[c#] How to set up a Web API controller for multipart/form-data

I am trying to figure this out. I was not getting any useful error messages with my code so I used something else to generate something. I have attached that code after the error message. I have found a tutorial on it but I do not know how to implement it with what I have. This is what I currently have:

public async Task<object> PostFile()
    {
        if (!Request.Content.IsMimeMultipartContent())
            throw new Exception();


        var provider = new MultipartMemoryStreamProvider();
        var result = new { file = new List<object>() };
        var item = new File();

        item.CompanyName = HttpContext.Current.Request.Form["companyName"];
        item.FileDate = HttpContext.Current.Request.Form["fileDate"];
        item.FileLocation = HttpContext.Current.Request.Form["fileLocation"];
        item.FilePlant = HttpContext.Current.Request.Form["filePlant"];
        item.FileTerm = HttpContext.Current.Request.Form["fileTerm"];
        item.FileType = HttpContext.Current.Request.Form["fileType"];

        var manager = new UserManager<ApplicationUser>(new UserStore<ApplicationUser>(new ApplicationDbContext()));
        var user = manager.FindById(User.Identity.GetUserId());

        item.FileUploadedBy = user.Name;
        item.FileUploadDate = DateTime.Now;

        await Request.Content.ReadAsMultipartAsync(provider)
         .ContinueWith(async (a) =>
         {
             foreach (var file in provider.Contents)
             {
                 if (file.Headers.ContentLength > 1000)
                 {
                     var filename = file.Headers.ContentDisposition.FileName.Trim('\"');
                     var contentType = file.Headers.ContentType.ToString();
                     await file.ReadAsByteArrayAsync().ContinueWith(b => { item.FilePdf = b.Result; });
                 }


             }


         }).Unwrap();

        db.Files.Add(item);
        db.SaveChanges();
        return result;

    }

Error:

Object {message: "The request entity's media type 'multipart/form-data' is not supported for this resource.", exceptionMessage: "No MediaTypeFormatter is available to read an obje…om content with media type 'multipart/form-data'.", exceptionType: "System.Net.Http.UnsupportedMediaTypeException", stackTrace: " at System.Net.Http.HttpContentExtensions.ReadAs…atterLogger, CancellationToken cancellationToken)"}exceptionMessage: "No MediaTypeFormatter is available to read an object of type 'HttpPostedFileBase' from content with media type 'multipart/form-data'."exceptionType: "System.Net.Http.UnsupportedMediaTypeException"message: "The request entity's media type 'multipart/form-data' is not supported for this resource."stackTrace: " at System.Net.Http.HttpContentExtensions.ReadAsAsync[T](HttpContent content, Type type, IEnumerable1 formatters, IFormatterLogger formatterLogger, CancellationToken cancellationToken) ? at System.Net.Http.HttpContentExtensions.ReadAsAsync(HttpContent content, Type type, IEnumerable1 formatters, IFormatterLogger formatterLogger, CancellationToken cancellationToken)

Code used to generate error message:

    [HttpPost]
    public string UploadFile(HttpPostedFileBase file)
    {

        if (file.ContentLength > 0)
        {
            var fileName = Path.GetFileName(file.FileName);
            var path = Path.Combine(HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath("~/uploads"), fileName);
            file.SaveAs(path);


        }
        return "/uploads/" + file.FileName;
    }

Class:

public class File
{
    public int FileId { get; set; }
    public string FileType { get; set; }
    public string FileDate { get; set; }
    public byte[] FilePdf { get; set; }
    public string FileLocation { get; set; }
    public string FilePlant { get; set; }
    public string FileTerm { get; set; }
    public DateTime? FileUploadDate { get; set; }
    public string FileUploadedBy { get; set; }

    public string CompanyName { get; set; }
    public virtual ApplicationUser User { get; set; }
}

This is what solved my problem
Add the following line to WebApiConfig.cs

config.Formatters.XmlFormatter.SupportedMediaTypes.Add(new System.Net.Http.Headers.MediaTypeHeaderValue("multipart/form-data"));

5 years later on and .NET Core 3.1 allows you to do specify the media type like this:

[HttpPost]
[Consumes("multipart/form-data")]
public IActionResult UploadLogo()
{
    return Ok();
}

Here's another answer for the ASP.Net Core solution to this problem...

On the Angular side, I took this code example...

https://stackblitz.com/edit/angular-drag-n-drop-directive

... and modified it to call an HTTP Post endpoint:

  prepareFilesList(files: Array<any>) {

    const formData = new FormData();
    for (var i = 0; i < files.length; i++) { 
      formData.append("file[]", files[i]);
    }

    let URL = "https://localhost:44353/api/Users";
    this.http.post(URL, formData).subscribe(
      data => { console.log(data); },
      error => { console.log(error); }
    );

With this in place, here's the code I needed in the ASP.Net Core WebAPI controller:

[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Post()
{
  try
  {
    var files = Request.Form.Files;

    foreach (IFormFile file in files)
    {
        if (file.Length == 0)
            continue;
        
        string tempFilename = Path.Combine(Path.GetTempPath(), file.FileName);
        System.Diagnostics.Trace.WriteLine($"Saved file to: {tempFilename}");

        using (var fileStream = new FileStream(tempFilename, FileMode.Create))
        {
            file.CopyTo(fileStream);
        }
    }
    return new OkObjectResult("Yes");
  }
  catch (Exception ex)
  {
    return new BadRequestObjectResult(ex.Message);
  }
}

Shockingly simple, but I had to piece together examples from several (almost-correct) sources to get this to work properly.

You're getting HTTP 415 "The request entity's media type 'multipart/form-data' is not supported for this resource." because you haven't mention the correct content type in your request.

check ur WebApiConfig and add this

GlobalConfiguration.Configuration.Formatters.XmlFormatter.SupportedMediaTypes.Clear();

Perhaps it is late for the party. But there is an alternative solution for this is to use ApiMultipartFormFormatter plugin.

This plugin helps you to receive the multipart/formdata content as ASP.NET Core does.

In the github page, demo is already provided.

You can use something like this

[HttpPost]
public async Task<HttpResponseMessage> AddFile()
{
    if (!Request.Content.IsMimeMultipartContent())
    {
        this.Request.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.UnsupportedMediaType);
    }

    string root = HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath("~/temp/uploads");
    var provider = new MultipartFormDataStreamProvider(root);
    var result = await Request.Content.ReadAsMultipartAsync(provider);

    foreach (var key in provider.FormData.AllKeys)
    {
        foreach (var val in provider.FormData.GetValues(key))
        {
            if (key == "companyName")
            {
                var companyName = val;
            }
        }
    }

    // On upload, files are given a generic name like "BodyPart_26d6abe1-3ae1-416a-9429-b35f15e6e5d5"
    // so this is how you can get the original file name
    var originalFileName = GetDeserializedFileName(result.FileData.First());

    var uploadedFileInfo = new FileInfo(result.FileData.First().LocalFileName);
    string path = result.FileData.First().LocalFileName;

    //Do whatever you want to do with your file here

    return this.Request.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.OK, originalFileName );
}

private string GetDeserializedFileName(MultipartFileData fileData)
{
    var fileName = GetFileName(fileData);
    return JsonConvert.DeserializeObject(fileName).ToString();
}

public string GetFileName(MultipartFileData fileData)
{
    return fileData.Headers.ContentDisposition.FileName;
}