Spring MVC - Multipart file upload with Ajax (Could not parse multipart servlet request)

Question

I'm trying to upload a multipart file using Ajax, Spring MVC 3.2.0, Tomcat 8.0.9, but can't get it work. I read a lot of blogs and similar posting here on stackoverflow (Spring upload file problems, MultipartConfig with Servlet 3.0 on Spring MVC, …) which seem to have similar causes but couldn't figure out how to solve it. The weird thing is that the upload works when the file is smaller than 1MB, but when ever the recorded video exceeds that size, the following error is raised:

org.springframework.web.multipart.MultipartException: Could not parse multipart servlet request; nested exception is org.apache.commons.fileupload.FileUploadBase$IOFileUploadException: Processing of multipart/form-data request failed. null
org.springframework.web.multipart.commons.CommonsMultipartResolver.parseRequest(CommonsMultipartResolver.java:163)
org.springframework.web.multipart.commons.CommonsMultipartResolver.resolveMultipart(CommonsMultipartResolver.java:139)
org.springframework.web.multipart.support.MultipartFilter.doFilterInternal(MultipartFilter.java:110)

In the following you can see all the configurations I made:

1. The AJAX POST-Request:

   var videoBlob = e.data;
   var pathArray = window.location.pathname.split( '/' );
   var userID;
   
   for (i = 0; i < pathArray.length; i++) {
       if (pathArray[i].toString() == "edit"){
           userID = pathArray[i+1];
       }
   }
   
   var fd = new FormData();
   fd.append('fname', 'video');
   fd.append('data', videoBlob);
   
   $.ajax({
       url: '/user/edit/uploadVideo/' + userID,
       data: fd,
       processData: false,
       contentType: false,
       type: 'POST',
       success: function(data)
       {
           $('#result').html(data + "uploaded by FormData!");
       }
   });
   

2. The web.xml

   <context-param>
       <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
       <param-value>classpath*:root-context.xml</param-value>
   </context-param>
   
   <context-param>
       <param-name>spring.profiles.default</param-name>
       <param-value>common</param-value>
   </context-param>
   
   <listener>
       <listener-class>org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener</listener-class>
   </listener>
   
   <servlet>
       <servlet-name>appServlet</servlet-name>
       <servlet-class>org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet</servlet-class>
       <init-param>
           <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
           <param-value>classpath*:servlet-context.xml</param-value>
       </init-param>
       <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
   </servlet>
   
   <servlet-mapping>
       <servlet-name>appServlet</servlet-name>
       <url-pattern>/</url-pattern>
   </servlet-mapping>
   
   <filter>
       <display-name>springMultipartFilter</display-name>
       <filter-name>springMultipartFilter</filter-name>
       <filter-class>org.springframework.web.multipart.support.MultipartFilter</filter-class>
   </filter>
   
   <filter-mapping>
       <filter-name>springMultipartFilter</filter-name>
       <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
   </filter-mapping>
   

3. The servlet-context.xml

   <mvc:annotation-driven />
   <mvc:resources mapping="/**" location="/resources/" />
   
   <context:component-scan base-package="de.talentwuerfel"/>
   
   <bean class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.InternalResourceViewResolver">
   <property name="prefix" value="/WEB-INF/pages/" />
   <property name="suffix" value=".jsp" />
   </bean>
   
   <bean id="myDataSource" class="org.apache.commons.dbcp.BasicDataSource" destroy-method="close">
   <property name="driverClassName" value="com.mysql.jdbc.Driver"/>
   <property name="url" value="jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/schema"/>
   <property name="username" value="root"/>
   <property name="password" value=""/>
   <property name="validationQuery" value="SELECT 1"/>
   </bean>
   
   <bean id="mySessionFactory" class="org.springframework.orm.hibernate4.LocalSessionFactoryBean">
   <property name="dataSource" ref="myDataSource"/>
   <property name="packagesToScan">
       <array>
           <value>de.talentwuerfel</value>
       </array>
   </property>
   <property name="hibernateProperties">
       <props>
           <prop key="hibernate.hbm2ddl.auto">update</prop>
           <prop key="hibernate.dialect">org.hibernate.dialect.MySQL5Dialect</prop>
           <prop key="hibernate.show_sql">true</prop>
       </props>
   </property>
   </bean>
   
   <bean id="transactionManager" class="org.springframework.orm.hibernate4.HibernateTransactionManager">
   <property name="sessionFactory" ref="mySessionFactory"/>
   </bean>
   
   <bean id="persistenceExceptionTranslationPostProcessor"
     class="org.springframework.dao.annotation.PersistenceExceptionTranslationPostProcessor"/>
   
   <tx:annotation-driven transaction-manager="transactionManager"/>
   

4. The root-context.xml where I defined the MultipartResolver

   <bean id="filterMultipartResolver" class="org.springframework.web.multipart.commons.CommonsMultipartResolver">
       <property name="maxUploadSize"   value="100000000"/>
       <property name="maxInMemorySize" value="4096"/>
   </bean>
   

5. The Java-Controller

   @RequestMapping(value = "/edit/uploadVideo/{id}", method = RequestMethod.POST)
   public @ResponseBody String uploadVideo(@PathVariable long id, MultipartHttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws IOException {
         //.... file handling
   }
   

How can I solve this problem?

EDIT:

I tried the suggested approach and used the Servlet implementation to manage my video-file upload. The following adjustments have been made, but it's still resulting in a similar error:

1. Adjusted @Controller:

   @RequestMapping(value = "/edit/uploadVideo/{id}", method = RequestMethod.POST)
   public String uploadVideo(@PathVariable long id, @RequestParam("data") Part file) {
   
   //...
   }
   

2. The root-controller has been deleted and I added the multipartResolver to the servlet-context.xml

   <bean id="multipartResolver" class="org.springframework.web.multipart.support.StandardServletMultipartResolver">
   </bean>
   

3. The tag was in the web.xml has been extended by the following Multipart-Configuration:

   <servlet>
       <servlet-name>appServlet</servlet-name>
       <servlet-class>org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet</servlet-class>
       <init-param>
           <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
           <param-value>classpath*:servlet-context.xml</param-value>
       </init-param>
       <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
       <multipart-config>
           <location>/tmp</location>
           <max-file-size>20848820</max-file-size>
           <max-request-size>418018841</max-request-size>
           <file-size-threshold>1048576</file-size-threshold>
       </multipart-config>
   </servlet>
   

However, I'm still getting an exception and can't upload a blob file larger than 1MB:

Could not parse multipart servlet request; nested exception is java.io.IOException: org.apache.tomcat.util.http.fileupload.FileUploadBase$IOFileUploadException: Processing of multipart/form-data request failed. null
    org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.processRequest(FrameworkServlet.java:927)
    org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.doPost(FrameworkServlet.java:822)
    javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:644)
    org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.service(FrameworkServlet.java:796)
    javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:725) 

I implemented a similar file upload where a single file was simply picked and it totally worked to send large files while using the same configuration. So I believe it has rather something to do with the Ajax POST or the attached blob file?!

Answer 1

you can add this in you application to active Servlet3.0 MultiParsing:

 @Bean
    public MultipartConfigElement multipartConfigElement() {
        MultiPartConfigFactory factory = new MultiPartConfigFactory();
        factory.setMaxFileSize("128KB");
        factory.setMaxRequestSize("128KB");
        return factory.createMultipartConfig();
    }

or do it in XML.

Answer 2

Not really an answer to your exact question, just my 2 cents. There are basically 2 ways of uploading files with the help of Spring MVC :

• using Jakarta Commons FileUpload, the only way (aside from implementing one yourself) before the appearance of the servlet 3.0 API
• using the Servlet implementation of your server (only if servlet impl version >= 3.0)

Since you are using Tomcat 8.0.9, the Servet 3.0 option is available to you which I definitely recommend since it doesn't introduce yet another external dependency in your project. Also, since it follows the Servlet 3.0 spec, the configuration of such upload mechanism is now java standard which is nice in case you decide to move from Spring MVC to another MVC framework (your configuration values would remain the same).

In case you can't figure out your IOFileUploadException, I think you should give it a try.