Having trouble with MultipartRequestEntity

[Trudy Little <tr...@netdirector.biz>]

Hi,

I am attempting to use the MultipartRequestEntity to upload a file and
some additional parameters via HTTP to a client.  The process works fine
if I am sending to another Java client, but I am getting some additional
text on all the string parameters when sending to non-Java clients (ASP,
Perl etc).  I am getting "Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit" appended to
the beginning of each parameter value.  I have confirmed that this does
not happen if I submit the file using a standard HTTP page.  The problem
also does not occur if I am just using the PostMethod without sending
file data.  I am using the latest release of HTTPClient.

Sample Code:

public String postHttpFile(String pTargetUrl, String pFileName,
                            String pUserName, String pPassword) throws
Exception {

    String vErrorText = "";
    PostMethod filePost = null;
    java.io.File vFile = null;
    Exception vException = null;
    String vResponse = "";

    try {
      vErrorText = "Error retrieving file: " + pFileName;
      vFile = new File(pFileName);


      filePost = new PostMethod(pTargetUrl);
      Part[] parts = { new StringPart("userid", pUserName),
           new StringPart("password", pPassword),
           new StringPart("filesize", Long.toString(vFile.length())),
           new FilePart(vFile.getName(), vFile) };

      filePost.setRequestEntity( new MultipartRequestEntity(parts,
filePost.getParams()) );

      HttpClient client = new HttpClient();


      //Post file.
      vErrorText = "Error executing post method";
      int status = client.executeMethod(filePost);

      if (status != HttpStatus.SC_OK) {
        vErrorText = "Error posting file. Post Response: " +
HttpStatus.getStatusText(status);
        throw new Exception(vErrorText);
      }

      vResponse = filePost.getResponseBodyAsString();

    } catch (Exception ex) {
      vException = ex;
    } finally {

      //Release file handle
      if(filePost != null) {
        filePost.releaseConnection();
      }

      //Throw any generated exception back up.
      if(vException != null) {
        throw new Exception(vErrorText, vException);
      }
    }

    return vResponse;

  }

If UserId = abcdefg, non-Java clients are getting:
"Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

abcdefg" 




Trudy Little
Principal Software Engineer - NetDirector
Florida Default Law Group, PL
(813) 342-2200 ext 3142

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Re: Having trouble with MultipartRequestEntity

[Roland Weber <RO...@de.ibm.com>]

Hi Trudy,

> I am attempting to use the MultipartRequestEntity to upload a file and
> some additional parameters via HTTP to a client.  The process works fine

How do you upload to a *client*? HttpClient is the client, the other side
of the communication needs to be an HTTP server. HTTP is not a peer-2-peer
protocol where clients can communicate with eachother.

> if I am sending to another Java client, but I am getting some additional
> text on all the string parameters when sending to non-Java clients (ASP,
> Perl etc).  I am getting "Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit" appended to
> the beginning of each parameter value.  I have confirmed that this does

That part header is specified by RFC 1521. I assume that your ASP, Perl
and other environments just don't implement that standard (correctly),
while the Java environment does.

> not happen if I submit the file using a standard HTTP page.  The problem
> also does not occur if I am just using the PostMethod without sending
> file data.  I am using the latest release of HTTPClient.

That's strange, since the StringPart use Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit,
while the file parts use C-T-E: binary by default. Maybe your non-Java
environments can't handle different C-T-Es in a single request?

Try PartBase.setTransferEncoding(null) on the string and file parts. This
should prevent the C-T-E headers from being sent.

hope that helps,
  Roland


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