send a file using NSURLConnection

Question

Hi I am using the following code for NSURLConnection

 //initialize new mutable data
responseData = [[NSMutableData alloc] init];
//initialize url that is going to be fetched.
NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:URLCALL];

//initialize a request from url
NSMutableURLRequest *request = [NSMutableURLRequest requestWithURL:[url standardizedURL]];

//set http method
[request setHTTPMethod:@"POST"];
//initialize a post data
 NSString *postData = [[NSString alloc] initWithString:@"action=3&senderCountryCode=91&senderPhoneNo=9573795715& receiverPhoneNo=9336240585&version=1.0"];
//set request content type we MUST set this value.

[request setValue:@"application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=utf-8" forHTTPHeaderField:@"Content-Type"];

//set post data of request
[request setHTTPBody:[postData dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];

//initialize a connection from request
NSURLConnection *connection = [[NSURLConnection alloc] initWithRequest:request delegate:self];    
//start the connection
[connection start];

Now I have to add a file as multipart type Please help me how can I use this

Answer 1

Try this & check:

- (NSURLRequest *)buildRequest:(NSData *)paramData fileName:(NSString *)name {
    NSMutableURLRequest *request = [[[NSMutableURLRequest alloc] init] autorelease];
    NSString *charset = (NSString *)CFStringConvertEncodingToIANACharSetName(CFStringConvertNSStringEncodingToEncoding(NSUTF8StringEncoding));
    [request setURL:self.url];
    [request setHTTPMethod:self.method];

    NSString *boundary = @"0xKhTmLbOuNdArY";
    NSString *endBoundary = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"\r\n--%@\r\n", boundary];

    NSString *contentType = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"multipart/form-data; charset=%@; boundary=%@", charset, boundary];
    [request addValue:contentType forHTTPHeaderField: @"Content-Type"];

    NSMutableData *tempPostData = [NSMutableData data]; 
    [tempPostData appendData:[[NSString stringWithFormat:@"--%@\r\n", boundary] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];

    // Sample Key Value for data
    [tempPostData appendData:[[NSString stringWithFormat:@"Content-Disposition: form-data; name=\"%@\"\r\n\r\n", @"Key_Param"] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
    [tempPostData appendData:@"Value_Param"] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
    [tempPostData appendData:[endBoundary dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];

    // Sample file to send as data
    [tempPostData appendData:[[NSString stringWithFormat:@"Content-Disposition: form-data; name=\"userfile\"; filename=\"%@\"\r\n", name] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
    [tempPostData appendData:[[NSString stringWithString:@"Content-Type: application/octet-stream\r\n\r\n"] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
    [tempPostData appendData:paramData];
    [tempPostData appendData:[[NSString stringWithFormat:@"\r\n--%@--\r\n", boundary] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
    [request setHTTPBody:tempPostData];
    return request;
}

Answer 2

If you really want to do it manually and with your file in a NSData *data you can do something like this:

NSString *boundary = @"0Xvdfegrdf876fRD";
NSString *contentType = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"multipart/form-data; boundary=%@",boundary];
[request addValue:contentType forHTTPHeaderField: @"Content-Type"];

NSMutableData *body = [NSMutableData data];

[body appendData:[[NSString stringWithFormat:@"--%@\r\n",boundary] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[body appendData:[[NSString stringWithString:@"Content-Disposition: form-data; name=\"userfile\"; filename=\"file.png\"\r\n"] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[body appendData:[[NSString stringWithString:@"Content-Type: application/octet-stream\r\n\r\n"] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[body appendData:[NSData dataWithData:data]];
[body appendData:[[NSString stringWithFormat:@"\r\n--%@--\r\n",boundary] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];

// setting the body of the post to the request
[apiRequest setHTTPBody:body];

But I would rather use API like AFNetworking which let you do file upload in just a few line:

NSData *imageData = UIImagePNGRepresentation(image);
NSURLRequest *request = [client multipartFormRequestWithMethod:@"POST" path:@"/upload" parameters:nil constructingBodyWithBlock: ^(id <AFMultipartFormData> formData) {
  [formData appendPartWithFileData:imageData mimeType:@"image/png" name:@"avatar"];
}];