How to upload a file using Java HttpClient library working with PHP

Question

I want to write Java application that will upload a file to the Apache server with PHP. The Java code uses Jakarta HttpClient library version 4.0 beta2:

import java.io.File;
import org.apache.http.HttpEntity;
import org.apache.http.HttpResponse;
import org.apache.http.HttpVersion;
import org.apache.http.client.HttpClient;
import org.apache.http.client.methods.HttpPost;
import org.apache.http.entity.FileEntity;
import org.apache.http.impl.client.DefaultHttpClient;
import org.apache.http.params.CoreProtocolPNames;
import org.apache.http.util.EntityUtils;


public class PostFile {
  public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
    HttpClient httpclient = new DefaultHttpClient();
    httpclient.getParams().setParameter(CoreProtocolPNames.PROTOCOL_VERSION, HttpVersion.HTTP_1_1);

    HttpPost httppost = new HttpPost("http://localhost:9002/upload.php");
    File file = new File("c:/TRASH/zaba_1.jpg");

    FileEntity reqEntity = new FileEntity(file, "binary/octet-stream");

    httppost.setEntity(reqEntity);
    reqEntity.setContentType("binary/octet-stream");
    System.out.println("executing request " + httppost.getRequestLine());
    HttpResponse response = httpclient.execute(httppost);
    HttpEntity resEntity = response.getEntity();

    System.out.println(response.getStatusLine());
    if (resEntity != null) {
      System.out.println(EntityUtils.toString(resEntity));
    }
    if (resEntity != null) {
      resEntity.consumeContent();
    }

    httpclient.getConnectionManager().shutdown();
  }
}

The PHP file upload.php is very simple:

<?php
if (is_uploaded_file($_FILES['userfile']['tmp_name'])) {
  echo "File ". $_FILES['userfile']['name'] ." uploaded successfully.\n";
  move_uploaded_file ($_FILES['userfile'] ['tmp_name'], $_FILES['userfile'] ['name']);
} else {
  echo "Possible file upload attack: ";
  echo "filename '". $_FILES['userfile']['tmp_name'] . "'.";
  print_r($_FILES);
}
?>

Reading the response I get the following result:

executing request POST http://localhost:9002/upload.php HTTP/1.1

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Possible file upload attack: filename ''.
Array
(
)

So the request was successful, I was able to communicate with server, however PHP didn't notice the file - the method is_uploaded_file returned false and $_FILES variable is empty. I have no idea why this might happend. I have tracked HTTP response and request and they look ok:
request is:

POST /upload.php HTTP/1.1
Content-Length: 13091
Content-Type: binary/octet-stream
Host: localhost:9002
Connection: Keep-Alive
User-Agent: Apache-HttpClient/4.0-beta2 (java 1.5)
Expect: 100-Continue

˙Ř˙ŕ..... the rest of the binary file...

and response:

HTTP/1.1 100 Continue

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Wed, 01 Jul 2009 06:51:57 GMT
Server: Apache/2.2.8 (Win32) DAV/2 mod_ssl/2.2.8 OpenSSL/0.9.8g mod_autoindex_color PHP/5.2.5 mod_jk/1.2.26
X-Powered-By: PHP/5.2.5
Content-Length: 51
Keep-Alive: timeout=5, max=100
Connection: Keep-Alive
Content-Type: text/html

Possible file upload attack: filename ''.Array
(
)

I was testing this both on the local windows xp with xampp and remote Linux server. I have also tried to use previous version of HttpClient - version 3.1 - and the result was even more unclear, is_uploaded_file returned false, however $_FILES array was filled with proper data.

@PranjalCholadhara so which class should be used instead of DefaultHttpClient() as it is deprecated? — Pruthvi Chitrala, Nov 26 '19 at 12:41

score 66 · Accepted Answer · edited Jul 01 '09 at 10:29

Ok, the Java code I used was wrong, here comes the right Java class:

import java.io.File;
import org.apache.http.HttpEntity;
import org.apache.http.HttpResponse;
import org.apache.http.HttpVersion;
import org.apache.http.client.HttpClient;
import org.apache.http.client.methods.HttpPost;
import org.apache.http.entity.mime.MultipartEntity;
import org.apache.http.entity.mime.content.ContentBody;
import org.apache.http.entity.mime.content.FileBody;
import org.apache.http.impl.client.DefaultHttpClient;
import org.apache.http.params.CoreProtocolPNames;
import org.apache.http.util.EntityUtils;


public class PostFile {
  public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
    HttpClient httpclient = new DefaultHttpClient();
    httpclient.getParams().setParameter(CoreProtocolPNames.PROTOCOL_VERSION, HttpVersion.HTTP_1_1);

    HttpPost httppost = new HttpPost("http://localhost:9001/upload.php");
    File file = new File("c:/TRASH/zaba_1.jpg");

    MultipartEntity mpEntity = new MultipartEntity();
    ContentBody cbFile = new FileBody(file, "image/jpeg");
    mpEntity.addPart("userfile", cbFile);


    httppost.setEntity(mpEntity);
    System.out.println("executing request " + httppost.getRequestLine());
    HttpResponse response = httpclient.execute(httppost);
    HttpEntity resEntity = response.getEntity();

    System.out.println(response.getStatusLine());
    if (resEntity != null) {
      System.out.println(EntityUtils.toString(resEntity));
    }
    if (resEntity != null) {
      resEntity.consumeContent();
    }

    httpclient.getConnectionManager().shutdown();
  }
}

note using MultipartEntity.

Which new, supported version(s) of HttpComponents (i.e. hc.apache.org NOT HttpClient-3.1) is this supported by? I get the error message: "The type org.apache.james.mime4j.message.SingleBody cannot be resolved. It is indirectly referenced from required .class files" — therobyouknow, Feb 17 '10 at 16:13
Answer: HttpClient 4.1-alpha1 and HttpCore 4.1-alpha1 from http://hc.apache.org/downloads.cgi - the supported Apache HttpComponents Java code. With these, that error message goes away :) — therobyouknow, Feb 17 '10 at 16:37
I'm using 4.2 and I don't have `mime` package. Was it changed ? — expert, Aug 14 '13 at 02:36
Apache HttpComponents MIME features can be found in group:artifact `org.apache.httpcomponents:httpmime`. — Jacob Zwiers, Aug 26 '13 at 16:27

score 30 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 06 '14 at 05:00

An update for those trying to use MultipartEntity...

org.apache.http.entity.mime.MultipartEntity is deprecated in 4.3.1.

You can use MultipartEntityBuilder to create the HttpEntity object.

File file = new File();

HttpEntity httpEntity = MultipartEntityBuilder.create()
    .addBinaryBody("file", file, ContentType.create("image/jpeg"), file.getName())
    .build();

For Maven users the class is available in the following dependency (almost the same as fervisa's answer, just with a later version).

<dependency>
  <groupId>org.apache.httpcomponents</groupId>
  <artifactId>httpmime</artifactId>
  <version>4.3.1</version>
</dependency>

Maybe you should update accepted answer and improve it. – Halil Mar 03 '17 at 08:45 — Halil, Mar 03 '17 at 08:45

score 3 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 01 '09 at 07:14

3

The correct way will be to use multipart POST method. See here for example code for the client.

For PHP there are many tutorials available. This is the first I've found. I recommend that you test the PHP code first using an html client and then try the java client.

answered Jul 01 '09 at 07:14

kgiannakakis

103,016
27
158
194

I was trying to use the method you propose, i.e. HttpClient v. 3.1 and still is_uploaded_file returned false, however this time $_FILES array was filled with proper data, what puzzeled me even more. BTW. The upload is working on the server, I've tested my upload.php file using simple html form. – Piotr Kochański Jul 01 '09 at 07:52

score 3 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 09 '13 at 00:58

3

I ran into the same problem and found out that the file name is required for httpclient 4.x to be working with PHP backend. It was not the case for httpclient 3.x.

So my solution is to add a name parameter in the FileBody constructor. ContentBody cbFile = new FileBody(file, "image/jpeg", "FILE_NAME");

Hope it helps.

answered Nov 09 '13 at 00:58

gaojun1000

69
2

Thanks for the help. That saved me. But the constructor which should be used is the one which takes 4 arguments. new FileBody(file,file.getName(),"application/octet-stream","UTF-8"); The 3 argument constructor takes mimetype as third argument, not name. – MTilsted Jan 10 '14 at 22:08

score 2 · Answer 5 · edited Feb 24 '16 at 07:09

A newer version example is here.

Below is a copy of the original code:

/*
 * ====================================================================
 * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
 * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
 * distributed with this work for additional information
 * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
 * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
 * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
 * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
 *
 *   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 *
 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
 * software distributed under the License is distributed on an
 * "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
 * KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
 * specific language governing permissions and limitations
 * under the License.
 * ====================================================================
 *
 * This software consists of voluntary contributions made by many
 * individuals on behalf of the Apache Software Foundation.  For more
 * information on the Apache Software Foundation, please see
 * <http://www.apache.org/>.
 *
 */
package org.apache.http.examples.entity.mime;

import java.io.File;

import org.apache.http.HttpEntity;
import org.apache.http.client.methods.CloseableHttpResponse;
import org.apache.http.client.methods.HttpPost;
import org.apache.http.entity.ContentType;
import org.apache.http.entity.mime.MultipartEntityBuilder;
import org.apache.http.entity.mime.content.FileBody;
import org.apache.http.entity.mime.content.StringBody;
import org.apache.http.impl.client.CloseableHttpClient;
import org.apache.http.impl.client.HttpClients;
import org.apache.http.util.EntityUtils;

/**
 * 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();
        }
    }

}

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Aug 14 '14 at 13:18

There is my working solution for sending image with post, using apache http libraries (very important here is boundary add It won't work without it in my connection):

            ByteArrayOutputStream baos = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
            bitmap.compress(Bitmap.CompressFormat.PNG, 100, baos);
            byte[] imageBytes = baos.toByteArray();

            HttpClient httpclient = new DefaultHttpClient();
            HttpPost httpPost = new HttpPost(StaticData.AMBAJE_SERVER_URL + StaticData.AMBAJE_ADD_AMBAJ_TO_GROUP);

            String boundary = "-------------" + System.currentTimeMillis();

            httpPost.setHeader("Content-type", "multipart/form-data; boundary="+boundary);

            ByteArrayBody bab = new ByteArrayBody(imageBytes, "pic.png");
            StringBody sbOwner = new StringBody(StaticData.loggedUserId, ContentType.TEXT_PLAIN);
            StringBody sbGroup = new StringBody("group", ContentType.TEXT_PLAIN);

            HttpEntity entity = MultipartEntityBuilder.create()
                    .setMode(HttpMultipartMode.BROWSER_COMPATIBLE)
                    .setBoundary(boundary)
                    .addPart("group", sbGroup)
                    .addPart("owner", sbOwner)
                    .addPart("image", bab)
                    .build();

            httpPost.setEntity(entity);

            try {
                HttpResponse response = httpclient.execute(httpPost);
                ...then reading response

score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Nov 24 '14 at 09:51

1

Aah you just need to add a name parameter in the

FileBody constructor. ContentBody cbFile = new FileBody(file, "image/jpeg", "FILE_NAME");

Hope it helps.

answered Nov 24 '14 at 09:51

score 1 · Answer 8 · answered Jun 09 '16 at 11:55

I knew I am late to the party but below is the correct way to deal with this, the key is to use InputStreamBody in place of FileBody to upload multi-part file.

   try {
        HttpClient httpclient = new DefaultHttpClient();
        HttpPost postRequest = new HttpPost("https://someserver.com/api/path/");
        postRequest.addHeader("Authorization",authHeader);
        //don't set the content type here            
        //postRequest.addHeader("Content-Type","multipart/form-data");
        MultipartEntity reqEntity = new MultipartEntity(HttpMultipartMode.BROWSER_COMPATIBLE);


        File file = new File(filePath);
        FileInputStream fileInputStream = new FileInputStream(file);
        reqEntity.addPart("parm-name", new InputStreamBody(fileInputStream,"image/jpeg","file_name.jpg"));

        postRequest.setEntity(reqEntity);
        HttpResponse response = httpclient.execute(postRequest);

        }catch(Exception e) {
            Log.e("URISyntaxException", e.toString());
   }

score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Jul 01 '09 at 07:13

0

If you are testing this on your local WAMP you might need to set up the temporary folder for file uploads. You can do this in your PHP.ini file:

upload_tmp_dir = "c:\mypath\mytempfolder\"

You will need to grant permissions on the folder to allow the upload to take place - the permission you need to grant vary based on your operating system.

answered Jul 01 '09 at 07:13

Fenton

241,084
71
387
401

tmp folder is set. The upload is working on the server, I've tested my upload.php file using simple html form. – Piotr Kochański Jul 01 '09 at 07:49
can you please tell me how to write server code in java for receiving the httpclient request – Aswan Apr 21 '10 at 08:35

score 0 · Answer 10 · answered Aug 27 '13 at 16:59

For those having a hard time implementing the accepted answer (which requires org.apache.http.entity.mime.MultipartEntity) you may be using org.apache.httpcomponents 4.2.* In this case, you have to explicitly install httpmime dependency, in my case:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.apache.httpcomponents</groupId>
    <artifactId>httpmime</artifactId>
    <version>4.2.5</version>
</dependency>

How to upload a file using Java HttpClient library working with PHP

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