Upload files with HTTPWebrequest (multipart/form-data)
I was looking for something like this, Found in : http://bytes.com/groups/net-c/268661-how-upload-file-via-c-code (modified for correctness):
public static string UploadFilesToRemoteUrl(string url, string[] files, NameValueCollection formFields = null)
{
string boundary = "----------------------------" + DateTime.Now.Ticks.ToString("x");
HttpWebRequest request = (HttpWebRequest) WebRequest.Create(url);
request.ContentType = "multipart/form-data; boundary=" +
boundary;
request.Method = "POST";
request.KeepAlive = true;
Stream memStream = new System.IO.MemoryStream();
var boundarybytes = System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes("\r\n--" +
boundary + "\r\n");
var endBoundaryBytes = System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes("\r\n--" +
boundary + "--");
string formdataTemplate = "\r\n--" + boundary +
"\r\nContent-Disposition: form-data; name=\"{0}\";\r\n\r\n{1}";
if (formFields != null)
{
foreach (string key in formFields.Keys)
{
string formitem = string.Format(formdataTemplate, key, formFields[key]);
byte[] formitembytes = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(formitem);
memStream.Write(formitembytes, 0, formitembytes.Length);
}
}
string headerTemplate =
"Content-Disposition: form-data; name=\"{0}\"; filename=\"{1}\"\r\n" +
"Content-Type: application/octet-stream\r\n\r\n";
for (int i = 0; i < files.Length; i++)
{
memStream.Write(boundarybytes, 0, boundarybytes.Length);
var header = string.Format(headerTemplate, "uplTheFile", files[i]);
var headerbytes = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(header);
memStream.Write(headerbytes, 0, headerbytes.Length);
using (var fileStream = new FileStream(files[i], FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read))
{
var buffer = new byte[1024];
var bytesRead = 0;
while ((bytesRead = fileStream.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length)) != 0)
{
memStream.Write(buffer, 0, bytesRead);
}
}
}
memStream.Write(endBoundaryBytes, 0, endBoundaryBytes.Length);
request.ContentLength = memStream.Length;
using (Stream requestStream = request.GetRequestStream())
{
memStream.Position = 0;
byte[] tempBuffer = new byte[memStream.Length];
memStream.Read(tempBuffer, 0, tempBuffer.Length);
memStream.Close();
requestStream.Write(tempBuffer, 0, tempBuffer.Length);
}
using (var response = request.GetResponse())
{
Stream stream2 = response.GetResponseStream();
StreamReader reader2 = new StreamReader(stream2);
return reader2.ReadToEnd();
}
}
UPDATE: Using .NET 4.5 (or .NET 4.0 by adding the Microsoft.Net.Http package from NuGet) this is possible without external code, extensions, and "low level" HTTP manipulation. Here is an example:
// Perform the equivalent of posting a form with a filename and two files, in HTML:
// <form action="{url}" method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data">
// <input type="text" name="filename" />
// <input type="file" name="file1" />
// <input type="file" name="file2" />
// </form>
private async Task<System.IO.Stream> UploadAsync(string url, string filename, Stream fileStream, byte [] fileBytes)
{
// Convert each of the three inputs into HttpContent objects
HttpContent stringContent = new StringContent(filename);
// examples of converting both Stream and byte [] to HttpContent objects
// representing input type file
HttpContent fileStreamContent = new StreamContent(fileStream);
HttpContent bytesContent = new ByteArrayContent(fileBytes);
// Submit the form using HttpClient and
// create form data as Multipart (enctype="multipart/form-data")
using (var client = new HttpClient())
using (var formData = new MultipartFormDataContent())
{
// Add the HttpContent objects to the form data
// <input type="text" name="filename" />
formData.Add(stringContent, "filename", "filename");
// <input type="file" name="file1" />
formData.Add(fileStreamContent, "file1", "file1");
// <input type="file" name="file2" />
formData.Add(bytesContent, "file2", "file2");
// Invoke the request to the server
// equivalent to pressing the submit button on
// a form with attributes (action="{url}" method="post")
var response = await client.PostAsync(url, formData);
// ensure the request was a success
if (!response.IsSuccessStatusCode)
{
return null;
}
return await response.Content.ReadAsStreamAsync();
}
}
Took the code above and fixed because it throws Internal Server Error 500. There are some problems with \r\n badly positioned and spaces etc. Applied the refactoring with memory stream, writing directly to the request stream. Here is the result:
public static void HttpUploadFile(string url, string file, string paramName, string contentType, NameValueCollection nvc) {
log.Debug(string.Format("Uploading {0} to {1}", file, url));
string boundary = "---------------------------" + DateTime.Now.Ticks.ToString("x");
byte[] boundarybytes = System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes("\r\n--" + boundary + "\r\n");
HttpWebRequest wr = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(url);
wr.ContentType = "multipart/form-data; boundary=" + boundary;
wr.Method = "POST";
wr.KeepAlive = true;
wr.Credentials = System.Net.CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials;
Stream rs = wr.GetRequestStream();
string formdataTemplate = "Content-Disposition: form-data; name=\"{0}\"\r\n\r\n{1}";
foreach (string key in nvc.Keys)
{
rs.Write(boundarybytes, 0, boundarybytes.Length);
string formitem = string.Format(formdataTemplate, key, nvc[key]);
byte[] formitembytes = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(formitem);
rs.Write(formitembytes, 0, formitembytes.Length);
}
rs.Write(boundarybytes, 0, boundarybytes.Length);
string headerTemplate = "Content-Disposition: form-data; name=\"{0}\"; filename=\"{1}\"\r\nContent-Type: {2}\r\n\r\n";
string header = string.Format(headerTemplate, paramName, file, contentType);
byte[] headerbytes = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(header);
rs.Write(headerbytes, 0, headerbytes.Length);
FileStream fileStream = new FileStream(file, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read);
byte[] buffer = new byte[4096];
int bytesRead = 0;
while ((bytesRead = fileStream.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length)) != 0) {
rs.Write(buffer, 0, bytesRead);
}
fileStream.Close();
byte[] trailer = System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes("\r\n--" + boundary + "--\r\n");
rs.Write(trailer, 0, trailer.Length);
rs.Close();
WebResponse wresp = null;
try {
wresp = wr.GetResponse();
Stream stream2 = wresp.GetResponseStream();
StreamReader reader2 = new StreamReader(stream2);
log.Debug(string.Format("File uploaded, server response is: {0}", reader2.ReadToEnd()));
} catch(Exception ex) {
log.Error("Error uploading file", ex);
if(wresp != null) {
wresp.Close();
wresp = null;
}
} finally {
wr = null;
}
}
and sample usage:
NameValueCollection nvc = new NameValueCollection();
nvc.Add("id", "TTR");
nvc.Add("btn-submit-photo", "Upload");
HttpUploadFile("http://your.server.com/upload",
@"C:\test\test.jpg", "file", "image/jpeg", nvc);
It could be extended to handle multiple files or just call it multiple times for each file. However it suits your needs.