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Status Functionality already exists
Created by Guest
Created on Sep 12, 2022

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
  • ADMIN RESPONSE
    Dec 15, 2022

    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"
  • Admin
    Joba Diniz
    Reply
    |
    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.

  • Guest
    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 first
    createHttpContent 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)