FileUpload: Applet to PHP Script

Question

Hallo,
i am trying to implement a FileUpload via Java Applet to a PHP Script.
I tried to create a HTTP Request like in RFC 1876.
This is my HTTP Content, for example:
Content-type: multipart/form-data; boundary="AaB03x"
--AaB03x
content-disposition: form-data; name="surname"
AnyName
--AaB03x
content-disposition: form-data; name="pics"; filename="text.txt"
Content-Type: text/plain
Content of a certain file
AaB03x
Unfortunatly the variables are not recognized by the PHP Script.
I used a HttpURLConnection to communicate with the server.
A normal GET Request is working. The PHP Script works correctly - any post by a HTML Form is recognized.
The Applet needs to run with Java 1.1 - i do not want the user
to download the plugin - and therefore i can�t use Jakarta Commons HttpClient.
So, did anybody try sucessfully the same (Multipart/data-form FileUpload with a java 1.1 Applet to PHP)?
Thanks
Arne

Answer 1

I thought I had some test stuff for dealing with this, but I can't find it. Anyway, the initial request needs a content length, and then possible each segment of the multipart data needs headers with content length.
phpConnection.setRequestProperty ("Content-Type", "multipart/form-data; boundary=--AaB03x");
phpConnection.setRequestProperty ("Content-Length", "1234");
And send this
--AaB03x
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="vorname"
Content-Length: 8
Hallo678
--AaB03x
Content-type: multipart/form-data; boundary="AaB03x"
Content-Length: 1000
[base-64 encoded file data here]
AaB03x
The file you're sending should be base-64 encoded.
Found it, but not really a Java thing... It's from a Perl script to send an email with an attached file, but in theory, it's should be the same type of thing for HTTP, so maybe you can figure it out...
$boundary = "--AaBbCcDdEe";
open(MAIL, "| $mailprog -t ");
print MAIL "To: $name_recipient <$email_recipient>\n";
print MAIL "From: $name_sender <$email_sender>\n";
print MAIL "Subject: $subject\n";
print MAIL "MIME-Version: 1.0\n";
print MAIL "Content-type: Multipart/1; boundary=$boundary\n";
print MAIL "\n";
print MAIL "\n";
print MAIL "--$boundary\n";
foreach (@list){
     local($content);
     $uploaded_file = $dir_to_store . $_;
     if(-f $uploaded_file) {
          $filename = $_;
          open(FILE, "<$uploaded_file");
          binmode(FILE, ":raw");
          while(($bytesread = sysread(FILE, $buffer, 1024)) > 0) {
               $size += $bytesread;
               $content .= $buffer;
          close(FILE);
          print "<B>$uploaded_file has been emailed.</B><br>\n";
          print "<B>Size = $size byte(s)</B><P>\n";
          $size=0;
          ##  Print the header for that attachment.
          print MAIL "Content-type: application/octet-stream; " .
                    "name=\"$filename\"; type=Unknown\n";
          print MAIL "Content-transfer-encoding: BASE64\n";
          print MAIL "Content-disposition: attachment\n";
          print MAIL "\n";
          ##  Attach the file!!
          print MAIL encode_base64($content);  # Use base64 encoding for contents
          print MAIL "\n";
          print MAIL "--$boundary\n";
##     Add the text part of the message
print MAIL "Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII\n";
print MAIL "Content-description: Mail message body\n";
print MAIL "Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT\n";
print MAIL "\n";
print MAIL "Sender's Name: $name_sender\n";
print MAIL "Sender's Email: $email_sender\n";
print MAIL "Recipient's Name: $name_recipient\n";
print MAIL "Recipient's Email: $email_recipient\n";
print MAIL "--$boundary\n";
##  Send out the contents!!
print MAIL "Message/Comments\n$main_message";
print MAIL "\n";
print MAIL "--$boundary--\n";
close(MAIL);