[json] Spring MVC Multipart Request with JSON

I want to post a file with some JSON data using Spring MVC. So I've developed a rest service as

@RequestMapping(value = "/servicegenerator/wsdl", method = RequestMethod.POST,consumes = { "multipart/mixed", "multipart/form-data" })
@ResponseBody
public String generateWSDLService(@RequestPart("meta-data") WSDLInfo wsdlInfo,@RequestPart("file") MultipartFile file) throws WSDLException, IOException,
        JAXBException, ParserConfigurationException, SAXException, TransformerException {
    return handleWSDL(wsdlInfo,file);
}

When I send a request from the rest client with content-Type = multipart/form-data or multipart/mixed, I get the next exception: org.springframework.web.multipart.support.MissingServletRequestPartException

Can anyone help me in solving this issue?

Can I use @RequestPart to send both Multipart and JSON to a server?

As documentation says:

Raised when the part of a "multipart/form-data" request identified by its name cannot be found.

This may be because the request is not a multipart/form-data either because the part is not present in the request, or because the web application is not configured correctly for processing multipart requests -- e.g. no MultipartResolver.

We've seen in our projects that a post request with JSON and files is creating a lot of confusion between the frontend and backend developers, leading to unnecessary wastage of time.

Here's a better approach: convert file bytes array to Base64 string and send it in the JSON.

public Class UserDTO {
    private String firstName;
    private String lastName;
    private FileDTO profilePic; 
}

public class FileDTO {
    private String base64;
    // just base64 string is enough. If you want, send additional details
    private String name;
    private String type;
    private String lastModified;
}

@PostMapping("/user")
public String saveUser(@RequestBody UserDTO user) {
    byte[] fileBytes = Base64Utils.decodeFromString(user.getProfilePic().getBase64());
    ....
}

JS code to convert file to base64 string:

var reader = new FileReader();
reader.readAsDataURL(file);
reader.onload = function () {

  const userDTO = {
    firstName: "John",
    lastName: "Wick",
    profilePic: {
      base64: reader.result,
      name: file.name,
      lastModified: file.lastModified,
      type: file.type
    }
  }
  
  // post userDTO
};
reader.onerror = function (error) {
  console.log('Error: ', error);
};

This must work!

client (angular):

$scope.saveForm = function () {
      var formData = new FormData();
      var file = $scope.myFile;
      var json = $scope.myJson;
      formData.append("file", file);
      formData.append("ad",JSON.stringify(json));//important: convert to JSON!
      var req = {
        url: '/upload',
        method: 'POST',
        headers: {'Content-Type': undefined},
        data: formData,
        transformRequest: function (data, headersGetterFunction) {
          return data;
        }
      };

Backend-Spring Boot:

@RequestMapping(value = "/upload", method = RequestMethod.POST)
    public @ResponseBody
    Advertisement storeAd(@RequestPart("ad") String adString, @RequestPart("file") MultipartFile file) throws IOException {

        Advertisement jsonAd = new ObjectMapper().readValue(adString, Advertisement.class);
//do whatever you want with your file and jsonAd