Multipart/Formdata image upload, get the file - ios

Question

in my app i want to upload an image chosen via UIImagePickerController to a database which only accepts JPEG images. I've browsed many questions in here, and in other forums but i still didn't get it to work. I hope you can check my code, if there is a mistake which i can't see.
This is the complete method for uploading, with an image description, an image title, and the geodata for this image:
- (void) uploadPic{
NSArray *paths = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES);
NSString *documentsDirectory = [paths objectAtIndex:0];
NSString *destinationFilePath = [[NSString alloc] initWithFormat: #"%#/%#.jpeg", documentsDirectory, self.chosenImage.imgTitle];
NSURL *fileURL = [[NSURL alloc]initWithString:destinationFilePath];
NSLog(#"will upload file: %#", destinationFilePath);
NSData *imageURLdata = [[NSData alloc]initWithContentsOfURL:fileURL]; (*1)
NSData *imageData = UIImageJPEGRepresentation(self.chosenImage, 90); (*2)
//Here i tried 2 ways of getting the data for uploading, but both don't work.
// create the URL
NSURL *postURL = [NSURL URLWithString:#"http://*********/PictureUpload"];
// create the connection
NSMutableURLRequest *postRequest = [NSMutableURLRequest requestWithURL:postURL cachePolicy:NSURLRequestUseProtocolCachePolicy timeoutInterval:20.0];
// change type to POST (default is GET)
[postRequest setHTTPMethod:#"POST"];
// just some random text that will never occur in the body
NSString *stringBoundary = #"0xKhTmLbOuNdArY---This_Is_ThE_BoUnDaRyy---pqo";
// header value, user session ID added
NSString *headerBoundary = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"multipart/form-data; boundary=%#",
sessionID];
// set header
[postRequest addValue:headerBoundary forHTTPHeaderField:#"Content-Type"];
// create data
NSMutableData *postBody = [NSMutableData data];
// title part
[postBody appendData:[[NSString stringWithFormat:#"--%#\r\n", stringBoundary] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[postBody appendData:[[NSString stringWithString:#"Content-Disposition: form-data; name=\"title\"\r\n\r\n"] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[postBody appendData:[self.chosenImage.imgTitle dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[postBody appendData:[#"\r\n" dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
// desc part
[postBody appendData:[[NSString stringWithFormat:#"--%#\r\n", stringBoundary] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[postBody appendData:[[NSString stringWithString:#"Content-Disposition: form-data; name=\"desc\"\r\n\r\n"] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[postBody appendData:[self.chosenImage.imgDescription dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[postBody appendData:[#"\r\n" dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
// latitude part
[postBody appendData:[[NSString stringWithFormat:#"--%#\r\n", stringBoundary] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[postBody appendData:[[NSString stringWithString:#"Content-Disposition: form-data; name=\"latitude\"\r\n\r\n"] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[postBody appendData:[self.chosenImage.latitude dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[postBody appendData:[#"\r\n" dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
// longitude part
[postBody appendData:[[NSString stringWithFormat:#"--%#\r\n", stringBoundary] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[postBody appendData:[[NSString stringWithString:#"Content-Disposition: form-data; name=\"longitude\"\r\n\r\n"] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[postBody appendData:[self.chosenImage.longitude dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[postBody appendData:[#"\r\n" dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
// media part
[postBody appendData:[[NSString stringWithFormat:#"--%#\r\n", stringBoundary] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[postBody appendData:[[NSString stringWithFormat:#"Content-Disposition: form-data; name=\"file\"; filename=\"%#.jpeg\"\r\n", self.chosenImage.imgTitle ] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[postBody appendData:[#"Content-Type: image/jpeg\r\n" dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[postBody appendData:[NSData dataWithData:imageURLdata]];
[postBody appendData:[#"Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary\r\n\r\n" dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
// final boundary
[postBody appendData:[[NSString stringWithFormat:#"--%#--\r\n", stringBoundary] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
NSString *s = [[NSString alloc] initWithData:postBody encoding:NSASCIIStringEncoding];
NSLog(#"%#", s);
// add body to post
[postRequest setHTTPBody:postBody];
// pointers to some necessary objects
NSURLResponse* response;
NSError* error;
// synchronous filling of data from HTTP POST response
NSData *responseData = [NSURLConnection sendSynchronousRequest:postRequest returningResponse:&response error:&error];
if (error)
{
NSLog(#"Error: %#", [error localizedDescription]);
}
// convert data into string
NSString *responseString = [[NSString alloc] initWithBytes:[responseData bytes]
length:[responseData length]
encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
// see if we get a welcome result
NSLog(#"%#", responseString);
[self responseHandler:responseString];
}
The GEOimage chosenImage is created via the CGImageRef after an UIImage is chosen in the ImagePickerController.
Method nr. *1 to get the NSData for upload is not the best, because here the image is chosen from the document directory, and here every EXIF information about the image is deleted.
With both methods i get the response from the database that the image filetype is not supported (JPEG expected).
I thought with method nr. *2 i'm sending an JPEG image, but perhaps i have a mistake in the whole multipart/formdata process.
I tried to get the URL to the original file on the filesystem, but this is quite difficult for me. I only got the assets-url from the image.
Thanks in advance
S4lfish

Answer 1

You've probably solved it on your own by now, but I think I see your problem.
NSString *stringBoundary = #"0xKhTmLbOuNdArY---This_Is_ThE_BoUnDaRyy---pqo";
// header value, user session ID added
NSString *headerBoundary = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"multipart/form-data; boundary=%#",
sessionID];
When you're defining the boundary inside the MIME header, you're using your sessionID as the boundary. Then, down below, you're using your stringBoundary variable to create the actual boundaries.
[postBody appendData:[[NSString stringWithFormat:#"--%#\r\n", stringBoundary] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
It might also be a good idea to provide the Content-Length of each MIME block to help the processing code, but I don't think that's at issue here.

Answer 2

// Try this ---->>>
NSMutableDictionary *post_dic=[[NSMutableDictionary
alloc]initWithCapacity:20]; [post_dic setObject:firstName_txtFld.text
forKey:#"firstname"]; [post_dic setObject:lastName_txtFld.text
forKey:#"lastname"]; [post_dic setObject:email_txtFld.text
forKey:#"email"]; [post_dic setObject:password_txtFld.text
forKey:#"password"]; [post_dic setObject:country_txtFld.text
forKey:#"address"]; [post_dic setObject:state_txtFld.text
forKey:#"state"]; [post_dic setObject:city_txtFld.text
forKey:#"city"]; [post_dic setObject:zip_txtFld.text forKey:#"zip"];
[post_dic setObject:phoneNumber_txtFld.text forKey:#"phonenumber"];
NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:#"Enter your url"];
NSMutableURLRequest *urlRequest = [NSMutableURLRequest
requestWithURL:url]; [urlRequest setHTTPMethod:#"POST"]; [urlRequest
setHTTPBody:[urlString dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
NSString *boundary = #"--------------------------14737809831466499882746641449"; NSString
*contentType = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"multipart/form-data; boundary=%#",boundary];
[urlRequest addValue:contentType
forHTTPHeaderField: #"Content-Type"];
NSMutableData *postbody = [NSMutableData data];
for (NSString *param in post_dic) {
[postbody appendData:[[NSString stringWithFormat:#"--%#\r\n", boundary]
dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[postbody appendData:[[NSString stringWithFormat:#"Content-Disposition: form-data;
name=\"%#\"\r\n\r\n", param]
dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[postbody appendData:[[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#\r\n", [post_dic objectForKey:param]]
dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
}
[postbody appendData:[[NSString stringWithFormat:#"\r\n--%#\r\n",boundary]
dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[postbody appendData:[[NSString stringWithFormat:#"Content-Disposition: form-data;
name=\"filedata\";
filename=\"%#.jpg\"\r\n",#"text"]
dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[postbody appendData:[#"Content-Type: application/octet-stream\r\n\r\n"
dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
//NSLog(#" image -->%#",imageData);
[postbody appendData:[NSData dataWithData:imageData]];
[postbody appendData:[[NSString stringWithFormat:#"\r\n--%#--\r\n",boundary]
dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[urlRequest setHTTPBody:postbody]; [urlRequest setURL:url];
NSURLConnection *connection=[[NSURLConnection alloc] initWithRequest:urlRequest delegate:self];
[connection start];