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

Modified @CristianRomanescu code to work with memory stream, accept file as a byte array, allow null nvc, return request response and work with Authorization-header. Tested the code with Web Api 2.

private string HttpUploadFile(string url, byte[] file, string fileName, string paramName, string contentType, NameValueCollection nvc, string authorizationHeader)
{
    string boundary = "---------------------------" + DateTime.Now.Ticks.ToString("x");
    byte[] boundarybytes = System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes("\r\n--" + boundary + "\r\n");

    HttpWebRequest wr = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(url);
    wr.ContentType = "multipart/form-data; boundary=" + boundary;
    wr.Method = "POST";
    wr.Headers.Add("Authorization", authorizationHeader);
    wr.KeepAlive = true;

    Stream rs = wr.GetRequestStream();

    string formdataTemplate = "Content-Disposition: form-data; name=\"{0}\"\r\n\r\n{1}";
    if (nvc != null)
    {
        foreach (string key in nvc.Keys)
        {
            rs.Write(boundarybytes, 0, boundarybytes.Length);
            string formitem = string.Format(formdataTemplate, key, nvc[key]);
            byte[] formitembytes = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(formitem);
            rs.Write(formitembytes, 0, formitembytes.Length);
        }
    }

    rs.Write(boundarybytes, 0, boundarybytes.Length);

    string headerTemplate = "Content-Disposition: form-data; name=\"{0}\"; filename=\"{1}\"\r\nContent-Type: {2}\r\n\r\n";
    string header = string.Format(headerTemplate, paramName, fileName, contentType);
    byte[] headerbytes = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(header);
    rs.Write(headerbytes, 0, headerbytes.Length);

    rs.Write(file, 0, file.Length);

    byte[] trailer = System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes("\r\n--" + boundary + "--\r\n");
    rs.Write(trailer, 0, trailer.Length);
    rs.Close();

    WebResponse wresp = null;
    try
    {
        wresp = wr.GetResponse();
        Stream stream2 = wresp.GetResponseStream();
        StreamReader reader2 = new StreamReader(stream2);
        var response = reader2.ReadToEnd();
        return response;
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        if (wresp != null)
        {
            wresp.Close();
            wresp = null;
        }
        return null;
    }
    finally
    {
        wr = null;
    }
}

Testcode:

[HttpPost]
[Route("postformdata")]
public IHttpActionResult PostFormData()
{
    // Check if the request contains multipart/form-data.
    if (!Request.Content.IsMimeMultipartContent())
    {
        throw new HttpResponseException(HttpStatusCode.UnsupportedMediaType);
    }

    var provider = new MultipartMemoryStreamProvider();

    try
    {
        // Read the form data.
        var result = Request.Content.ReadAsMultipartAsync(provider).Result;
        string response = "";
        // This illustrates how to get the file names.
        foreach (var file in provider.Contents)
        {
            var fileName = file.Headers.ContentDisposition.FileName.Trim('\"');
            var buffer =  file.ReadAsByteArrayAsync().Result;
            response = HttpUploadFile("https://localhost/api/v1/createfromfile", buffer, fileName, "file", "application/pdf", null, "AuthorizationKey");
        }
        return Ok(response);
    }
    catch (System.Exception e)
    {
        return InternalServerError();
    }
}

Answer 2

This method work for upload multiple image simultaneously

        var flagResult = new viewModel();
        string boundary = "---------------------------" + DateTime.Now.Ticks.ToString("x");
        byte[] boundarybytes = System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes("\r\n--" + boundary + "\r\n");

        HttpWebRequest wr = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(url);
        wr.ContentType = "multipart/form-data; boundary=" + boundary;
        wr.Method = method;
        wr.KeepAlive = true;
        wr.Credentials = System.Net.CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials;

        Stream rs = wr.GetRequestStream();


        string path = @filePath;
        System.IO.DirectoryInfo folderInfo = new DirectoryInfo(path);

        foreach (FileInfo file in folderInfo.GetFiles())
        {
            rs.Write(boundarybytes, 0, boundarybytes.Length);
            string headerTemplate = "Content-Disposition: form-data; name=\"{0}\"; filename=\"{1}\"\r\nContent-Type: {2}\r\n\r\n";
            string header = string.Format(headerTemplate, paramName, file, contentType);
            byte[] headerbytes = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(header);
            rs.Write(headerbytes, 0, headerbytes.Length);

            FileStream fileStream = new FileStream(file.FullName, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read);
            byte[] buffer = new byte[4096];
            int bytesRead = 0;
            while ((bytesRead = fileStream.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length)) != 0)
            {
                rs.Write(buffer, 0, bytesRead);
            }
            fileStream.Close();
        }

        byte[] trailer = System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes("\r\n--" + boundary + "--\r\n");
        rs.Write(trailer, 0, trailer.Length);
        rs.Close();

        WebResponse wresp = null;
        try
        {
            wresp = wr.GetResponse();
            Stream stream2 = wresp.GetResponseStream();
            StreamReader reader2 = new StreamReader(stream2);
            var result = reader2.ReadToEnd();
            var cList = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<HttpViewModel>(result);
            if (cList.message=="images uploaded!")
            {
                flagResult.success = true;
            }

        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            //log.Error("Error uploading file", ex);
            if (wresp != null)
            {
                wresp.Close();
                wresp = null;
            }
        }
        finally
        {
            wr = null;
        }
        return flagResult;
    }

Answer 3

Not sure if this was posted before but I got this working with WebClient. i read the documentation for the WebClient. A key point they make is

If the BaseAddress property is not an empty string ("") and address does not contain an absolute URI, address must be a relative URI that is combined with BaseAddress to form the absolute URI of the requested data. If the QueryString property is not an empty string, it is appended to address.

So all I did was wc.QueryString.Add("source", generatedImage) to add the different query parameters and somehow it matches the property name with the image I uploaded. Hope it helps

    public void postImageToFacebook(string generatedImage, string fbGraphUrl)
    {
        WebClient wc = new WebClient();
        byte[] bytes = System.IO.File.ReadAllBytes(generatedImage);

        wc.QueryString.Add("source", generatedImage);
        wc.QueryString.Add("message", "helloworld");

        wc.UploadFile(fbGraphUrl, generatedImage);

        wc.Dispose();

    }