Not always there's a servlet before of an upload (I could use a filter for example). Or could be that the same controller ( again a filter or also a servelt ) can serve many actions, so I think that rely on that servlet configuration to use the getPart method (only for Servlet API >= 3.0), I don't know, I don't like.
In general, I prefer independent solutions, able to live alone, and in this case http://commons.apache.org/proper/commons-fileupload/ is one of that.
List<FileItem> multiparts = new ServletFileUpload(new DiskFileItemFactory()).parseRequest(request);
for (FileItem item : multiparts) {
if (!item.isFormField()) {
//your operations on file
} else {
String name = item.getFieldName();
String value = item.getString();
//you operations on paramters
}
}