Spring MVC - File Upload Example

The following example shows how to use File Upload Control in forms using the Spring Web MVC framework. To start with, let us have a working Eclipse IDE in place and adhere to the following steps to develop a Dynamic Form based Web Application using the Spring Web Framework.

FileModel.java

package com.howcodex;

import org.springframework.web.multipart.MultipartFile;

public class FileModel {
   private MultipartFile file;

   public MultipartFile getFile() {
      return file;
   }

   public void setFile(MultipartFile file) {
      this.file = file;
   }
}

FileUploadController.java

package com.howcodex;

import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;

import javax.servlet.ServletContext;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Controller;
import org.springframework.ui.ModelMap;
import org.springframework.util.FileCopyUtils;
import org.springframework.validation.BindingResult;
import org.springframework.validation.annotation.Validated;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMethod;
import org.springframework.web.multipart.MultipartFile;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.ModelAndView;

@Controller
public class FileUploadController {
	
   @Autowired
   ServletContext context; 

   @RequestMapping(value = "/fileUploadPage", method = RequestMethod.GET)
   public ModelAndView fileUploadPage() {
      FileModel file = new FileModel();
      ModelAndView modelAndView = new ModelAndView("fileUpload", "command", file);
      return modelAndView;
   }

   @RequestMapping(value="/fileUploadPage", method = RequestMethod.POST)
   public String fileUpload(@Validated FileModel file, BindingResult result, ModelMap model) throws IOException {
      if (result.hasErrors()) {
         System.out.println("validation errors");
         return "fileUploadPage";
      } else {            
         System.out.println("Fetching file");
         MultipartFile multipartFile = file.getFile();
         String uploadPath = context.getRealPath("") + File.separator + "temp" + File.separator;
         //Now do something with file...
         FileCopyUtils.copy(file.getFile().getBytes(), new File(uploadPath+file.getFile().getOriginalFilename()));
         String fileName = multipartFile.getOriginalFilename();
         model.addAttribute("fileName", fileName);
         return "success";
      }
   }
}

HelloWeb-servlet.xml

<beans xmlns = "http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
   xmlns:context = "http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
   xmlns:xsi = "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
   xsi:schemaLocation = "
   http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans     
   http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
   http://www.springframework.org/schema/context 
   http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-3.0.xsd">

   <context:component-scan base-package = "com.howcodex" />

   <bean class = "org.springframework.web.servlet.view.InternalResourceViewResolver">
      <property name = "prefix" value = "/WEB-INF/jsp/" />
      <property name = "suffix" value = ".jsp" />
   </bean>
 
   <bean id = "multipartResolver"
      class = "org.springframework.web.multipart.commons.CommonsMultipartResolver" />
</beans>

Here, for the first service method fileUploadPage(), we have passed a blank FileModel object in the ModelAndView object with name "command", because the spring framework expects an object with name "command", if you are using <form:form> tags in your JSP file. So, when fileUploadPage() method is called, it returns fileUpload.jsp view.

The second service method fileUpload() will be called against a POST method on the HelloWeb/fileUploadPage URL. You will prepare the file to be uploaded based on the submitted information. Finally, a "success" view will be returned from the service method, which will result in rendering success.jsp.

fileUpload.jsp

<%@ page contentType="text/html; charset = UTF-8" %>
<%@ taglib prefix = "form" uri = "http://www.springframework.org/tags/form"%>
<html>
   <head>
      <title>File Upload Example</title>
   </head>
   
   <body>
      <form:form method = "POST" modelAttribute = "fileUpload"
         enctype = "multipart/form-data">
         Please select a file to upload : 
         <input type = "file" name = "file" />
         <input type = "submit" value = "upload" />
      </form:form>
   </body>
</html>

Here, we are using modelAttribute attribute with value="fileUpload" to map the file Upload control with the server model.

success.jsp

<%@ page contentType = "text/html; charset = UTF-8" %>
<html>
   <head>
      <title>File Upload Example</title>
   </head>
   <body>
      FileName : 
      lt;b> ${fileName} </b> - Uploaded Successfully.
   </body>
</html>

Once you are done with creating source and configuration files, export your application. Right click on your application, use Export → WAR File option and save the HelloWeb.war file in the Tomcat's webapps folder.

Now, start your Tomcat server and make sure you are able to access other webpages from the webapps folder using a standard browser. Try a URL– http://localhost:8080/HelloWeb/fileUploadPage and we will see the following screen, if everything is fine with the Spring Web Application.

After submitting the required information, click on the submit button to submit the form. You should see the following screen, if everything is fine with the Spring Web Application.