How to send a “multipart/form-data” POST in Android with Volley

Question

Has anyone been able to accomplish sending a multipart/form-data POST in Android with Volley yet? I have had no success trying to upload an image/png

Answer 1

First answer on SO.

I have encountered the same problem and found @alex 's code very helpful. I have made some simple modifications in order to pass in as many parameters as needed through HashMap, and have basically copied parseNetworkResponse() from StringRequest. I have searched online and so surprised to find out that such a common task is so rarely answered. Anyway, I wish the code could help:

public class MultipartRequest extends Request<String> {

private MultipartEntity entity = new MultipartEntity();

private static final String FILE_PART_NAME = "image";

private final Response.Listener<String> mListener;
private final File file;
private final HashMap<String, String> params;

public MultipartRequest(String url, Response.Listener<String> listener, Response.ErrorListener errorListener, File file, HashMap<String, String> params)
{
    super(Method.POST, url, errorListener);

    mListener = listener;
    this.file = file;
    this.params = params;
    buildMultipartEntity();
}

private void buildMultipartEntity()
{
    entity.addPart(FILE_PART_NAME, new FileBody(file));
    try
    {
        for ( String key : params.keySet() ) {
            entity.addPart(key, new StringBody(params.get(key)));
        }
    }
    catch (UnsupportedEncodingException e)
    {
        VolleyLog.e("UnsupportedEncodingException");
    }
}

@Override
public String getBodyContentType()
{
    return entity.getContentType().getValue();
}

@Override
public byte[] getBody() throws AuthFailureError
{
    ByteArrayOutputStream bos = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
    try
    {
        entity.writeTo(bos);
    }
    catch (IOException e)
    {
        VolleyLog.e("IOException writing to ByteArrayOutputStream");
    }
    return bos.toByteArray();
}

/**
 * copied from Android StringRequest class
 */
@Override
protected Response<String> parseNetworkResponse(NetworkResponse response) {
    String parsed;
    try {
        parsed = new String(response.data, HttpHeaderParser.parseCharset(response.headers));
    } catch (UnsupportedEncodingException e) {
        parsed = new String(response.data);
    }
    return Response.success(parsed, HttpHeaderParser.parseCacheHeaders(response));
}

@Override
protected void deliverResponse(String response)
{
    mListener.onResponse(response);
}

And you may use the class as following:

    HashMap<String, String> params = new HashMap<String, String>();

    params.put("type", "Some Param");
    params.put("location", "Some Param");
    params.put("contact",  "Some Param");


    MultipartRequest mr = new MultipartRequest(url, new Response.Listener<String>(){

        @Override
        public void onResponse(String response) {
            Log.d("response", response);
        }

    }, new Response.ErrorListener(){

        @Override
        public void onErrorResponse(VolleyError error) {
            Log.e("Volley Request Error", error.getLocalizedMessage());
        }

    }, f, params);

    Volley.newRequestQueue(this).add(mr);

Answer 2

Here is Simple Solution And Complete Example for Uploading File Using Volley Android

1) Gradle Import

compile 'dev.dworks.libs:volleyplus:+'

2)Now Create a Class RequestManager

public class RequestManager {
    private static RequestManager mRequestManager;
    /**
     * Queue which Manages the Network Requests :-)
     */
    private static RequestQueue mRequestQueue;
    // ImageLoader Instance

    private RequestManager() {

    }

    public static RequestManager get(Context context) {

        if (mRequestManager == null)
            mRequestManager = new RequestManager();

        return mRequestManager;
    }

    /**
     * @param context application context
     */
    public static RequestQueue getnstance(Context context) {

        if (mRequestQueue == null) {
            mRequestQueue = Volley.newRequestQueue(context);
        }

        return mRequestQueue;

    }


}

3)Now Create a Class to handle Request for uploading File WebService

public class WebService {
    private RequestQueue mRequestQueue;
    private static WebService apiRequests = null;

    public static WebService getInstance() {
        if (apiRequests == null) {
            apiRequests = new WebService();
            return apiRequests;
        }
        return apiRequests;
    }
    public void updateProfile(Context context, String doc_name, String doc_type, String appliance_id, File file, Response.Listener<String> listener, Response.ErrorListener errorListener) {
        SimpleMultiPartRequest request = new SimpleMultiPartRequest(Request.Method.POST, "YOUR URL HERE", listener, errorListener);
//        request.setParams(data);
        mRequestQueue = RequestManager.getnstance(context);
        request.addMultipartParam("token", "text", "tdfysghfhsdfh");
        request.addMultipartParam("parameter_1", "text", doc_name);
        request.addMultipartParam("dparameter_2", "text", doc_type);
        request.addMultipartParam("parameter_3", "text", appliance_id);
            request.addFile("document_file", file.getPath());

        request.setFixedStreamingMode(true);
        mRequestQueue.add(request);
    }
}

4) And Now Call The method Like This to Hit the service

public class Main2Activity extends AppCompatActivity implements Response.ErrorListener, Response.Listener<String>{

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main2);
        Button button=(Button)findViewById(R.id.button);
        button.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
            @Override
            public void onClick(View v) {
                uploadData();
            }
        });
    }

    private void uploadData() {
        WebService.getInstance().updateProfile(getActivity(), "appl_doc", "appliance", "1", mChoosenFile, this, this);
    }

    @Override
    public void onErrorResponse(VolleyError error) {

    }

    @Override
    public void onResponse(String response) {
     //Your response here 
    }
}

Answer 3

A very simple approach for the dev who just want to send POST parameters in multipart request.

Make the following changes in class which extends Request.java

First define these constants :

String BOUNDARY = "s2retfgsGSRFsERFGHfgdfgw734yhFHW567TYHSrf4yarg"; //This the boundary which is used by the server to split the post parameters.
String MULTIPART_FORMDATA = "multipart/form-data;boundary=" + BOUNDARY;

Add a helper function to create a post body for you :

private String createPostBody(Map<String, String> params) {
        StringBuilder sbPost = new StringBuilder();
        if (params != null) {
            for (String key : params.keySet()) {
                if (params.get(key) != null) {
                    sbPost.append("\r\n" + "--" + BOUNDARY + "\r\n");
                    sbPost.append("Content-Disposition: form-data; name=\"" + key + "\"" + "\r\n\r\n");
                    sbPost.append(params.get(key).toString());
                }
            }
        }
        return sbPost.toString();
    } 

Override getBody() and getBodyContentType

public String getBodyContentType() {
    return MULTIPART_FORMDATA;
}

public byte[] getBody() throws AuthFailureError {
        return createPostBody(getParams()).getBytes();
}

Answer 4

Another solution, very light with high performance with payload large:

Android Asynchronous Http Client library: http://loopj.com/android-async-http/

private static AsyncHttpClient client = new AsyncHttpClient();

private void uploadFileExecute(File file) {

    RequestParams params = new RequestParams();

    try { params.put("photo", file); } catch (FileNotFoundException e) {}

    client.post(getUrl(), params,

        new AsyncHttpResponseHandler() {

            public void onSuccess(String result) {

                Log.d(TAG,"uploadFile response: "+result);

            };

            public void onFailure(Throwable arg0, String errorMsg) {

                Log.d(TAG,"uploadFile ERROR!");

            };

        }

    );

}

Answer 5

I might be wrong on this but I think you need to implement your own com.android.volley.toolbox.HttpStack for this because the default ones (HurlStack if version > Gingerbread or HttpClientStack) don't deal with multipart/form-data.

Edit:

And indeed I was wrong. I was able to do it using MultipartEntity in Request like this:

public class MultipartRequest extends Request<String> {

    private MultipartEntity entity = new MultipartEntity();

    private static final String FILE_PART_NAME = "file";
    private static final String STRING_PART_NAME = "text";

    private final Response.Listener<String> mListener;
    private final File mFilePart;
    private final String mStringPart;

    public MultipartRequest(String url, Response.ErrorListener errorListener, Response.Listener<String> listener, File file, String stringPart)
    {
        super(Method.POST, url, errorListener);

        mListener = listener;
        mFilePart = file;
        mStringPart = stringPart;
        buildMultipartEntity();
    }

    private void buildMultipartEntity()
    {
        entity.addPart(FILE_PART_NAME, new FileBody(mFilePart));
        try
        {
            entity.addPart(STRING_PART_NAME, new StringBody(mStringPart));
        }
        catch (UnsupportedEncodingException e)
        {
            VolleyLog.e("UnsupportedEncodingException");
        }
    }

    @Override
    public String getBodyContentType()
    {
        return entity.getContentType().getValue();
    }

    @Override
    public byte[] getBody() throws AuthFailureError
    {
        ByteArrayOutputStream bos = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
        try
        {
            entity.writeTo(bos);
        }
        catch (IOException e)
        {
            VolleyLog.e("IOException writing to ByteArrayOutputStream");
        }
        return bos.toByteArray();
    }

    @Override
    protected Response<String> parseNetworkResponse(NetworkResponse response)
    {
        return Response.success("Uploaded", getCacheEntry());
    }

    @Override
    protected void deliverResponse(String response)
    {
        mListener.onResponse(response);
    }
}

It's pretty raw but I tried it with an image and a simple string and it works. The response is a placeholder, doesn't make much sense to return a Response String in this case. I had problems using apache httpmime to use MultipartEntity so I used this https://code.google.com/p/httpclientandroidlib/ don't know if there's a better way. Hope it helps.

Edit

You can use httpmime without using httpclientandroidlib, the only dependency is httpcore.

Answer 6

As mentioned in the presentation at the I/O (about 4:05), Volley "is terrible" for large payloads. As I understand it that means not to use Volley for receiving/sending (big) files. Looking at the code it seems that it is not even designed to handle multipart form data (e.g. Request.java has getBodyContentType() with hardcoded "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"; HttpClientStack::createHttpRequest() can handle only byte[], etc...). Probably you will be able to create implementation that can handle multipart but If I were you I will just use HttpClient directly with MultipartEntity like:

    HttpPost req = new HttpPost(composeTargetUrl());
    MultipartEntity entity = new MultipartEntity();
    entity.addPart(POST_IMAGE_VAR_NAME, new FileBody(toUpload));
    try {
        entity.addPart(POST_SESSION_VAR_NAME, new StringBody(uploadSessionId));
    } catch (UnsupportedEncodingException e) {
        throw new RuntimeException(e);
    }
    req.setEntity(entity);

You may need newer HttpClient (i.e. not the built-in) or even better, use Volley with newer HttpClient