new StringDictionary();
        UploadSpec uploadSpecs = new UploadSpec();
        UTF8Encoding encoding = new UTF8Encoding();
        byte[] bytes;
        Uri gsaURI = new Uri(gsaFeedURL);  // Create new URI to GSA feeder gate
        string sourceURL = @"C:\FeedFile.xml"; // Location of the XML feed file
        // Two parameters to send
        string feedtype = "full";
        string datasource = "test";            

        try
        {
            // Add the parameter values to the dictionary
            dictionary.Add("feedtype", feedtype);
            dictionary.Add("datasource", datasource);

            // Load the feed file created and get its bytes
            XmlDocument xml = new XmlDocument();
            xml.Load(sourceURL);
            bytes = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(xml.OuterXml);

            // Add data to upload specs
            uploadSpecs.Contents = bytes;
            uploadSpecs.FileName = sourceURL;
            uploadSpecs.FieldName = "data";

            // Post the data
            if ((int)HttpUpload.Upload(gsaURI, dictionary, uploadSpecs).StatusCode == 200)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Successful.");
            }
            else
            {
                // GSA POST not successful
                Console.WriteLine("Failure.");
            }
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);
        }
    }
}

Answer 6

I was looking to do file upload and add some parameters to a multipart/form-data request in VB.NET and not through a regular forms post. Thanks to @JoshCodes answer I got the direction I was looking for. I am posting my solution to help others find a way to perform a post with both file and parameters the html equivalent of what I try to achieve is : html

<form action="your-api-endpoint" enctype="multipart/form-data" method="post"> 
<input type="hidden" name="action" value="api-method-name"/> 
<input type="hidden" name="apiKey" value="gs1xxxxxxxxxxxxxex"/> 
<input type="hidden" name="access" value="protected"/> 
<input type="hidden" name="name" value="test"/> 
<input type="hidden" name="title" value="test"/> 
<input type="hidden" name="signature" value="cf1d4xxxxxxxxcd5"/> 
<input type="file" name="file"/> 
<input type="submit" name="_upload" value="Upload"/> 
</form>

Due to the fact that I have to provide the apiKey and the signature (which is a calculated checksum of the request parameters and api key concatenated string), I needed to do it server side. The other reason I needed to do it server side is the fact that the post of the file can be performed at any time by pointing to a file already on the server (providing the path), so there would be no manually selected file during form post thus form data file would not contain the file stream.Otherwise I could have calculated the checksum via an ajax callback and submitted the file through the html post using JQuery. I am using .net version 4.0 and cannot upgrade to 4.5 in the actual solution. So I had to install the Microsoft.Net.Http using nuget cmd

PM> install-package Microsoft.Net.Http

Private Function UploadFile(req As ApiRequest, filePath As String, fileName As String) As String
    Dim result = String.empty
    Try
        ''//Get file stream
        Dim paramFileStream As Stream = File.OpenRead(filePath)
        Dim fileStreamContent As HttpContent = New  StreamContent(paramFileStream)
        Using client = New HttpClient()
            Using formData = New MultipartFormDataContent()
                ''// This adds parameter name ("action")
                ''// parameter value (req.Action) to form data
                formData.Add(New StringContent(req.Action), "action")
                formData.Add(New StringContent(req.ApiKey), "apiKey")
                For Each param In req.Parameters
                    formData.Add(New StringContent(param.Value), param.Key)
                Next
                formData.Add(New StringContent(req.getRequestSignature.Qualifier), "signature")
                ''//This adds the file stream and file info to form data
                formData.Add(fileStreamContent, "file", fileName)
                ''//We are now sending the request
                Dim response = client.PostAsync(GetAPIEndpoint(), formData).Result
                ''//We are here reading the response
                Dim readR = New StreamReader(response.Content.ReadAsStreamAsync().Result, Encoding.UTF8)
                Dim respContent = readR.ReadToEnd()

                If Not response.IsSuccessStatusCode Then
                    result =  "Request Failed : Code = " & response.StatusCode & "Reason = " & response.ReasonPhrase & "Message = " & respContent
                End If
                result.Value = respContent
            End Using
        End Using
    Catch ex As Exception
        result = "An error occurred : " & ex.Message
    End Try

    Return result
End Function