AFNetworking Form Request (Multiple File uploads in One Request)

Question

We are developing an iOS application. The app is providing single as well as multiple file upload options in one single request. I'm using AFNetworking for single file uploads and which works fine. Now, we need to support multiple file upload. I have got the html code with me which actually does the multiple file uploads from the web.I need to do the same from iOS app. Can anybody suggest how do we do the same using AFNetworking?

<form method="post" action="upload.php?key=ac2a04cc7b6d4420fa5e5eb1701fb0cc1acf7916&channelid=1" enctype="multipart/form-data">
<label>Title:</label> <input name="title" value="My Video Title" /><br />
<label>Date:</label> <input name="date" value="<?php echo time(); ?>" /><br />
<label>Location:</label> <input name="location" value="Sydney, Australia" /><br />
<textarea name="description">The description of the photo/video goes here</textarea><br />
<input name="file[]" type="file" multiple="multiple" /><br />

Answer 1

Use below code to send multiple file to your form. Customize as per your need if required to change anything.

  NSArray *imageArray = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:[UIImage imageNamed:@"close_button.png"],[UIImage imageNamed:@"done_button.png"], nil];
    __block int i=1;
    AFHTTPClient *httpClient = [[AFHTTPClient alloc] initWithBaseURL:@"yoururl"];
    NSMutableURLRequest *request=nil;
        request = [httpClient multipartFormRequestWithMethod:@"POST" path:@"yoururl" parameters:nil constructingBodyWithBlock: ^(id <AFMultipartFormData>formData)
        {
            for(UIImage *eachImage in imageArray)
            {
                NSData *imageData = UIImagePNGRepresentation(eachImage);
                [formData appendPartWithFileData:imageData name:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"file%d",i] fileName:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"abc%d.png",i] mimeType:@"image/png"];
                i++;
            }

        }];

    AFHTTPRequestOperation *operation = [[AFHTTPRequestOperation alloc] initWithRequest:request];
    [httpClient registerHTTPOperationClass:[AFHTTPRequestOperation class]];

    [operation setCompletionBlockWithSuccess:^(AFHTTPRequestOperation *operation, id responseObject)
     {
         NSData *data = (NSData *)responseObject;
         NSString *str = [[NSString alloc] initWithData:data encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
         NSLog(@"Response -> %@",str);

     } failure:^(AFHTTPRequestOperation *operation, NSError *error)
     {
         NSLog(@"Error -> %@",[error localizedDescription]);
     }];

On server side I have checked with test.php code, I have just printed print_r($_FILES) and it prints following in my case sorry to keep you guessing.

Response -> Array
(
    [file1] => Array
        (
            [name] => abc1.png
            [type] => image/png
            [tmp_name] => /tmp/phpiWbxSn
            [error] => 0
            [size] => 1997
        )

    [file2] => Array
        (
            [name] => abc2.png
            [type] => image/png
            [tmp_name] => /tmp/phpwtWTE8
            [error] => 0
            [size] => 1847
        )
)

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

I tried the AFHTTPNetwrok solution,but wasn't working, then i added square brackets in "name" key as below and finally images are uploaded successfully. What might me by problem ?

NSData *imageData = UIImageJPEGRepresentation(img,1);
            [formData appendPartWithFileData:imageData name:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"images[%d]",i] fileName:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"images%d.jpg",i] mimeType:@"image/jpeg"];