create a multipart form data http request containing a json and a file

Based on the forum post created by Pedro Botolli Santos

https://community.ibm.com/community/user/automation/discussion/how-to-create-a-multipart-form-data-http-request-containing-a-json-and-a-file-in-the-request-body?ReturnUrl=%2fcommunity%2fuser%2fautomation%2fcommunities%2fcommunity-home%2fdigestviewer%3fcommunitykey%3d8e1faacf-120e-4d65-b013-c14cc0e27c04

I'm trying to upload files to the box but I could only make it work using curl, and with curl when I try to upload large files (over 30 MB) it sometimes hangs the script execution (the script does not break but the command does not timeout).
Is there any way to make the same request using only native IBM RPA commands?

Below is the link to the Box upload file documentation and an example of the request using cURL:

API Reference

curl -i -X POST "https://upload.box.com/api/2.0/files/content" \ -H "Authorization: Bearer <ACCESS_TOKEN>" \ -H "Content-Type: multipart/form-data" \ -F attributes='{"name":"Contract.pdf", "parent":{"id":"11446498"}}' \ -F file=@<FILE_NAME>

Idea priority

Medium

You can use Create HTTP Content and HTTP Request commands to build Multipart requests.

The following example was extracted from Create HTTP Content documentation:

defVar --name content --type HttpContent

defVar --name multicontentvar --type HttpContent

defVar --name content2 --type HttpContent

defVar --name content1 --type HttpContent

defVar --name content3 --type HttpContent

defVar --name content4 --type HttpContent

defVar --name success --type Boolean

defVar --name response --type String

createHttpContent --formattype "Json" --contentheader "MyHeader1: test port:8080" --body "{\"tests\":\r\n    {\r\n        \"test1\":\"First\",\r\n        \"test2\":\"Second\"\r\n    }\r\n}" content=value

createHttpContent --formattype "Json" --contentheader "MyHeader2: test port:8080" --parameters "test1=First,test2=Second" content1=value

createHttpContent --formattype "Text" --contentheader "MyHeader3: test port:80" --body "<html>\r\n<body>\r\n</body>\r\n</html>" --encoding "Default" --mediatype "application/html" content2=value

createHttpContent --formattype "Xml" --contentheader "MyHeader5: test port:8080" --body "<note>\r\n<from>Anonymous</from>\r\n<to>You</to>\r\n<messsage>We need more coffee users</message>\r\n</note>\r\n" content3=value

createHttpContent --formattype "Xml" --contentheader "MyHeader6: test port:8080" --body "\r\n" --parameters "<from>=Anonymous,<to>=You,<messsage>=We need more coffee users" content4=value

createHttpContent --formattype "Multipart" --boundary asdfasf --contentheader "Warning: test warning" --contentlist "content1=${content},content2=${content1},content3=${content2},content4=${content3},content5=${content4}" multicontentvar=value

httpRequest --verb "Post" --url "https://httpbin.org/post" --formatter "Instance" --source ${multicontentvar} --noproxy  success=success response=value

logMessage --message "Sucess: ${success}\r\nResponse: ${response}" --type "Info"

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| Dec 15, 2022

IBM RPA supports HTTP multipart requests using the 2 commands mentioned. Please open a support ticket to get this issue assessed by the support team and engineering team. Since it looks like you're using Box, it would be easy to reproduce because IBM uses Box.

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Reply | Dec 15, 2022

I had already tested the createHttpContent command, but in this case I was unable to make a request equivalent to this curl command using the native IBM RPA httpRequest commands. When executing the script below, the API returns that the parent field is mandatory (shown in the attached screenshot), but this value should be in the request, as it was added to the content variable in the firstcreateHttpContent command.

defVar --name content --type HttpContent
defVar --name multicontentvar --type HttpContent
defVar --name content1 --type HttpContent
defVar --name success --type Boolean
defVar --name response --type String
defVar --name status --type Numeric
defVar --name header --type StringDictionary --innertype String
defVar --name accessToken --type String --value yourAccessToken
createHttpContent --formattype "Json" --body "{\"name\":\"EMAIL_1001297729.pdf\",\"parent\":{\"id\":\"0\"}}" content=value
createHttpContent --formattype "Bytes" --file "C:\\Users\\W00107631\\Downloads\\EMAIL_1001297729.pdf" content1=value
createHttpContent --formattype "Multipart" --boundary asdfasf --contentlist "attributes=${content},file=${content1}" multicontentvar=value
strDictAdd --key Authorization --value "Bearer ${accessToken}" --dictionary ${header}
//strDictAdd --key "Content-Type" --value "multipart/form-data" --dictionary ${header}
httpRequest --verb "Post" --url "https://upload.box.com/api/2.0/files/content" --headers ${header} --formatter "Instance" --source "${multicontentvar}" --noproxy success=success response=value status=statusCode
logMessage --message "Sucess: ${success}\r\nResponse: ${response}" --type "Info"

curl -i -X POST "https://upload.box.com/api/2.0/files/content" -H "Authorization: Bearer yourTokenHere" -H "Content-Type: multipart/form-data" -F attributes="{\"name\":\"EMAIL_1001297729.pdf\",\"parent\":{\"id\":\"0\"}}" -F file=@"C:\Users\W00107631\Downloads\EMAIL_1001297729.pdf"

(access token value replaced with "yourTokenHere" for security reasons)

createHttpConte...

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