File Upload to HTTP server in iphone programming

Question

Can anyone provide me some links or examples to upload files to the HTTP server using    iphone APIs

User · Answer

I thought I would add some server side php code to this answer for any beginners that read this post and are struggling to figure out how to receive the file on the server side and save the file to the filesystem.

I realize that this answer does not directly answer the OP's question, but since Brandon's answer is sufficient for the iOS device side of uploading and he mentions that some knowledge of php is necessary, I thought I would fill in the php gap with this answer.

Here is a class I put together with some sample usage code. Note that the files are stored in directories based on which user is uploading them. This may or may not be applicable to your use, but I thought I'd leave it in place just in case.

<?php


class upload
{
    protected $user;

    protected $isImage;
    protected $isMovie;

    protected $file;
    protected $uploadFilename;
    protected $uploadDirectory;
    protected $fileSize;
    protected $fileTmpName;
    protected $fileType;
    protected $fileExtension;

    protected $saveFilePath;

    protected $allowedExtensions;

function __construct($file, $userPointer)
{
    // set the file we're uploading
    $this->file = $file;

    // if this is tied to a user, link the user account here
    $this->user = $userPointer;

    // set default bool values to false since we don't know what file type is being uploaded yet
    $this->isImage   = FALSE;
    $this->isMovie   = FALSE;

    // setup file properties
    if (isset($this->file) && !empty($this->file))
    {   
        $this->uploadFilename   = $this->file['file']['name'];
        $this->fileSize         = $this->file['file']['size'];
        $this->fileTmpName      = $this->file['file']['tmp_name'];
        $this->fileType         = $this->file['file']['type'];
    }
    else
    {
        throw new Exception('Received empty data. No file found to upload.');
    }

    // get the file extension of the file we're trying to upload
    $tmp = explode('.', $this->uploadFilename);
    $this->fileExtension        = strtolower(end($tmp));

}



public function image($postParams)
{
    // set default error alert (or whatever you want to return if error)
    $retVal = array('alert' => '115');

    // set our bool
    $this->isImage = TRUE;

    // set our type limits
    $this->allowedExtensions    = array("png");

    // setup destination directory path (without filename yet)
    $this->uploadDirectory      = DIR_IMG_UPLOADS.$this->user->uid."/photos/";

    // if user is not subscribed they are allowed only one image, clear their folder here
    if ($this->user->isSubscribed() == FALSE)
    {
        $this->clearFolder($this->uploadDirectory);
    }

    // try to upload the file
    $success = $this->startUpload();

    if ($success === TRUE)
    {
        // return the image name (NOTE: this wipes the error alert set above)
        $retVal = array(
                        'imageName' =>  $this->uploadFilename,
                        );
    }

    return $retVal;
}



public function movie($data)
{
    // update php settings to handle larger uploads
    set_time_limit(300);

    // you may need to increase allowed filesize as well if your server is not set with a high enough limit

    // set default return value (error code for upload failed)
    $retVal = array('alert' => '92');

    // set our bool
    $this->isMovie = TRUE;

    // set our allowed movie types
    $this->allowedExtensions = array("mov", "mp4", "mpv", "3gp");

    // setup destination path
    $this->uploadDirectory = DIR_IMG_UPLOADS.$this->user->uid."/movies/";

    // only upload the movie if the user is a subscriber
    if ($this->user->isSubscribed())
    {
        // try to upload the file
        $success = $this->startUpload();

        if ($success === TRUE)
        {
            // file uploaded so set the new retval
            $retVal = array('movieName' => $this->uploadFilename);
        }
    }
    else
    {
        // return an error code so user knows this is a limited access feature
        $retVal = array('alert' => '13');
    }

    return $retVal;
}




//-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
//                          Upload Process Methods
//-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

private function startUpload()
{
    // see if there are any errors
    $this->checkForUploadErrors();

    // validate the type received is correct
    $this->checkFileExtension();

    // check the filesize
    $this->checkFileSize();

    // create the directory for the user if it does not exist
    $this->createUserDirectoryIfNotExists();

    // generate a local file name
    $this->createLocalFileName();

    // verify that the file is an uploaded file
    $this->verifyIsUploadedFile();

    // save the image to the appropriate folder
    $success = $this->saveFileToDisk();

    // return TRUE/FALSE
    return $success;
}

private function checkForUploadErrors()
{
    if ($this->file['file']['error'] != 0)
    {
        throw new Exception($this->file['file']['error']);
    }
}

private function checkFileExtension()
{
    if ($this->isImage)
    {
        // check if we are in fact uploading a png image, if not return error
        if (!(in_array($this->fileExtension, $this->allowedExtensions)) || $this->fileType != 'image/png' || exif_imagetype($this->fileTmpName) != IMAGETYPE_PNG)
        {
            throw new Exception('Unsupported image type. The image must be of type png.');
        }
    }
    else if ($this->isMovie)
    {
        // check if we are in fact uploading an accepted movie type
        if (!(in_array($this->fileExtension, $this->allowedExtensions)) || $this->fileType != 'video/mov')
        {
            throw new Exception('Unsupported movie type. Accepted movie types are .mov, .mp4, .mpv, or .3gp');
        }
    }   
}

private function checkFileSize()
{
    if ($this->isImage)
    {
        if($this->fileSize > TenMB)
        {
            throw new Exception('The image filesize must be under 10MB.');
        }
    }
    else if ($this->isMovie)
    {
        if($this->fileSize > TwentyFiveMB) 
        {
            throw new Exception('The movie filesize must be under 25MB.');
        }
    }
}

private function createUserDirectoryIfNotExists()
{
    if (!file_exists($this->uploadDirectory)) 
    {
        mkdir($this->uploadDirectory, 0755, true);
    }
    else
    {
        if ($this->isMovie)
        {
            // clear any prior uploads from the directory (only one movie file per user)
            $this->clearFolder($this->uploadDirectory);
        }
    }
}

private function createLocalFileName()
{
    $now = time();

    // try to create a unique filename for this users file
    while(file_exists($this->uploadFilename = $now.'-'.$this->uid.'.'.$this->fileExtension))
    {
        $now++;
    }

    // create our full file save path
    $this->saveFilePath = $this->uploadDirectory.$this->uploadFilename;
}

private function clearFolder($path)
{
    if(is_file($path))
    {
        // if there's already a file with this name clear it first
        return @unlink($path);
    }
    elseif(is_dir($path))
    {
        // if it's a directory, clear it's contents
        $scan = glob(rtrim($path,'/').'/*');
        foreach($scan as $index=>$npath)
        {
            $this->clearFolder($npath);
            @rmdir($npath);
        }
    }
}

private function verifyIsUploadedFile()
{
    if (! is_uploaded_file($this->file['file']['tmp_name']))
    {
        throw new Exception('The file failed to upload.');
    }
}


private function saveFileToDisk()
{
    if (move_uploaded_file($this->file['file']['tmp_name'], $this->saveFilePath))
    {
        return TRUE;     
    }

    throw new Exception('File failed to upload. Please retry.');
}

}


?>

Here's some sample code demonstrating how you might use the upload class...

// get a reference to your user object if applicable
$myUser = $this->someMethodThatFetchesUserWithId($myUserId);

// get reference to file to upload
$myFile = isset($_FILES) ? $_FILES : NULL;

// use try catch to return an error for any exceptions thrown in the upload script
try 
{
    // create and setup upload class
    $upload = new upload($myFile, $myUser);

    // trigger file upload
    $data   = $upload->image();     // if uploading an image
    $data  = $upload->movie();      // if uploading movie

    // return any status messages as json string
    echo json_encode($data);
} 
catch (Exception $exception) 
{
    $retData = array(
            'status'    => 'FALSE',
            'payload'   => array(
                            'errorMsg' => $exception->getMessage()
                            ),
                );

    echo json_encode($retData);
}

User · Answer

An update to  Brandon s answer  generalized to a method  -  NSString   postToUrl  NSString  urlString data  NSData  dataToSend withFilename  NSString  filename       NSMutableURLRequest  request    NSMutableURLRequest alloc  init        request setURL  NSURL URLWithString urlString         request setHTTPMethod   POST        NSString  boundary     ---------------------------14737809831466499882746641449       NSString  contentType    NSString stringWithFormat   multipart form-data  boundary      boundary        request addValue contentType forHTTPHeaderField    Content-Type        NSMutableData  postbody    NSMutableData data        postbody appendData   NSString stringWithFormat    r n--   r n   boundary  dataUsingEncoding NSUTF8StringEncoding         postbody appendData   NSString stringWithFormat   Content-Disposition  form-data  name   userfile    filename        r n   filename  dataUsingEncoding NSUTF8StringEncoding         postbody appendData    Content-Type  application octet-stream r n r n  dataUsingEncoding NSUTF8StringEncoding         postbody appendData  NSData dataWithData dataToSend         postbody appendData   NSString stringWithFormat    r n--  -- r n   boundary  dataUsingEncoding NSUTF8StringEncoding         request setHTTPBody postbody        NSError  error      NSData  returnData    NSURLConnection sendSynchronousRequest request returningResponse nil error  amp error       if  returnData            return   NSString alloc  initWithData returnData encoding NSUTF8StringEncoding             else           return nil            Invoke like so  sending data from a string    self postToUrl    lt  Your url string  gt              data     lt  Your string to send  gt   dataUsingEncoding NSUTF8StringEncoding     withFilename    lt  Filename to post with  gt

User · Answer

ASIHTTPRequest is a great wrapper around the network APIs and makes it very easy to upload a file  Here s their example  but you can do this on the iPhone too - we save images to  disk  and later upload them   ASIFormDataRequest  request      ASIFormDataRequest alloc  initWithURL url  autorelease    request setPostValue   Ben  forKey   first name     request setPostValue   Copsey  forKey   last name     request setFile    Users ben Desktop ben jpg  forKey   photo

User · Answer

Try this   very easy to understand  amp  implementation     You can download sample code directly here https   github com Tech-Dev-Mobile Json-Sample  -  void simpleJsonParsingPostMetod     warning set webservice url and parse POST method in JSON       -- Temp Initialized variables     NSString  first name      NSString  image name      NSData  imageData         -- Convert string into URL     NSString  urlString    NSString stringWithFormat   demo com your server db name service link        NSMutableURLRequest  request    NSMutableURLRequest alloc  init        request setURL  NSURL URLWithString urlString         request setHTTPMethod   POST         NSString  boundary     14737809831466499882746641449       NSString  contentType    NSString stringWithFormat   multipart form-data  boundary     boundary        request addValue contentType forHTTPHeaderField    Content-Type           -- Append data into posr url using following method     NSMutableData  body    NSMutableData data           -- For Sending text            --  firstname  is keyword form service           --  first name  is the text which we have to send      body appendData   NSString stringWithFormat    r n--   r n  boundary  dataUsingEncoding NSUTF8StringEncoding         body appendData   NSString stringWithFormat   Content-Disposition  form-data  name        r n r n    firstname   dataUsingEncoding NSUTF8StringEncoding         body appendData   NSString stringWithFormat       first name  dataUsingEncoding NSUTF8StringEncoding            -- For sending image into service if needed  send image as imagedata             --  image name  is file name of the image  we can set custom name       body appendData   NSString stringWithFormat    r n--   r n  boundary  dataUsingEncoding NSUTF8StringEncoding          body appendData   NSString stringWithFormat   Content-Disposition form-data  name   file    filename        r n  image name  dataUsingEncoding NSUTF8StringEncoding         body appendData    Content-Type  application octet-stream r n r n  dataUsingEncoding NSUTF8StringEncoding         body appendData  NSData dataWithData imageData         body appendData   NSString stringWithFormat    r n--  -- r n  boundary  dataUsingEncoding NSUTF8StringEncoding            -- Sending data into server through URL      request setHTTPBody body          -- Getting response form server     NSData  responseData    NSURLConnection sendSynchronousRequest request returningResponse nil error nil          -- JSON Parsing with response data     NSDictionary  result    NSJSONSerialization JSONObjectWithData responseData options NSJSONReadingMutableContainers error nil       NSLog   Result       result

User · Answer

This isn t an alternative solution  rather a suggestion for Brandon s popular answer  seeing as though I don t have enough rep to comment on that answer    If you re uploading large files  you re probably going to get a mmap malloc exception on account of having to read the file into memory to post it to your server   You can tweak Brandon s code by replacing    request setHTTPBody postbody     With   NSInputStream  stream     NSInputStream alloc  initWithData postbody    request setHTTPBodyStream stream

User · Answer

This is a great wrapper  but when posting to a asp net web page  two additional post values need to be set       ASIFormDataRequest  request    ASIFormDataRequest requestWithURL url         ADD THESE  BECAUSE ASP NET is Expecting them for validation       Even if they are empty you will be able to post the file      request setPostValue     forKey     VIEWSTATE         request setPostValue     forKey     EVENTVALIDATION                   request setFile FIleName forKey   fileupload control Name         request startSynchronous

User · Answer

I have made a lightweight backup method for the Mobile-AppSales app available at github  I wrote about it here http   memention com blog 2009 11 22 Lightweight-backup html  Look for the -  void startUpload method in ReportManager m

User · Answer

The code below uses HTTP POST to post NSData to a webserver  You also need minor knowledge of PHP   NSString  urlString     http   yourserver com upload php   NSString  filename     filename   request     NSMutableURLRequest alloc  init  autorelease    request setURL  NSURL URLWithString urlString     request setHTTPMethod   POST    NSString  boundary     ---------------------------14737809831466499882746641449   NSString  contentType    NSString stringWithFormat   multipart form-data  boundary     boundary    request addValue contentType forHTTPHeaderField    Content-Type    NSMutableData  postbody    NSMutableData data    postbody appendData   NSString stringWithFormat    r n--   r n  boundary  dataUsingEncoding NSUTF8StringEncoding     postbody appendData   NSString stringWithFormat   Content-Disposition  form-data  name   userfile    filename      jpg   r n   filename  dataUsingEncoding NSUTF8StringEncoding     postbody appendData   NSString stringWithString   Content-Type  application octet-stream r n r n   dataUsingEncoding NSUTF8StringEncoding     postbody appendData  NSData dataWithData YOUR NSDATA HERE     postbody appendData   NSString stringWithFormat    r n--  -- r n  boundary  dataUsingEncoding NSUTF8StringEncoding     request setHTTPBody postbody    NSData  returnData    NSURLConnection sendSynchronousRequest request returningResponse nil error nil   returnString     NSString alloc  initWithData returnData encoding NSUTF8StringEncoding   NSLog        returnString

User · Answer

I used ASIHTTPRequest a lot like Jane Sales answer but it is not under development anymore and the author suggests using other libraries like AFNetworking      Honestly  I think now is the time to start looking elsewhere    AFNetworking works great  and let you work with blocks a lot  which is a great relief     Here s an image upload example from their documentation page on github   NSURL  url    NSURL URLWithString   http   api-base-url com    AFHTTPClient  httpClient     AFHTTPClient alloc  initWithBaseURL url   NSData  imageData   UIImageJPEGRepresentation  UIImage imageNamed   avatar jpg    0 5   NSMutableURLRequest  request    httpClient multipartFormRequestWithMethod   POST  path    upload  parameters nil constructingBodyWithBlock    id  lt AFMultipartFormData gt formData         formData appendPartWithFileData imageData name   avatar  fileName   avatar jpg  mimeType   image jpeg         AFHTTPRequestOperation  operation     AFHTTPRequestOperation alloc  initWithRequest request    operation setUploadProgressBlock   NSUInteger bytesWritten  long long totalBytesWritten  long long totalBytesExpectedToWrite        NSLog   Sent  lld of  lld bytes   totalBytesWritten  totalBytesExpectedToWrite        httpClient enqueueHTTPRequestOperation operation

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