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

httpcomponents-client-4.0.1 worked for me. However, I had to add the external jar apache-mime4j-0.6.jar (org.apache.james.mime4j) otherwise reqEntity.addPart("bin", bin); would not compile. Now it's working like charm.

Answer 2

You can also use REST Assured which builds on HTTP Client. It's very simple:

given().multiPart(new File("/somedir/file.bin")).when().post("/fileUpload");

Answer 3

These are the Maven dependencies I have.

Java Code:

HttpClient httpclient = new DefaultHttpClient();
HttpPost httpPost = new HttpPost(url);

FileBody uploadFilePart = new FileBody(uploadFile);
MultipartEntity reqEntity = new MultipartEntity();
reqEntity.addPart("upload-file", uploadFilePart);
httpPost.setEntity(reqEntity);

HttpResponse response = httpclient.execute(httpPost);

Maven Dependencies in pom.xml:

<dependency>
  <groupId>org.apache.httpcomponents</groupId>
  <artifactId>httpclient</artifactId>
  <version>4.0.1</version>
  <scope>compile</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
  <groupId>org.apache.httpcomponents</groupId>
  <artifactId>httpmime</artifactId>
  <version>4.0.1</version>
  <scope>compile</scope>
</dependency>

Answer 4

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

Answer 5

My code post multipartFile to server.

  public static HttpResponse doPost(
    String host,
    String path,
    String method,
    MultipartFile multipartFile
  ) throws IOException
  {

    HttpClient httpClient = wrapClient(host);
    HttpPost httpPost = new HttpPost(buildUrl(host, path));

    if (multipartFile != null) {

      HttpEntity httpEntity;

      ContentBody contentBody;
      contentBody = new ByteArrayBody(multipartFile.getBytes(), multipartFile.getOriginalFilename());
      httpEntity = MultipartEntityBuilder.create()
                                         .addPart("nameOfMultipartFile", contentBody)
                                         .build();

      httpPost.setEntity(httpEntity);

    }
    return httpClient.execute(httpPost);
  }

Answer 6

I found this sample in Apache's Quickstart Guide. It's for version 4.5:

/**
 * Example how to use multipart/form encoded POST request.
 */
public class ClientMultipartFormPost {

    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        if (args.length != 1)  {
            System.out.println("File path not given");
            System.exit(1);
        }
        CloseableHttpClient httpclient = HttpClients.createDefault();
        try {
            HttpPost httppost = new HttpPost("http://localhost:8080" +
                    "/servlets-examples/servlet/RequestInfoExample");

            FileBody bin = new FileBody(new File(args[0]));
            StringBody comment = new StringBody("A binary file of some kind", ContentType.TEXT_PLAIN);

            HttpEntity reqEntity = MultipartEntityBuilder.create()
                    .addPart("bin", bin)
                    .addPart("comment", comment)
                    .build();


            httppost.setEntity(reqEntity);

            System.out.println("executing request " + httppost.getRequestLine());
            CloseableHttpResponse response = httpclient.execute(httppost);
            try {
                System.out.println("----------------------------------------");
                System.out.println(response.getStatusLine());
                HttpEntity resEntity = response.getEntity();
                if (resEntity != null) {
                    System.out.println("Response content length: " + resEntity.getContentLength());
                }
                EntityUtils.consume(resEntity);
            } finally {
                response.close();
            }
        } finally {
            httpclient.close();
        }
    }
}