Jersey – Ajax Multi-File Upload Example

Learn to use Ajax with JAX-RS webservices (Jersey used in example) to upload multiple files with single button click. Also look at form based file upload example and file download example as well.

Table of Contents

Jersey maven multipart dependency
Add MultiPartFeature
Write Upload REST API
HTML/Ajax code
Demo of Multiple files upload

Jersey maven multipart dependency

To use multipart features you need to add jersey-media-multipart module to your pom.xml file along with other required modules.

<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" 
		 xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
	     xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 
		 https://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd;
	<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
	<groupId>com.howtodoinjava.jersey</groupId>
	<artifactId>JerseyDemos</artifactId>
	<version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
	<packaging>war</packaging>
	<repositories>
		<repository>
			<id>maven2-repository.java.net</id>
			<name>Java.net Repository for Maven</name>
			<url>http://download.java.net/maven/2/</url>
			<layout>default</layout>
		</repository>
	</repositories>
	<properties>
		<jersey2.version>2.19</jersey2.version>
		<jaxrs.version>2.0.1</jaxrs.version>
	</properties>
	<dependencies>
		<!-- JAX-RS -->
		<dependency>
			<groupId>javax.ws.rs</groupId>
			<artifactId>javax.ws.rs-api</artifactId>
			<version>${jaxrs.version}</version>
		</dependency>
		<!-- Jersey 2.19 -->
		<dependency>
			<groupId>org.glassfish.jersey.containers</groupId>
			<artifactId>jersey-container-servlet</artifactId>
			<version>${jersey2.version}</version>
		</dependency>
		<dependency>
			<groupId>org.glassfish.jersey.core</groupId>
			<artifactId>jersey-server</artifactId>
			<version>${jersey2.version}</version>
		</dependency>
		<dependency>
			<groupId>org.glassfish.jersey.core</groupId>
			<artifactId>jersey-client</artifactId>
			<version>${jersey2.version}</version>
		</dependency>
		<dependency>
			<groupId>org.glassfish.jersey.media</groupId>
			<artifactId>jersey-media-multipart</artifactId>
			<version>${jersey2.version}</version>
		</dependency>
	</dependencies>
	<build>
		<finalName>JerseyDemos</finalName>
		<plugins>
			<plugin>
				<artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
				<configuration>
					<source>1.7</source>
					<target>1.7</target>
				</configuration>
			</plugin>
		</plugins>
	</build>
</project>

Add MultiPartFeature

Further, you are required to add MultiPartFeature in Jersey configuration to let it know that you will use multipart requests. Simplest way is to add support through web.xml file.

<!DOCTYPE web-app PUBLIC
 "-//Sun Microsystems, Inc.//DTD Web Application 2.3//EN"
 "http://java.sun.com/dtd/web-app_2_3.dtd" >

<web-app>

	<display-name>Archetype Created Web Application</display-name>

	<servlet>
		<servlet-name>jersey-serlvet</servlet-name>
		<servlet-class>org.glassfish.jersey.servlet.ServletContainer</servlet-class>
		<init-param>
			<param-name>jersey.config.server.provider.packages</param-name>
			<param-value>com.howtodoinjava.jersey</param-value>
		</init-param>
		<init-param>
			<param-name>jersey.config.server.provider.classnames</param-name>
			<param-value>org.glassfish.jersey.filter.LoggingFilter;
						 org.glassfish.jersey.media.multipart.MultiPartFeature</param-value>
		</init-param>
		<load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
	</servlet>

	<servlet-mapping>
		<servlet-name>jersey-serlvet</servlet-name>
		<url-pattern>/rest/*</url-pattern>
	</servlet-mapping>

</web-app>

Write Upload REST API

Now write the service layer JAX-RS API which will actually have the logic to store the uploaded file on server.

package com.howtodoinjava.jersey;

import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.io.OutputStream;

import javax.ws.rs.Consumes;
import javax.ws.rs.POST;
import javax.ws.rs.Path;
import javax.ws.rs.WebApplicationException;
import javax.ws.rs.core.MediaType;
import javax.ws.rs.core.Response;

import org.glassfish.jersey.media.multipart.FormDataContentDisposition;
import org.glassfish.jersey.media.multipart.FormDataParam;

@Path("/upload")
public class JerseyService 
{
	@POST
	@Path("/pdf")
	@Consumes({MediaType.MULTIPART_FORM_DATA})
	public Response uploadPdfFile(	@FormDataParam("file") InputStream fileInputStream,
            						@FormDataParam("file") FormDataContentDisposition fileMetaData) throws Exception
	{
		String UPLOAD_PATH = "c:/temp/";
		try 
		{
			int read = 0;
			byte[] bytes = new byte[1024];

			OutputStream out = new FileOutputStream(new File(UPLOAD_PATH + fileMetaData.getFileName()));
			while ((read = fileInputStream.read(bytes)) != -1) 
			{
				out.write(bytes, 0, read);
			}
			out.flush();
			out.close();
		} catch (IOException e) 
		{
			throw new WebApplicationException("Error while uploading file. Please try again !!");
		}
		return Response.ok(fileMetaData.getFileName() + " uploaded successfully !!").build();
	}
}

HTML/Ajax code

Time to look at client side code. I have written a very simple file with minimal functionality. Let me know if you want some specific changes in it.

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
  "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
	<head>
		<meta content="text/html;charset=utf-8" http-equiv="Content-Type" />
		<meta content="utf-8" http-equiv="encoding" />

		<script src="./js/jquery.min.js"></script>
		<script type="text/javascript">

		$(document).ready(function() 
		{
			$("#uploadBtn").click(function() 
			{
				$('input[name="file"]').each(function(index, value) 
				{ 
				    var file = value.files[0];
				    if(file) 
				    {
				    	var formData = new FormData();
						formData.append('file', file);
						$.ajax({
						  url : '/JerseyDemos/rest/upload/pdf',
						  type : 'POST',
						  data : formData,
						  cache : false,
						  contentType : false,
						  processData : false,
						  success : function(data, textStatus, jqXHR) {
						    	var message = jqXHR.responseText;
						    	$("#messages").append("<li>" + message + "</li>");
						  },
						  error : function(jqXHR, textStatus, errorThrown) {
							  	$("#messages").append("<li style='color: red;'>" + textStatus + "</li>");
						  }
						});
					}
				});
			});
		});
		</script>
</head>
<body>
	<h1>JAX-RS Multi-file Upload Example</h1>

	<form action="rest/upload/pdf" method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data">

		<p>
			Select file 1: <input type="file" name="file" size="45"	accept=".pdf" />
		</p>
		<p>
			Select file 2: <input type="file" name="file" size="45"	accept=".pdf" />
		</p>
		<p>
			Select file 3: <input type="file" name="file" size="45"	accept=".pdf" />
		</p>
		<p>
			<input id="uploadBtn" type="button" value="Upload PFD Files" />
		</p>

	</form>
	
	<ul id="messages">	
	</ul>

</body>
</html>

Demo of Multiple files upload

Demo time. Deploy the application on server and hit the URL : http://localhost:8080/JerseyDemos/fileUpload.html

Now select two/three files and click on upload button. You will get below message on screen. And files will be stored on server too.

Let me know of your questions in comment box.

Happy Learning !!