Working POST Multipart Request with Volley and without HttpEntity

This is not really a question, however, I would like to share some of my working code here for your reference when you need.

As we know that HttpEntity is deprecated from API22 and comletely removed since API23. At the moment, we cannot access HttpEntity Reference on Android Developer anymore (404). So, the following is my working sample code for POST Multipart Request with Volley and without HttpEntity. It's working, tested with Asp.Net Web API. Of course, the code perhaps is just a basic sample that posts two existed drawable files, also is not the best solution for all cases, and not good tuning.

MultipartActivity.java:

package com.example.multipartvolley;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.content.Context;
import android.graphics.Bitmap;
import android.graphics.drawable.BitmapDrawable;
import android.graphics.drawable.Drawable;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.support.v4.content.ContextCompat;
import android.view.Menu;
import android.view.MenuItem;
import android.widget.Toast;

import com.android.volley.NetworkResponse;
import com.android.volley.Response;
import com.android.volley.VolleyError;

import java.io.ByteArrayInputStream;
import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream;
import java.io.DataOutputStream;
import java.io.IOException;


public class MultipartActivity extends Activity {

    private final Context context = this;
    private final String twoHyphens = "--";
    private final String lineEnd = "\r\n";
    private final String boundary = "apiclient-" + System.currentTimeMillis();
    private final String mimeType = "multipart/form-data;boundary=" + boundary;
    private byte[] multipartBody;

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_multipart);

        byte[] fileData1 = getFileDataFromDrawable(context, R.drawable.ic_action_android);
        byte[] fileData2 = getFileDataFromDrawable(context, R.drawable.ic_action_book);

        ByteArrayOutputStream bos = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
        DataOutputStream dos = new DataOutputStream(bos);
        try {
            // the first file
            buildPart(dos, fileData1, "ic_action_android.png");
            // the second file
            buildPart(dos, fileData2, "ic_action_book.png");
            // send multipart form data necesssary after file data
            dos.writeBytes(twoHyphens + boundary + twoHyphens + lineEnd);
            // pass to multipart body
            multipartBody = bos.toByteArray();
        } catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }

        String url = "http://192.168.1.100/api/postfile";
        MultipartRequest multipartRequest = new MultipartRequest(url, null, mimeType, multipartBody, new Response.Listener<NetworkResponse>() {
            @Override
            public void onResponse(NetworkResponse response) {
                Toast.makeText(context, "Upload successfully!", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
            }
        }, new Response.ErrorListener() {
            @Override
            public void onErrorResponse(VolleyError error) {
                Toast.makeText(context, "Upload failed!\r\n" + error.toString(), Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
            }
        });

        VolleySingleton.getInstance(context).addToRequestQueue(multipartRequest);
    }

    @Override
    public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
        // Inflate the menu; this adds items to the action bar if it is present.
        getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.menu_multipart, menu);
        return true;
    }

    @Override
    public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) {
        // Handle action bar item clicks here. The action bar will
        // automatically handle clicks on the Home/Up button, so long
        // as you specify a parent activity in AndroidManifest.xml.
        int id = item.getItemId();

        //noinspection SimplifiableIfStatement
        if (id == R.id.action_settings) {
            return true;
        }

        return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);
    }

    private void buildPart(DataOutputStream dataOutputStream, byte[] fileData, String fileName) throws IOException {
        dataOutputStream.writeBytes(twoHyphens + boundary + lineEnd);
        dataOutputStream.writeBytes("Content-Disposition: form-data; name=\"uploaded_file\"; filename=\""
                + fileName + "\"" + lineEnd);
        dataOutputStream.writeBytes(lineEnd);

        ByteArrayInputStream fileInputStream = new ByteArrayInputStream(fileData);
        int bytesAvailable = fileInputStream.available();

        int maxBufferSize = 1024 * 1024;
        int bufferSize = Math.min(bytesAvailable, maxBufferSize);
        byte[] buffer = new byte[bufferSize];

        // read file and write it into form...
        int bytesRead = fileInputStream.read(buffer, 0, bufferSize);

        while (bytesRead > 0) {
            dataOutputStream.write(buffer, 0, bufferSize);
            bytesAvailable = fileInputStream.available();
            bufferSize = Math.min(bytesAvailable, maxBufferSize);
            bytesRead = fileInputStream.read(buffer, 0, bufferSize);
        }

        dataOutputStream.writeBytes(lineEnd);
    }

    private byte[] getFileDataFromDrawable(Context context, int id) {
        Drawable drawable = ContextCompat.getDrawable(context, id);
        Bitmap bitmap = ((BitmapDrawable) drawable).getBitmap();
        ByteArrayOutputStream byteArrayOutputStream = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
        bitmap.compress(Bitmap.CompressFormat.PNG, 0, byteArrayOutputStream);
        return byteArrayOutputStream.toByteArray();
    }
}

MultipartRequest.java:

package com.example.multipartvolley;

import com.android.volley.AuthFailureError;
import com.android.volley.NetworkResponse;
import com.android.volley.ParseError;
import com.android.volley.Request;
import com.android.volley.Response;
import com.android.volley.VolleyError;
import com.android.volley.toolbox.HttpHeaderParser;

import java.util.Map;

class MultipartRequest extends Request<NetworkResponse> {
    private final Response.Listener<NetworkResponse> mListener;
    private final Response.ErrorListener mErrorListener;
    private final Map<String, String> mHeaders;
    private final String mMimeType;
    private final byte[] mMultipartBody;

    public MultipartRequest(String url, Map<String, String> headers, String mimeType, byte[] multipartBody, Response.Listener<NetworkResponse> listener, Response.ErrorListener errorListener) {
        super(Method.POST, url, errorListener);
        this.mListener = listener;
        this.mErrorListener = errorListener;
        this.mHeaders = headers;
        this.mMimeType = mimeType;
        this.mMultipartBody = multipartBody;
    }

    @Override
    public Map<String, String> getHeaders() throws AuthFailureError {
        return (mHeaders != null) ? mHeaders : super.getHeaders();
    }

    @Override
    public String getBodyContentType() {
        return mMimeType;
    }

    @Override
    public byte[] getBody() throws AuthFailureError {
        return mMultipartBody;
    }

    @Override
    protected Response<NetworkResponse> parseNetworkResponse(NetworkResponse response) {
        try {
            return Response.success(
                    response,
                    HttpHeaderParser.parseCacheHeaders(response));
        } catch (Exception e) {
            return Response.error(new ParseError(e));
        }
    }

    @Override
    protected void deliverResponse(NetworkResponse response) {
        mListener.onResponse(response);
    }

    @Override
    public void deliverError(VolleyError error) {
        mErrorListener.onErrorResponse(error);
    }
}

UPDATE:

For text part, please refer to @Oscar's answer below.

I rewrite your code @RacZo and @BNK more modular and easy to use like

VolleyMultipartRequest multipartRequest = new VolleyMultipartRequest(Request.Method.POST, url, new Response.Listener<NetworkResponse>() {
    @Override
    public void onResponse(NetworkResponse response) {
        String resultResponse = new String(response.data);
        // parse success output
    }
}, new Response.ErrorListener() {
    @Override
    public void onErrorResponse(VolleyError error) {                
        error.printStackTrace();
    }
}) {
    @Override
    protected Map<String, String> getParams() {
        Map<String, String> params = new HashMap<>();
        params.put("api_token", "gh659gjhvdyudo973823tt9gvjf7i6ric75r76");
        params.put("name", "Angga");
        params.put("location", "Indonesia");
        params.put("about", "UI/UX Designer");
        params.put("contact", "[email protected]");
        return params;
    }

    @Override
    protected Map<String, DataPart> getByteData() {
        Map<String, DataPart> params = new HashMap<>();
        // file name could found file base or direct access from real path
        // for now just get bitmap data from ImageView
        params.put("avatar", new DataPart("file_avatar.jpg", AppHelper.getFileDataFromDrawable(getBaseContext(), mAvatarImage.getDrawable()), "image/jpeg"));
        params.put("cover", new DataPart("file_cover.jpg", AppHelper.getFileDataFromDrawable(getBaseContext(), mCoverImage.getDrawable()), "image/jpeg"));

        return params;
    }
};

VolleySingleton.getInstance(getBaseContext()).addToRequestQueue(multipartRequest);

Check full of code VolleyMultipartRequest at my gist.

Just want to add to the answer. I was trying to figure how to append text fields to the body and created the following function to do it:

private void buildTextPart(DataOutputStream dataOutputStream, String parameterName, String parameterValue) throws IOException {
    dataOutputStream.writeBytes(twoHyphens + boundary + lineEnd);
    dataOutputStream.writeBytes("Content-Disposition: form-data; name=\"" + parameterName + "\"" + lineEnd);
    dataOutputStream.writeBytes("Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8" + lineEnd);
    dataOutputStream.writeBytes(lineEnd);
    dataOutputStream.writeBytes(parameterValue + lineEnd);
}

It is working pretty well.

For those who are struggling to send utf-8 parameters and still no luck, the problem I had was in the dataOutputStream, and change the code of @RacZo to below code:

private void buildTextPart(DataOutputStream dataOutputStream, String parameterName, String parameterValue) throws IOException {
        dataOutputStream.writeBytes(twoHyphens + boundary + lineEnd);
        dataOutputStream.writeBytes("Content-Disposition: form-data; name=\"");
        dataOutputStream.write(parameterName.getBytes("UTF-8"));
        dataOutputStream.writeBytes(lineEnd);
        dataOutputStream.writeBytes("Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8" + lineEnd);
        dataOutputStream.writeBytes(lineEnd);
        dataOutputStream.write(parameterValue.getBytes("UTF-8"));
        dataOutputStream.writeBytes(lineEnd);
    } 

I found a wrapper of the original volley library which is easier to integrate for multi-part requests. It also supports uploading the multi-part data along with other request parameters. Hence I am sharing my code for the future developers who might run into the problem that I was having (i.e. uploading multi-part data using volley along with some other parameters).

Add the following library in the build.gradle file.

dependencies {
    compile 'dev.dworks.libs:volleyplus:+'
}

Please note that, I removed the original volley library from my build.gradle and used the above library instead which can handle both multi-part and normal requests having similar integration technique.

Then I just had to write the following class which handles the POST request operation.

public class POSTMediasTask {
    public void uploadMedia(final Context context, String filePath) {

        String url = getUrlForPOSTMedia(); // This is a dummy function which returns the POST url for you
        SimpleMultiPartRequest multiPartRequestWithParams = new SimpleMultiPartRequest(Request.Method.POST, url,
                new Response.Listener<String>() {
                    @Override
                    public void onResponse(String response) {
                        Log.d("Response", response);
                        // TODO: Do something on success
                    }
                }, new Response.ErrorListener() {
            @Override
            public void onErrorResponse(VolleyError error) {
                // TODO: Handle your error here
            }
        });

        // Add the file here
        multiPartRequestWithParams.addFile("file", filePath);

        // Add the params here
        multiPartRequestWithParams.addStringParam("param1", "SomeParamValue1");
        multiPartRequestWithParams.addStringParam("param2", "SomeParamValue2");

        RequestQueue queue = Volley.newRequestQueue(context);
        queue.add(multiPartRequestWithParams);
    }
}

Now execute the task like the following.

new POSTMediasTask().uploadMedia(context, mediaPath);

You can upload one file at a time using this library. However, I could manage to upload multiple files, just by initiating multiple tasks.

Hope that helps!

Here is a Kotlin version of a class allowing multipart request with Volley 1.1.1.

It's mostly based on @BNK's solution but slighly simplified. I did not notice any particular performance issue. I uploaded a 5Mb pic in about 3 seconds.

class MultipartWebservice(context: Context) {

    private var queue: RequestQueue? = null

    private val boundary = "apiclient-" + System.currentTimeMillis()
    private val mimeType = "multipart/form-data;boundary=$boundary"

    init {
        queue = Volley.newRequestQueue(context)
    }

    fun sendMultipartRequest(
        method: Int,
        url: String,
        fileData: ByteArray,
        fileName: String,
        listener: Response.Listener<NetworkResponse>,
        errorListener: Response.ErrorListener
    ) {

        // Create multi part byte array
        val bos = ByteArrayOutputStream()
        val dos = DataOutputStream(bos)
        buildMultipartContent(dos, fileData, fileName)
        val multipartBody = bos.toByteArray()

        // Request header, if needed
        val headers = HashMap<String, String>()
        headers["API-TOKEN"] = "458e126682d577c97d225bbd73a75b5989f65e977b6d8d4b2267537019ad9d20"

        val request = MultipartRequest(
            method,
            url,
            errorListener,
            listener,
            headers,
            mimeType,
            multipartBody
        )

        queue?.add(request)

    }

    @Throws(IOException::class)
    private fun buildMultipartContent(dos: DataOutputStream, fileData: ByteArray, fileName: String) {

        val twoHyphens = "--"
        val lineEnd = "\r\n"

        dos.writeBytes(twoHyphens + boundary + lineEnd)
        dos.writeBytes("Content-Disposition: form-data; name=\"file\"; filename=\"$fileName\"$lineEnd")
        dos.writeBytes(lineEnd)
        dos.write(fileData)
        dos.writeBytes(lineEnd)
        dos.writeBytes(twoHyphens + boundary + twoHyphens + lineEnd)
    }

    class MultipartRequest(
        method: Int,
        url: String,
        errorListener: Response.ErrorListener?,
        private var listener: Response.Listener<NetworkResponse>,
        private var headers: MutableMap<String, String>,
        private var mimeType: String,
        private var multipartBody: ByteArray
    ) : Request<NetworkResponse>(method, url, errorListener) {

        override fun getHeaders(): MutableMap<String, String> {
            return if (headers.isEmpty()) super.getHeaders() else headers
        }

        override fun getBodyContentType(): String {
            return mimeType
        }

        override fun getBody(): ByteArray {
            return multipartBody
        }

        override fun parseNetworkResponse(response: NetworkResponse?): Response<NetworkResponse> {
            return try {
                Response.success(response, HttpHeaderParser.parseCacheHeaders(response))
            } catch (e: Exception) {
                Response.error(ParseError(e))
            }
        }

        override fun deliverResponse(response: NetworkResponse?) {
            listener.onResponse(response)
        }
    }
}