Spring 4 MVC Single and Multiple File Upload Example with Tomcat

August 09, 2014 In this page we will learn how to upload a file in Spring 4 MVC. We are presenting the demo for single and multiple file upload. We are using XML less configurations. MultipartConfigElement Bean needs to be configured for file upload. In controller, method argument should be MultipartFile class for uploading the file. The JSP form, enctype must be set for multipart form data. Check the demo now.

Software Used

To run the file upload demo in Spring 4, get ready with below software. 
1. JDK 7 
2. Eclipse 
3. Tomcat 7 
4. Gradle 2.0 for Spring Boot

Project Structure in Eclipse

For better understanding, get the file location in eclipse how to put our classes and JSPs.

Controller Class: Use of MultipartFile

In our example we are presenting demo for single and multiple file upload. So we have created two different methods for uploading the file. In single upload, the method should have the parameter as below with other parameters.

@RequestParam("file")MultipartFile file 

And for multiple file upload , the parameter should be as below

@RequestParam
 
("file")MultipartFile[]  file 

Get the name of file from MultipartFile object and save it to your desired location. Find the controller. 
FileUploadController.java

package com.concretepage;import java.io.BufferedOutputStream;import java.io.File;import java.io.FileOutputStream;import org.springframework.stereotype.Controller;import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping;import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMethod;import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestParam;import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.ResponseBody;import org.springframework.web.multipart.MultipartFile;@ControllerpublicclassFileUploadController{@RequestMapping(value="/singleUpload")publicString singleUpload(){return"singleUpload";}@RequestMapping(value="/singleSave", method=RequestMethod.POST )public@ResponseBodyString singleSave(@RequestParam("file")MultipartFile file,@RequestParam("desc")String desc ){System.out.println("File Description:"+desc);String fileName =null;if(!file.isEmpty()){try{
                fileName = file.getOriginalFilename();byte[] bytes = file.getBytes();BufferedOutputStream buffStream =newBufferedOutputStream(newFileOutputStream(newFile("F:/cp/"+ fileName)));
                buffStream.write(bytes);
                buffStream.close();return"You have successfully uploaded "+ fileName;}catch(Exception e){return"You failed to upload "+ fileName +": "+ e.getMessage();}}else{return"Unable to upload. File is empty.";}}@RequestMapping(value="/multipleUpload")publicString multiUpload(){return"multipleUpload";}@RequestMapping(value="/multipleSave", method=RequestMethod.POST )public@ResponseBodyString multipleSave(@RequestParam("file")MultipartFile[] files){String fileName =null;String msg ="";if(files !=null&& files.length >0){for(int i =0;i< files.length; i++){try{
	                fileName = files[i].getOriginalFilename();byte[] bytes = files[i].getBytes();BufferedOutputStream buffStream =newBufferedOutputStream(newFileOutputStream(newFile("F:/cp/"+ fileName)));
	                buffStream.write(bytes);
	                buffStream.close();
	                msg +="You have successfully uploaded "+ fileName +"<br/>";}catch(Exception e){return"You failed to upload "+ fileName +": "+ e.getMessage()+"<br/>";}}return msg;}else{return"Unable to upload. File is empty.";}}}

Configuration Class: Use of MultipartConfigElement Bean

In the configuration class, we need to use bean for MultipartConfigElement and UrlBasedViewResolver. MultipartConfigElement supports the file upload where we can set max file size, max request size etc. MultipartConfigElement needs to be configured with Dispatcher servlet using WebApplicationInitializer . UrlBasedViewResolver defines the JSP location and file extension pattern of output. 
AppConfig.java

package com.concretepage;import javax.servlet.MultipartConfigElement;import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.EnableAutoConfiguration;import org.springframework.boot.context.embedded.MultipartConfigFactory;import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;import org.springframework.context.annotation.ComponentScan;import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;import org.springframework.web.servlet.config.annotation.EnableWebMvc;import org.springframework.web.servlet.view.JstlView;import org.springframework.web.servlet.view.UrlBasedViewResolver;@Configuration@ComponentScan@EnableWebMvc@EnableAutoConfigurationpublicclassAppConfig{@BeanpublicMultipartConfigElement multipartConfigElement(){MultipartConfigFactory factory =newMultipartConfigFactory();
        factory.setMaxFileSize("128KB");
        factory.setMaxRequestSize("128KB");return factory.createMultipartConfig();}@BeanpublicUrlBasedViewResolver setupViewResolver(){UrlBasedViewResolver resolver =newUrlBasedViewResolver();  
        resolver.setPrefix("/views/");  
        resolver.setSuffix(".jsp");  
        resolver.setViewClass(JstlView.class);return resolver;}}

WebApplicationInitializer Class: Use of Dynamic.setMultipartConfig()

WebApplicationInitializer is used when our application is not using web.xml. This supports all functionality which web.xml does. To supports file upload our dispatcher must be set for multipart config. 
WebAppInitializer.java

package com.concretepage;import javax.servlet.MultipartConfigElement;import javax.servlet.ServletContext;import javax.servlet.ServletException;import javax.servlet.ServletRegistration.Dynamic;import org.springframework.web.WebApplicationInitializer;import org.springframework.web.context.support.AnnotationConfigWebApplicationContext;import org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet;publicclassWebAppInitializerimplementsWebApplicationInitializer{publicvoid onStartup(ServletContext servletContext)throwsServletException{AnnotationConfigWebApplicationContext ctx =newAnnotationConfigWebApplicationContext();  
        ctx.register(AppConfig.class);  
        ctx.setServletContext(servletContext); 
        ctx.refresh();Dynamicdynamic= servletContext.addServlet("dispatcher",newDispatcherServlet(ctx));dynamic.addMapping("/");dynamic.setLoadOnStartup(1);dynamic.setMultipartConfig(ctx.getBean(MultipartConfigElement.class));}}

View: Use of enctype="multipart/form-data" and type="file"

The JSPs are being used as views. To support file upload, form must be set with enctype for multipart form data and there should a file input text. We have two JSP. Find the JSP for single file upload. 
singleUpload.jsp

<html><body><h1>Single File Upload</h1><formmethod="post"enctype="multipart/form-data"action="singleSave">
		Upload File: <inputtype="file"name="file"><br/><br/>
		Description: <inputtype="text"name="desc"/><br/><br/><inputtype="submit"value="Upload"></form></body></html>

Find the JSP for multiple file Upload. We need to take care that each input type of file type must have same name, so that it could be accessed as an array. 
multipleUpload.jsp

<html><body><h1> Multiple File Upload </h1><formmethod="post"enctype="multipart/form-data"action="multipleSave">
		Upload File 1: <inputtype="file"name="file"><br/>
		Upload File 2: <inputtype="file"name="file"><br/>
		Upload File 3: <inputtype="file"name="file"><br/>
		Upload File 4: <inputtype="file"name="file"><br/><br/><br/><inputtype="submit"value="Upload"></form></body></html>

Spring Boot Jar Dependency using Gradle

Find the gradle script for JAR dependency and creating WAR file of the project. Spring boot web and security are being used. 
build.gradle

apply plugin:'java'
apply plugin:'eclipse'
apply plugin:'war'
archivesBaseName ='CP'
repositories {
    mavenCentral()}
dependencies {
   compile 'org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-web:1.1.4.RELEASE'
   compile 'org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-security:1.1.4.RELEASE'
   compile 'javax.servlet:jstl:1.2'
   compile 'commons-fileupload:commons-fileupload:1.3.1'}

Deploy in Tomcat 7 To Check Output

Go to build directory in your project and inside lib you will get WAR file. Deploy in in tomcat and test. In our demo we are using tomcat 7. 
Single File Upload Output
For single upload use the URL as http://localhost:8080/CP/singleUpload
Multiple File Upload Output
For multiple file upload use the URL as http://localhost:8080/CP/multipleUpload

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