How do I send a file in Android from a mobile device to server using http?

Question

In android, how do I send a file(data) from a mobile device to server using http.

Answer 1

the most effective method is to use org.apache.http.entity.mime.MultipartEntity;

see this code from the link using org.apache.http.entity.mime.MultipartEntity;

public class SimplePostRequestTest3 {

  /**
   * @param args
   */
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    HttpClient httpclient = new DefaultHttpClient();
    HttpPost httppost = new HttpPost("http://localhost:8080/HTTP_TEST_APP/index.jsp");

    try {
      FileBody bin = new FileBody(new File("C:/ABC.txt"));
      StringBody comment = new StringBody("BETHECODER HttpClient Tutorials");

      MultipartEntity reqEntity = new MultipartEntity();
      reqEntity.addPart("fileup0", bin);
      reqEntity.addPart("fileup1", comment);

      reqEntity.addPart("ONE", new StringBody("11111111"));
      reqEntity.addPart("TWO", new StringBody("222222222"));
      httppost.setEntity(reqEntity);

      System.out.println("Requesting : " + httppost.getRequestLine());
      ResponseHandler<String> responseHandler = new BasicResponseHandler();
      String responseBody = httpclient.execute(httppost, responseHandler);

      System.out.println("responseBody : " + responseBody);

    } catch (UnsupportedEncodingException e) {
      e.printStackTrace();
    } catch (ClientProtocolException e) {
      e.printStackTrace();
    } catch (IOException e) {
      e.printStackTrace();
    } finally {
      httpclient.getConnectionManager().shutdown();
    }
  }

}

Added:

Example Link

Answer 2

Wrap it all up in an Async task to avoid threading errors.

public class AsyncHttpPostTask extends AsyncTask<File, Void, String> {

    private static final String TAG = AsyncHttpPostTask.class.getSimpleName();
    private String server;

    public AsyncHttpPostTask(final String server) {
        this.server = server;
    }

    @Override
    protected String doInBackground(File... params) {
        Log.d(TAG, "doInBackground");
        HttpClient http = AndroidHttpClient.newInstance("MyApp");
        HttpPost method = new HttpPost(this.server);
        method.setEntity(new FileEntity(params[0], "text/plain"));
        try {
            HttpResponse response = http.execute(method);
            BufferedReader rd = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(
                    response.getEntity().getContent()));
            final StringBuilder out = new StringBuilder();
            String line;
            try {
                while ((line = rd.readLine()) != null) {
                    out.append(line);
                }
            } catch (Exception e) {}
            // wr.close();
            try {
                rd.close();
            } catch (IOException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
            // final String serverResponse = slurp(is);
            Log.d(TAG, "serverResponse: " + out.toString());
        } catch (ClientProtocolException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        } catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
        return null;
    }
}

Answer 3

Easy, you can use a Post request and submit your file as binary (byte array).

String url = "http://yourserver";
File file = new File(Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory().getAbsolutePath(),
        "yourfile");
try {
    HttpClient httpclient = new DefaultHttpClient();

    HttpPost httppost = new HttpPost(url);

    InputStreamEntity reqEntity = new InputStreamEntity(
            new FileInputStream(file), -1);
    reqEntity.setContentType("binary/octet-stream");
    reqEntity.setChunked(true); // Send in multiple parts if needed
    httppost.setEntity(reqEntity);
    HttpResponse response = httpclient.execute(httppost);
    //Do something with response...

} catch (Exception e) {
    // show error
}

Answer 4

This can be done with a HTTP Post request to the server:

HttpClient http = AndroidHttpClient.newInstance("MyApp");
HttpPost method = new HttpPost("http://url-to-server");

method.setEntity(new FileEntity(new File("path-to-file"), "application/octet-stream"));

HttpResponse response = http.execute(method);

Answer 5

the most effective method is to use android-async-http

You can use this code to upload a file:

// gather your request parameters
File myFile = new File("/path/to/file.png");
RequestParams params = new RequestParams();
try {
    params.put("profile_picture", myFile);
} catch(FileNotFoundException e) {}

// send request
AsyncHttpClient client = new AsyncHttpClient();
client.post(url, params, new AsyncHttpResponseHandler() {
    @Override
    public void onSuccess(int statusCode, Header[] headers, byte[] bytes) {
        // handle success response
    }

    @Override
    public void onFailure(int statusCode, Header[] headers, byte[] bytes, Throwable throwable) {
        // handle failure response
    }
});

Note that you can put this code directly into your main Activity, no need to create a background Task explicitly. AsyncHttp will take care of that for you!