Upload file component in JSF 1.2

Question

Hi,
I am developing an application with JSF 1.2 . I am using a custom component made with Apache Commons FileUpload 1.2.1 API which purpose is to upload files. This component work only if the form data is encoded with the “multipart/form-data” encoding instead of the usual “application x-www-form-urlencoded” encoding. From what I know JSF 1.2 doesn't handle this type of encoding. To overcome this issue, I install a servlet filter that intercepts a file upload and turns uploaded files into request attributes. The problem is that when the form data is encoded with the “multipart/form-data” encoding no characters are encoded. I have other JSF components in this form and in them I put different international characters which are lost when the form is submit because they are not encoded.
Can somebody help me with this issue ?

Answer 1

I have a filter
import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.Collections;
import java.util.Enumeration;
import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Map;
import javax.servlet.Filter;
import javax.servlet.FilterChain;
import javax.servlet.FilterConfig;
import javax.servlet.ServletException;
import javax.servlet.ServletRequest;
import javax.servlet.ServletResponse;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequestWrapper;
import org.apache.commons.fileupload.FileItem;
import org.apache.commons.fileupload.FileUploadException;
import org.apache.commons.fileupload.disk.DiskFileItemFactory;
import org.apache.commons.fileupload.servlet.ServletFileUpload;
public class UploadFilter implements Filter {
private int sizeThreshold = -1;
private String repositoryPath;
public void init(FilterConfig config) throws ServletException {
repositoryPath = config.getInitParameter(
"com.corejsf.UploadFilter.repositoryPath");
try {
String paramValue = config.getInitParameter(
"com.corejsf.UploadFilter.sizeThreshold");
if (paramValue != null)
sizeThreshold = Integer.parseInt(paramValue);
catch (NumberFormatException ex) {
ServletException servletEx = new ServletException();
servletEx.initCause(ex);
throw servletEx;
public void destroy() {
public void doFilter(ServletRequest request,
ServletResponse response, FilterChain chain)
throws IOException, ServletException {
if (!(request instanceof HttpServletRequest)) {
chain.doFilter(request, response);
return;
HttpServletRequest httpRequest = (HttpServletRequest) request;
boolean isMultipartContent
= ServletFileUpload.isMultipartContent(httpRequest);
if (!isMultipartContent) {
chain.doFilter(request, response);
return;
DiskFileItemFactory factory = new DiskFileItemFactory();
if (sizeThreshold >= 0)
factory.setSizeThreshold(sizeThreshold);
if (repositoryPath != null)
factory.setRepository(new File(repositoryPath));
ServletFileUpload upload = new ServletFileUpload(factory);
try {
List<FileItem> items = (List<FileItem>) upload.parseRequest(httpRequest);
final Map<String, String[]> map = new HashMap<String, String[]>();
for (FileItem item : items) {
String str = item.getString();
if (item.isFormField())
map.put(item.getFieldName(), new String[] { str });
else
httpRequest.setAttribute(item.getFieldName(), item);
chain.doFilter(new
HttpServletRequestWrapper(httpRequest) {
public Map<String, String[]> getParameterMap() {
return map;
// busywork follows ... should have been part of the wrapper
public String[] getParameterValues(String name) {
Map<String, String[]> map = getParameterMap();
return (String[]) map.get(name);
public String getParameter(String name) {
String[] params = getParameterValues(name);
if (params == null) return null;
return params[0];
public Enumeration<String> getParameterNames() {
Map<String, String[]> map = getParameterMap();
return Collections.enumeration(map.keySet());
}, response);
} catch (FileUploadException ex) {
ServletException servletEx = new ServletException();
servletEx.initCause(ex);
throw servletEx;
a render
import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.io.UnsupportedEncodingException;
import javax.el.ValueExpression;
import javax.faces.FacesException;
import javax.faces.component.EditableValueHolder;
import javax.faces.component.UIComponent;
import javax.faces.context.ExternalContext;
import javax.faces.context.FacesContext;
import javax.faces.context.ResponseWriter;
import javax.faces.render.Renderer;
import javax.servlet.ServletContext;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
import org.apache.commons.fileupload.FileItem;
public class UploadRenderer extends Renderer {
public void encodeBegin(FacesContext context, UIComponent component)
throws IOException {
if (!component.isRendered()) return;
ResponseWriter writer = context.getResponseWriter();
String clientId = component.getClientId(context);
writer.startElement("input", component);
writer.writeAttribute("type", "file", "type");
writer.writeAttribute("name", clientId, "clientId");
writer.endElement("input");
writer.flush();
public void decode(FacesContext context, UIComponent component) {
ExternalContext external = context.getExternalContext();
HttpServletRequest request = (HttpServletRequest) external.getRequest();
String clientId = component.getClientId(context);
FileItem item = (FileItem) request.getAttribute(clientId);
Object newValue;
ValueExpression valueExpr = component.getValueExpression("value");
if (valueExpr != null) {
Class valueType = valueExpr.getType(context.getELContext());
if (valueType == byte[].class) {
newValue = item.get();
else if (valueType == InputStream.class) {
try {
newValue = item.getInputStream();
} catch (IOException ex) {
throw new FacesException(ex);
else {
String encoding = request.getCharacterEncoding();
if (encoding != null)
try {
newValue = item.getString(encoding);
} catch (UnsupportedEncodingException ex) {
newValue = item.getString();
else
newValue = item.getString();
((EditableValueHolder) component).setSubmittedValue(newValue);
((EditableValueHolder) component).setValid(true);
Object target = component.getAttributes().get("target");
if (target != null) {
File file;
if (target instanceof File)
file = (File) target;
else {
ServletContext servletContext
= (ServletContext) external.getContext();
String realPath = servletContext.getRealPath(target.toString());
file = new File(realPath);
try { // ugh--write is declared with "throws Exception"
item.write(file);
} catch (Exception ex) {
throw new FacesException(ex);
and a simple tag handler it is nothing special.
This code is taken from an example in the book Core JavaServer Faces Second Edition 2007