Upload a file through an HTTP form, via MultipartEntityBuilder, with a progress bar

Question

The short version - org.apache...MultipartEntity is deprecated, and its upgrade, MultipartEntityBuilder, appears under-represented

Answer 1

The winning code (in spectacular Java-Heresy(tm) style) is:

public static String postFile(String fileName, String userName, String password, String macAddress) throws Exception {

    HttpClient client = new DefaultHttpClient();
    HttpPost post = new HttpPost(SERVER + "uploadFile");
    MultipartEntityBuilder builder = MultipartEntityBuilder.create();        
    builder.setMode(HttpMultipartMode.BROWSER_COMPATIBLE);

    final File file = new File(fileName);
    FileBody fb = new FileBody(file);

    builder.addPart("file", fb);  
    builder.addTextBody("userName", userName);
    builder.addTextBody("password", password);
    builder.addTextBody("macAddress",  macAddress);
    final HttpEntity yourEntity = builder.build();

    class ProgressiveEntity implements HttpEntity {
        @Override
        public void consumeContent() throws IOException {
            yourEntity.consumeContent();                
        }
        @Override
        public InputStream getContent() throws IOException,
                IllegalStateException {
            return yourEntity.getContent();
        }
        @Override
        public Header getContentEncoding() {             
            return yourEntity.getContentEncoding();
        }
        @Override
        public long getContentLength() {
            return yourEntity.getContentLength();
        }
        @Override
        public Header getContentType() {
            return yourEntity.getContentType();
        }
        @Override
        public boolean isChunked() {             
            return yourEntity.isChunked();
        }
        @Override
        public boolean isRepeatable() {
            return yourEntity.isRepeatable();
        }
        @Override
        public boolean isStreaming() {             
            return yourEntity.isStreaming();
        } // CONSIDER put a _real_ delegator into here!

        @Override
        public void writeTo(OutputStream outstream) throws IOException {

            class ProxyOutputStream extends FilterOutputStream {
                /**
                 * @author Stephen Colebourne
                 */

                public ProxyOutputStream(OutputStream proxy) {
                    super(proxy);    
                }
                public void write(int idx) throws IOException {
                    out.write(idx);
                }
                public void write(byte[] bts) throws IOException {
                    out.write(bts);
                }
                public void write(byte[] bts, int st, int end) throws IOException {
                    out.write(bts, st, end);
                }
                public void flush() throws IOException {
                    out.flush();
                }
                public void close() throws IOException {
                    out.close();
                }
            } // CONSIDER import this class (and risk more Jar File Hell)

            class ProgressiveOutputStream extends ProxyOutputStream {
                public ProgressiveOutputStream(OutputStream proxy) {
                    super(proxy);
                }
                public void write(byte[] bts, int st, int end) throws IOException {

                    // FIXME  Put your progress bar stuff here!

                    out.write(bts, st, end);
                }
            }

            yourEntity.writeTo(new ProgressiveOutputStream(outstream));
        }

    };
    ProgressiveEntity myEntity = new ProgressiveEntity();

    post.setEntity(myEntity);
    HttpResponse response = client.execute(post);        

    return getContent(response);

} 

public static String getContent(HttpResponse response) throws IOException {
    BufferedReader rd = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(response.getEntity().getContent()));
    String body = "";
    String content = "";

    while ((body = rd.readLine()) != null) 
    {
        content += body + "\n";
    }
    return content.trim();
}

#  NOTE ADDED LATER: as this blasterpiece gets copied into various code lineages, 
#  The management reminds the peanut gallery that "Java-Heresy" crack was there
#  for a reason, and (as commented) most of that stuff can be farmed out to off-
#  the-shelf jar files and what-not. That's for the java lifers to tool up. This
#  pristine hack shall remain obviousized for education, and for use in a pinch.

#  What are the odds??

Answer 2

first of all: huge thanks for the original question/answer. Since HttpPost is now deprecated, I reworked it a bit though, using additional input from this article and made a micro library of it: https://github.com/licryle/HTTPPoster

It wraps the whole in an ASync task; uses the MultipartEntityBuilder & HttpURLConnection and let's you listen for callbacks.

To use:

1. Download & extract
2. In your build.gradle Module file, add the dependency:

dependencies 
{    
     compile project(':libs:HTTPPoster') 
}

3. You need a class to implement the HttpListener interface so you can listen to the callbacks. It has four callbacks in HTTPListener:

   • onStartTransfer
   • onProgress
   • onFailure
   • onResponse

4. Configure the ASyncTask & start it. Here's a quick usage:

HashMap<String, String> mArgs = new HashMap<>();
mArgs.put("lat", "40.712784");
mArgs.put("lon", "-74.005941");

ArrayList<File> aFileList = getMyImageFiles();

HttpConfiguration mConf = new HttpConfiguration(
    "http://example.org/HttpPostEndPoint",
    mArgs,
    aFileList,
    this, // If this class implements HttpListener
    null,  // Boundary for Entities - Optional
    15000  // Timeout in ms for the connection operation
    10000, // Timeout in ms for the reading operation
);

new HttpPoster().execute(mConf);

hope that can help :) Feel also free to suggest improvements! It's very recent, and I extend it as I need it.

Cheers

Answer 3

Cant thank Phlip enough for that solution. Here are the final touches for adding your progressbar support. I ran it inside an AsyncTask - progress below enables you to post the progress back to a method in the AsyncTask that invokes AsyncTask.publishProgress() for your class running in the AsyncTask. The progress bar isn't exactly smooth but at least it moves. On a Samsung S4 uploading a 4MB imagefile after the preamble it was moving 4K chunks.

     class ProgressiveOutputStream extends ProxyOutputStream {
            long totalSent;
            public ProgressiveOutputStream(OutputStream proxy) {
                   super(proxy);
                   totalSent = 0;
            }

            public void write(byte[] bts, int st, int end) throws IOException {

            // FIXME  Put your progress bar stuff here!
            // end is the amount being sent this time
            // st is always zero and end=bts.length()

                 totalSent += end;
                 progress.publish((int) ((totalSent / (float) totalSize) * 100));
                 out.write(bts, st, end);
            }