Working POST Multipart Request with Volley and without HttpEntity

Question

This is not really a question, however, I would like to share some of my working code here for your reference when you need.

As we know that HttpEntity

Answer 1

Just want to add to the answer. I was trying to figure how to append text fields to the body and created the following function to do it:

private void buildTextPart(DataOutputStream dataOutputStream, String parameterName, String parameterValue) throws IOException {
    dataOutputStream.writeBytes(twoHyphens + boundary + lineEnd);
    dataOutputStream.writeBytes("Content-Disposition: form-data; name=\"" + parameterName + "\"" + lineEnd);
    dataOutputStream.writeBytes("Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8" + lineEnd);
    dataOutputStream.writeBytes(lineEnd);
    dataOutputStream.writeBytes(parameterValue + lineEnd);
}

It is working pretty well.

Answer 2

I found a wrapper of the original volley library which is easier to integrate for multi-part requests. It also supports uploading the multi-part data along with other request parameters. Hence I am sharing my code for the future developers who might run into the problem that I was having (i.e. uploading multi-part data using volley along with some other parameters).

Add the following library in the build.gradle file.

dependencies {
    compile 'dev.dworks.libs:volleyplus:+'
}

Please note that, I removed the original volley library from my build.gradle and used the above library instead which can handle both multi-part and normal requests having similar integration technique.

Then I just had to write the following class which handles the POST request operation.

public class POSTMediasTask {
    public void uploadMedia(final Context context, String filePath) {

        String url = getUrlForPOSTMedia(); // This is a dummy function which returns the POST url for you
        SimpleMultiPartRequest multiPartRequestWithParams = new SimpleMultiPartRequest(Request.Method.POST, url,
                new Response.Listener<String>() {
                    @Override
                    public void onResponse(String response) {
                        Log.d("Response", response);
                        // TODO: Do something on success
                    }
                }, new Response.ErrorListener() {
            @Override
            public void onErrorResponse(VolleyError error) {
                // TODO: Handle your error here
            }
        });

        // Add the file here
        multiPartRequestWithParams.addFile("file", filePath);

        // Add the params here
        multiPartRequestWithParams.addStringParam("param1", "SomeParamValue1");
        multiPartRequestWithParams.addStringParam("param2", "SomeParamValue2");

        RequestQueue queue = Volley.newRequestQueue(context);
        queue.add(multiPartRequestWithParams);
    }
}

Now execute the task like the following.

new POSTMediasTask().uploadMedia(context, mediaPath);

You can upload one file at a time using this library. However, I could manage to upload multiple files, just by initiating multiple tasks.

Hope that helps!

Answer 3

I rewrite your code @RacZo and @BNK more modular and easy to use like

VolleyMultipartRequest multipartRequest = new VolleyMultipartRequest(Request.Method.POST, url, new Response.Listener<NetworkResponse>() {
    @Override
    public void onResponse(NetworkResponse response) {
        String resultResponse = new String(response.data);
        // parse success output
    }
}, new Response.ErrorListener() {
    @Override
    public void onErrorResponse(VolleyError error) {                
        error.printStackTrace();
    }
}) {
    @Override
    protected Map<String, String> getParams() {
        Map<String, String> params = new HashMap<>();
        params.put("api_token", "gh659gjhvdyudo973823tt9gvjf7i6ric75r76");
        params.put("name", "Angga");
        params.put("location", "Indonesia");
        params.put("about", "UI/UX Designer");
        params.put("contact", "angga@email.com");
        return params;
    }

    @Override
    protected Map<String, DataPart> getByteData() {
        Map<String, DataPart> params = new HashMap<>();
        // file name could found file base or direct access from real path
        // for now just get bitmap data from ImageView
        params.put("avatar", new DataPart("file_avatar.jpg", AppHelper.getFileDataFromDrawable(getBaseContext(), mAvatarImage.getDrawable()), "image/jpeg"));
        params.put("cover", new DataPart("file_cover.jpg", AppHelper.getFileDataFromDrawable(getBaseContext(), mCoverImage.getDrawable()), "image/jpeg"));

        return params;
    }
};

VolleySingleton.getInstance(getBaseContext()).addToRequestQueue(multipartRequest);

Check full of code VolleyMultipartRequest at my gist.

Answer 4

For those who are struggling to send utf-8 parameters and still no luck, the problem I had was in the dataOutputStream, and change the code of @RacZo to below code:

private void buildTextPart(DataOutputStream dataOutputStream, String parameterName, String parameterValue) throws IOException {
        dataOutputStream.writeBytes(twoHyphens + boundary + lineEnd);
        dataOutputStream.writeBytes("Content-Disposition: form-data; name=\"");
        dataOutputStream.write(parameterName.getBytes("UTF-8"));
        dataOutputStream.writeBytes(lineEnd);
        dataOutputStream.writeBytes("Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8" + lineEnd);
        dataOutputStream.writeBytes(lineEnd);
        dataOutputStream.write(parameterValue.getBytes("UTF-8"));
        dataOutputStream.writeBytes(lineEnd);
    } 

Answer 5

Here is a Kotlin version of a class allowing multipart request with Volley 1.1.1.

It's mostly based on @BNK's solution but slighly simplified. I did not notice any particular performance issue. I uploaded a 5Mb pic in about 3 seconds.

class MultipartWebservice(context: Context) {

    private var queue: RequestQueue? = null

    private val boundary = "apiclient-" + System.currentTimeMillis()
    private val mimeType = "multipart/form-data;boundary=$boundary"

    init {
        queue = Volley.newRequestQueue(context)
    }

    fun sendMultipartRequest(
        method: Int,
        url: String,
        fileData: ByteArray,
        fileName: String,
        listener: Response.Listener<NetworkResponse>,
        errorListener: Response.ErrorListener
    ) {

        // Create multi part byte array
        val bos = ByteArrayOutputStream()
        val dos = DataOutputStream(bos)
        buildMultipartContent(dos, fileData, fileName)
        val multipartBody = bos.toByteArray()

        // Request header, if needed
        val headers = HashMap<String, String>()
        headers["API-TOKEN"] = "458e126682d577c97d225bbd73a75b5989f65e977b6d8d4b2267537019ad9d20"

        val request = MultipartRequest(
            method,
            url,
            errorListener,
            listener,
            headers,
            mimeType,
            multipartBody
        )

        queue?.add(request)

    }

    @Throws(IOException::class)
    private fun buildMultipartContent(dos: DataOutputStream, fileData: ByteArray, fileName: String) {

        val twoHyphens = "--"
        val lineEnd = "\r\n"

        dos.writeBytes(twoHyphens + boundary + lineEnd)
        dos.writeBytes("Content-Disposition: form-data; name=\"file\"; filename=\"$fileName\"$lineEnd")
        dos.writeBytes(lineEnd)
        dos.write(fileData)
        dos.writeBytes(lineEnd)
        dos.writeBytes(twoHyphens + boundary + twoHyphens + lineEnd)
    }

    class MultipartRequest(
        method: Int,
        url: String,
        errorListener: Response.ErrorListener?,
        private var listener: Response.Listener<NetworkResponse>,
        private var headers: MutableMap<String, String>,
        private var mimeType: String,
        private var multipartBody: ByteArray
    ) : Request<NetworkResponse>(method, url, errorListener) {

        override fun getHeaders(): MutableMap<String, String> {
            return if (headers.isEmpty()) super.getHeaders() else headers
        }

        override fun getBodyContentType(): String {
            return mimeType
        }

        override fun getBody(): ByteArray {
            return multipartBody
        }

        override fun parseNetworkResponse(response: NetworkResponse?): Response<NetworkResponse> {
            return try {
                Response.success(response, HttpHeaderParser.parseCacheHeaders(response))
            } catch (e: Exception) {
                Response.error(ParseError(e))
            }
        }

        override fun deliverResponse(response: NetworkResponse?) {
            listener.onResponse(response)
        }
    }
}