Upload pdf data to server - iphone

Question

I want to send my pdf file data do server with some user data also like userId and fileName.
I have tried 2 solutions but not got the pdf file on backend. Even i am having the pdf file in my document directory and it is opening successfully.
Tried 1:
-(void)uploadDock{
NSString *fileName =[NSString stringWithFormat: #"%#.pdf",#"Inspection"];
NSArray *paths = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory,NSUserDomainMask, YES);
NSString *documentsDirectory = [paths objectAtIndex:0];
NSString *path = [documentsDirectory stringByAppendingPathComponent:fileName];
NSData *data=[NSData dataWithContentsOfFile:path];
NSString *content=[data base64EncodedString];
NSUserDefaults *userDefaults = [NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults];
if ([self.responseData retainCount]) {
NSLog(#"Do nothing");
[self.responseData release];
}
self.responseData=[[NSMutableData alloc]init];
NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:#"http://abcgroup.delivery-projects.com:81/api/index.php?keyword=docinsert"];
//self.request = [NSMutableURLRequest requestWithURL:url
//cachePolicy:NSURLRequestUseProtocolCachePolicy timeoutInterval:60.0];
self.request = [NSMutableURLRequest requestWithURL:url];
NSLog(#"Requst %#",request);
NSString *userid=[userDefaults valueForKey:#"UIDD"];
NSString *title=fileName;
NSString *docname=fileName;
NSString *size=[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%d",[data length]];
NSString *post = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"userid=%#&title=%#&docname=%#&size=%#&content=%#",userid,title,docname,size,content];
NSData *postData = [post dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
[self.request setHTTPMethod:#"POST"];
//NSString *POSTBoundary = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"0xKhTmLbOuNdArY"];
//[self.request addValue:[NSString stringWithFormat:#"multipart/form-data; boundary=%#\r\n", POSTBoundary] forHTTPHeaderField:#"Content-Type"];
[self.request setValue:[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%d", postData.length] forHTTPHeaderField:#"Content-Length"];
[self.request setValue:#"application/x-www-form-urlencoded charset=utf-8" forHTTPHeaderField:#"Content-Type"];
[self.request setHTTPBody:postData];
[NSURLConnection connectionWithRequest:self.request delegate:self];
}
Tried 2:
I am reading the NSData of pdf file from Document directory.
/////
-(void)uploadDock{
self.condition=3;
NSString *fileName =[NSString stringWithFormat: #"%#.pdf",#"Inspection"];
NSArray *paths = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory,NSUserDomainMask, YES);
NSString *documentsDirectory = [paths objectAtIndex:0];
NSString *path = [documentsDirectory stringByAppendingPathComponent:fileName];
NSData *data=[NSData dataWithContentsOfFile:path];
NSString *content=[data base64EncodedString];
NSUserDefaults *userDefaults = [NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults];
if ([self.responseData retainCount]) {
NSLog(#"Do nothing");
}
else{
self.responseData=[[NSMutableData alloc]init];
}
NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:#"http://abcgroup.delivery-projects.com:81/api/index.php?keyword=docinsert"];
//self.request = [NSMutableURLRequest requestWithURL:url
// cachePolicy:NSURLRequestUseProtocolCachePolicy timeoutInterval:60.0];
self.request = [NSMutableURLRequest requestWithURL:url];
NSLog(#"Requst %#",request);
NSString *userid=[userDefaults valueForKey:#"UIDD"];
NSString *title=fileName;
NSString *docname=fileName;
NSString *size=[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%d",[data length]];
/*
NSString *post = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"userid=%#&title=%#&docname=%#&size=%#&content=%#",userid,title,docname,size,content];
NSData *postData = [post dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
[self.request setHTTPMethod:#"POST"];
//NSString *POSTBoundary = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"0xKhTmLbOuNdArY"];
//[self.request addValue:[NSString stringWithFormat:#"multipart/form-data; boundary=%#\r\n", POSTBoundary] forHTTPHeaderField:#"Content-Type"];
[self.request setValue:[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%d", postData.length] forHTTPHeaderField:#"Content-Length"];
[self.request setValue:#"application/x-www-form-urlencoded charset=utf-8" forHTTPHeaderField:#"Content-Type"];
[self.request setHTTPBody:postData];
[NSURLConnection connectionWithRequest:self.request delegate:self];
*/
/////
NSMutableURLRequest *request11 = [[NSMutableURLRequest alloc] init] ;
[request11 setURL:url];
[request11 setHTTPMethod:#"POST"];
NSString *boundary = #"---------------------------14737809831466499882746641449";
NSString *contentType = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"multipart/form-data; boundary=%#",boundary];
[request11 addValue:contentType forHTTPHeaderField: #"Content-Type"];
NSMutableData *body = [NSMutableData data];
// Pdf File
[body appendData:[[NSString stringWithFormat:#"\r\n--%#\r\n",boundary] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[body appendData:[#"Content-Disposition: form-data; name=\"content\"; filename=\"INSPECTION.pdf\"\r\n" dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
//[body appendData:[#"Content-Disposition: form-data; name=\"content\"\"\r\n" dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[body appendData:[#"Content-Type: application/octet-stream\r\n\r\n" dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[body appendData:[NSData dataWithData:data]];
[body appendData:[#"\r\n" dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
//[body appendData:[[NSString stringWithFormat:#"\r\n--%#--\r\n",boundary] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[body appendData:[[NSString stringWithFormat:#"--%#\r\n", boundary] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[body appendData:[[NSString stringWithFormat:#"Content-Disposition: form-data; name=\"userid\"\r\n\r\n"] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[body appendData:[[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#",userid] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[body appendData:[#"\r\n" dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[body appendData:[[NSString stringWithFormat:#"--%#\r\n", boundary] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[body appendData:[[NSString stringWithFormat:#"Content-Disposition: form-data; name=\"title\"\r\n\r\n"] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[body appendData:[[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#",#"TITLE_TEST1"] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[body appendData:[#"\r\n" dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[body appendData:[[NSString stringWithFormat:#"--%#\r\n", boundary] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[body appendData:[[NSString stringWithFormat:#"Content-Disposition: form-data; name=\"docname\"\r\n\r\n"] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[body appendData:[[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#",docname] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[body appendData:[#"\r\n" dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[body appendData:[[NSString stringWithFormat:#"--%#\r\n", boundary] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[body appendData:[[NSString stringWithFormat:#"Content-Disposition: form-data; name=\"size\"\r\n\r\n"] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[body appendData:[[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#",size] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[body appendData:[#"\r\n" dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[request11 setHTTPBody:body];
[NSURLConnection connectionWithRequest:request11 delegate:self];
//[NSURLConnection sendSynchronousRequest:request11 returningResponse:nil error:nil];
/////
}

Answer 1

I used following function to upload images, audio and videos with slight modifications.
In this function urloptions is the query string that you want to send with file like userId and fileName.
Didn't get chance to upload PDF but hope this will help you.
-(NSString *)uploadFile:(NSString *)urloptions: (NSString *) ext :(NSData *)imageData{
NSURL *url=[NSURL URLWithString:[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#&%#",APP_URL,urloptions]];
NSMutableURLRequest *request = [[[NSMutableURLRequest alloc] init] autorelease];
[request setURL:url];
[request setHTTPMethod:#"POST"];
NSString *boundary = [NSString stringWithString:#"---------------------------14737809831466499882746641449"];
NSString *contentType = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"multipart/form-data; boundary=%#", boundary];
[request addValue:contentType forHTTPHeaderField:#"Content-Type"];
NSMutableData *body = [NSMutableData data];
[body appendData:[[NSString stringWithFormat:#"\r\n--%#\r\n", boundary] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[body appendData:[[NSString stringWithFormat:#"Content-Disposition: form-data; name=\"formFile\"; filename=\".%#\"\r\n",ext] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[body appendData:[[NSString stringWithString:#"Content-Type: application/octet-stream\r\n\r\n"] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[body appendData:[NSData dataWithData:imageData]];
[body appendData:[[NSString stringWithFormat:#"\r\n--%#--\r\n", boundary] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[request setHTTPBody:body];
NSData *returnData = [NSURLConnection sendSynchronousRequest:request returningResponse:nil error:nil];
NSString *returnString = [[[NSString alloc] initWithData:returnData encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding] autorelease];
//NSLog(#"%#",returnString);
return returnString ;
//[returnString release];
}

Answer 2

While you can find a way to correctly post your data, it will be much easier and maintainable to use a wrapper around NSURLConnection such as STHTTPRequest https://github.com/nst/STHTTPRequest. Here is what your code will look like:
STHTTPRequest *r = [STHTTPRequest requestWithURLString:#"http://abcgroup.delivery-projects.com:81/api/index.php?keyword=docinsert"];
[r setFileToUpload:#"Inspection.pdf" parameterName:#"myFile"];
[r setPOSTDictionary:#{#"userid":#"", #"title":#"", #"docName":#""}]; // your parameters here
r.completionBlock = ^(NSDictionary *headers, NSString *body) {
// ...
};
r.errorBlock = ^(NSError *error) {
// ...
};
[r startAsynchronous];

Answer 3

To upload any type of file you can use ASIHttpRequest library that you can get from https://github.com/pokeb/asi-http-request.
To upload file use ASIFormDataRequest class of this library that makes your work easy.

Answer 4

first convert your pdf in binary
NSData theData = [NSData dataWithData:[GTMBase64 decodeString:theBinary]]; //first transfer it to NSData.
[m_oTestingWeb loadData:theData
MIMEType:#"application/pdf"
textEncodingName:#"UTF-8"
baseURL:nil]; //using the web view to show it back
then upload this data to server.
You have to create an API on the web server that the iPhone can contact in order to POST data to your web server. You can simply create an NSURLConnection in order to build your packet to post the data from the iPhone app.
Inside an NSURLConnection you can tell it to be a POST packet and then add data to the body of the request. Your image data should be converted to UTF8 and stored as a nvarchar or something along those lines in your database.
Understand, this is an overview of what you have to do, without knowledge of your internal workings of the web app I cannot give you specifics.

Answer 5

You can use the latest Library by AFNewtork:
With AFNetworking you can do it by:
NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:#"my_base_url"];
AFHTTPClient *httpClient = [[AFHTTPClient alloc] initWithBaseURL:url];
NSData *imageData = UIImageJPEGRepresentation([UIImage imageNamed:#"yourfile.pdf"], 0.5);
NSMutableURLRequest *request = [httpClient multipartFormRequestWithMethod:#"POST" path:#"/upload" parameters:nil constructingBodyWithBlock: ^(id <AFMultipartFormData>formData) {
[formData appendPartWithFileData:imageData name:#"MainMedia" fileName:#"MainMedia" mimeType:#"image/jpeg"];
}];
AFHTTPRequestOperation *operation = [[AFHTTPRequestOperation alloc] initWithRequest:request];
[operation setUploadProgressBlock:^(NSInteger bytesWritten, long long totalBytesWritten, long long totalBytesExpectedToWrite) {
NSLog(#"Sent %lld of %lld bytes", totalBytesWritten, totalBytesExpectedToWrite);
}];
[operation start];
}
Download AFNetworking library and add it to your project.

Answer 6

Two real issues that I can spot in "Tried 2"
It seems, you forgot the final delimiter - see Irfan DANISH post.
You need the binary of the pdf - not the UTF8.
Additionally, do not use a synchronous request - use the asynchronous style implementing the delegate methods.
And, you "should" set a Content-Length header for the pdf part.