Multiple file upload in jsp with out using �FILE� type filed.

Question

I have an applet that is used for multiple file selection, It allows drag and drop functionality also. The problem is once the user selects multiple files it has to get uploaded to the server. Since it�s not part of a file type component while submitting the form we won�t get the file contents.
We can use multipart api for uploading files, but if the file selected by the user is not by the file type filed the file contents won�t come as part in the jsp submission and I can�t assign the file names selected by the user through the applet to any FILE (hidden ) type in jsp .
Please give a solution�

Answer 1

We can use multipart api for uploading files, but if the file selected by the user is not by the file type filed the file contents won’t come as part in the jsp submission and I can’t assign the file names selected by the user through the applet to any FILE (hidden ) type in jsp .Well i think thats a wrong notion which you have...
you can very well get non-file type field data & file item data from a multipart form.
Anyways,Letz checkout a simple example(refer to the below Code-snippet down below) which can do that task for us and it uses commons-fileupload & commons-io libraries.
FileUpload.jsp
==========
<form name="sampleForm" action="uploadAction" method="POST" enctype="multipart/form-data">
  File Name 1: <input type="text" name="fileName1" size="5" /> <br/>
  File: <input type="file" name="file1" id="file1" /> <br/>
  File Name 2: <input type="text" name="fileName2" size="5" /> <br/>
  File: <input type="file" name="file2" id="file2" /> <br/>
  File Name 3: <input type="text" name="fileName3" size="5" /> <br/>
  File: <input type="file" name="file3" id="file3"/> <br/>
  File Name 4: <input type="text" name="fileName4" size="5" /> <br/>
  File: <input type="file" name="file4" id="file4"/> <br/>
  <input type="submit" value="upload"/>
</form>uploadAction method in (backingBean) :
==============================
public void uploadAction(HttpServletRequest request,HttpServletResponse response)throws Exception{
      FileUploadUtils fuu = new FileUploadUtils(request);
      Map<String,FileItem> fileFields = fuu.getFileFiledsMap();
      Map<String,String> nonfileFields = fuu.getNonFileFiledsMap();
       String fileName1 =  nonfileFields.get("fileName1");
       FileItem file1 = fileFields.get("file1");       
       byte file1ContentBuffer[] = file1.get();
       String file1ContentType = file1.getContentType();
       InputStream file1ins = file1.getInputStream(); 
       file1.write(file1Name);
       String fileName2 =  nonfileFields.get("fileName2");
       FileItem file2 = fileFields.get("file2");
       byte file2ContentBuffer[] = file2.get();
       String file2ContentType = file2.getContentType();
       InputStream file2ins = file2.getInputStream();
       file2.write(file2Name);
}FileUploadUtils.java:
===============
import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Date;
import java.util.Iterator;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.StringTokenizer;
import java.util.Vector;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
import org.apache.commons.fileupload.DiskFileUpload;
import org.apache.commons.fileupload.FileItem;
import com.gehcsr.utils.dao.DbQueryUtils;
public class FileUploadUtils {
   private Map<String,FileItem> fileItemMap = null;
   private  Map<String,String> nFileItemMap = null;
   private HttpServletRequest request = null;
   public FileUploadUtils(HttpServletRequest request)throws Exception{
               this.request = request;    
               this.fileItemMap = new HashMap<String,FileItem>();
               this.nFileItemMap = new HashMap<String,String>();
               this.init();
   private void init() throws Exception{
      DiskFileUpload dfu  = null;
      List fileItems  = null;   
         try{
               dfu = new DiskFileUpload();
               dfu.setSizeMax(1000000);
               dfu.setSizeThreshold(4096);
               dfu.setRepositoryPath(System.getProperty(java.io.tmpdir));
               fileItems = dfu.parseRequest(this.request);
               if(dfu.isMultipartContent && fileItems != null){
                        Iterator iter =  fileItems.iterator();
              while (iter.hasNext()) {
                   FileItem item = (FileItem) iter.next();           
                              String fieldName = item.getFieldName(); 
                         if (!item.isFormField()){
                                          String fieldValue = item.toString();
                                           this.nFileItemMap.put(fieldName,fieldName); 
                                     }else
                                         this.fileItemMap.put(fieldName,item);                              
                }catch(Exception exp){
                     exp.printStackTrace();
                     System.err.println(exp.getMessage());
                     throw new Exception(exp.getCause());
                } finally{
                   fileItems = null;
                   dfu = null; 
         public  Map<String,FileItem>  getFileFiledsMap(){
                return this.getFileFiledsMap;
         public Map<String,String> getNonFileFiledsMap(){
               return this.nFileItemMap;
NOTE:* Do not forget to add latest versions of commons-fileupload.jar & commons-io.jar in your classpath.You might get few warings due some issues with regards to generics please neglect them.
and it is not certain that you ought to use commons libraries for this there are many other alternative solutions available by which you can implement a similar functionality.
Hope this might help !!! if that does do not forget to assign/share duke dollars which you have promised :)
REGARDS,
RaHuL