How to send multipart/form-data request using Postman

Question

I am currently using the Chrome Addon Postman - REST Client to easily create POST / GET request.

Now I want to debug an upload script and I am looking for a way to make requests encoded as "multipart/form-data" so that I can send also a file.

Here is quick 2 minute video tutorial https://youtu.be/sFlPa_Vow3w — VedantK, Aug 22 '21 at 11:49

Valentin Despa · Accepted Answer · 2021-08-23T14:21:14.803

1838

UPDATE: I have created a video on sending multipart/form-data requests to explain this better.

Actually, Postman can do this.

Full example:

You DON'T need to add any headers, Postman will do this for you automatically.

Make sure you check the comment from @maxkoryukov

Be careful with explicit Content-Type header. Better - do not set it's value, the Postman is smart enough to fill this header for you. BUT, if you want to set the Content-Type: multipart/form-data - do not forget about boundary field.

edited Aug 23 '21 at 14:21

answered Apr 15 '13 at 18:26

Valentin Despa

40,712
18
80
106

13

postman's form-data params sometimes doesn't get into my Laravel API's REST methods. Not sure why. – Lotus Dec 08 '13 at 17:17
@Valentin, I tried this with the localhost on Google App Engine (Python 2.7), but it threw a internal server error (500). Is there something else you had to do to get it to work? – Diode Dan Jan 24 '14 at 02:41
Google App Engine gave the internal server error? – Valentin Despa Jan 24 '14 at 10:56
@YonatanNir You must select POST, instead of the pre-selected GET method. – Valentin Despa Oct 07 '15 at 16:57
I did. When selecting POST it added an option to send a header and body. The body has 3 tabs: Raw, Form, Files. In the form tab you can add key-values for parameters but the files are in a separate tab and there is no option to allocate them to a parameter. – CodeMonkey Oct 07 '15 at 17:46
@YonatanNir I have added a newer screenshot with a recent Postman version. Hope this helps. – Valentin Despa Oct 07 '15 at 18:17
7

Error `"There is no multipart/form-data content in request"` – Jemshit Nov 23 '15 at 13:09
It isn't working with PUT request – mohit Mar 02 '16 at 10:44
77

Be careful with explicit **`Content-Type`** header. Better - do not set it's value, the Postman is smart enough to fill this header for you. **BUT**, if you want to set the `Content-Type: multipart/form-data` - do not forget about **boudary** field. – maxkoryukov Aug 21 '16 at 02:52
2

@maxkoryukov Thank your for your comments. My API was not working at all while I was trying multipart file upload using Postman client. Suddenly I came across your comments and this literally save my ass :). But, could you explain more on the `boundary` field. I know that postman adds boundary on its own. How do I do it manually? :) – Adithya Upadhya Jan 02 '17 at 11:19
2

@oathkeeper, here is a good enough explanation of **boundary**: http://stackoverflow.com/a/20321259/1115187 In two words: you could set *boundary* manually and there are couple of simple rules. – maxkoryukov Jan 02 '17 at 14:07
In my case, I have to change "fileName" to "file" for my Ruby on Rails server. – Michael Wang Jan 19 '17 at 04:37
Really Helpful. – Asim Khan Nov 08 '17 at 08:00
2

Remember that you have to explicitly type a key name. E.g. "file". Otherwise it doesn't work. – NickBeaugié Mar 19 '18 at 09:40
Yes, you are right. Perhaps you's remind user to remove "Content-Type" header explicitly. Otherwise I get this error: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/17415084/multipart-data-post-using-python-requests-no-multipart-boundary-was-found – Leon Apr 18 '18 at 07:49
heads up that in Postman 7.1.0, I had to manually enter text in the "Key" column, as leaving it blank kept giving me an error. – Ryan Lee Simms May 17 '19 at 20:46
2

Did you really upload a 28 min video for this? – Ozgur Akcali Jun 12 '19 at 15:46
Useful info, thanks... Sometimes we have to set it manually.. In my case I have to change from text to json – Lukman Sep 04 '21 at 16:27
@ValentinDespa, what if we want to send image and a text simultaneously? What do we do then. – Sunil Shah Jan 06 '22 at 13:27
@SunilShah add another key with the next and set the proper content type – Valentin Despa Jan 07 '22 at 05:50

score 250 · Answer 2 · edited Jul 16 '19 at 19:49

250

The usual error is one tries to put Content-Type: {multipart/form-data} into the header of the post request. That will fail, it is best to let Postman do it for you. For example:

Suggestion To Load Via Postman

Fails If In Header

Works

edited Jul 16 '19 at 19:49

ΩmegaMan

29,542
12
100
122

answered Jan 03 '17 at 03:25

Hung Vu

5,624
2
30
27

26

Nice tip about leaving out the "Content-Type" header! – peter Jan 26 '17 at 21:45
6

Removing Content-Type fixed my issue with exception: javax.servlet.ServletException: org.jvnet.mimepull.MIMEParsingException: Missing start boundary THANK YOU – Marcin Mikołajczyk Mar 03 '17 at 07:44
be sure to set the key that you have set in your multer configuration – ofir_aghai Apr 03 '17 at 00:52
2

Not removing the default header will cause all sorts of issues. – Vahid Amiri Apr 19 '17 at 05:11
Why does removing the Content-Type work? Isn't there a way to do it manually? – clodal Aug 21 '17 at 11:32
Auto population of Content-Type header ate my day. Thanks for the tip to remove it! – dev_in_prog Nov 21 '17 at 22:35
1

For me does not work – POV Dec 07 '18 at 22:15
1

@Hung removing header solved my problem – Sachin Kumar Mar 16 '19 at 18:20
Thanks it works @Hung Vu – vinay kumar Apr 28 '20 at 21:51
How can I access the request body in the server? like to console.log() the values passed. When I do req.body.value its undefined – d0rf47 May 25 '20 at 00:46
I am getting the multipart file as null in my java code. What I am missing ? any suggestion ? – JDGuide Dec 28 '20 at 10:20

How to send multipart/form-data request using Postman

2 Answers2

Linked