Upload a file through an HTTP form, via MultipartEntityBuilder, with a progress bar

The winning code (in spectacular Java-Heresy(tm) style) is:

public static String postFile(String fileName, String userName, String password, String macAddress) throws Exception {    HttpClient client = new DefaultHttpClient();    HttpPost post = new HttpPost(SERVER + "uploadFile");    MultipartEntityBuilder builder = MultipartEntityBuilder.create();            builder.setMode(HttpMultipartMode.BROWSER_COMPATIBLE);    final File file = new File(fileName);    FileBody fb = new FileBody(file);    builder.addPart("file", fb);      builder.addTextBody("userName", userName);    builder.addTextBody("password", password);    builder.addTextBody("macAddress",  macAddress);    final HttpEntity yourEntity = builder.build();    class ProgressiveEntity implements HttpEntity {        @Override        public void consumeContent() throws IOException {            yourEntity.consumeContent();                        }        @Override        public InputStream getContent() throws IOException,                IllegalStateException {            return yourEntity.getContent();        }        @Override        public Header getContentEncoding() {                         return yourEntity.getContentEncoding();        }        @Override        public long getContentLength() {            return yourEntity.getContentLength();        }        @Override        public Header getContentType() {            return yourEntity.getContentType();        }        @Override        public boolean isChunked() {                         return yourEntity.isChunked();        }        @Override        public boolean isRepeatable() {            return yourEntity.isRepeatable();        }        @Override        public boolean isStreaming() {                         return yourEntity.isStreaming();        } // CONSIDER put a _real_ delegator into here!        @Override        public void writeTo(OutputStream outstream) throws IOException {            class ProxyOutputStream extends FilterOutputStream {                /**                 * @author Stephen Colebourne                 */                public ProxyOutputStream(OutputStream proxy) {                    super(proxy);                    }                public void write(int idx) throws IOException {                    out.write(idx);                }                public void write(byte[] bts) throws IOException {                    out.write(bts);                }                public void write(byte[] bts, int st, int end) throws IOException {                    out.write(bts, st, end);                }                public void flush() throws IOException {                    out.flush();                }                public void close() throws IOException {                    out.close();                }            } // CONSIDER import this class (and risk more Jar File Hell)            class ProgressiveOutputStream extends ProxyOutputStream {                public ProgressiveOutputStream(OutputStream proxy) {                    super(proxy);                }                public void write(byte[] bts, int st, int end) throws IOException {                    // FIXME  Put your progress bar stuff here!                    out.write(bts, st, end);                }            }            yourEntity.writeTo(new ProgressiveOutputStream(outstream));        }    };    ProgressiveEntity myEntity = new ProgressiveEntity();    post.setEntity(myEntity);    HttpResponse response = client.execute(post);            return getContent(response);} public static String getContent(HttpResponse response) throws IOException {    BufferedReader rd = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(response.getEntity().getContent()));    String body = "";    String content = "";    while ((body = rd.readLine()) != null)     {        content += body + "\n";    }    return content.trim();}#  NOTE ADDED LATER: as this blasterpiece gets copied into various code lineages, #  The management reminds the peanut gallery that "Java-Heresy" crack was there#  for a reason, and (as commented) most of that stuff can be farmed out to off-#  the-shelf jar files and what-not. That's for the java lifers to tool up. This#  pristine hack shall remain obviousized for education, and for use in a pinch.#  What are the odds??

Cant thank Phlip enough for that solution. Here are the final touches for adding your progressbar support. I ran it inside an AsyncTask - progress below enables you to post the progress back to a method in the AsyncTask that invokes AsyncTask.publishProgress() for your class running in the AsyncTask. The progress bar isn't exactly smooth but at least it moves. On a Samsung S4 uploading a 4MB imagefile after the preamble it was moving 4K chunks.

     class ProgressiveOutputStream extends ProxyOutputStream {            long totalSent;            public ProgressiveOutputStream(OutputStream proxy) {                   super(proxy);                   totalSent = 0;            }            public void write(byte[] bts, int st, int end) throws IOException {            // FIXME  Put your progress bar stuff here!            // end is the amount being sent this time            // st is always zero and end=bts.length()                 totalSent += end;                 progress.publish((int) ((totalSent / (float) totalSize) * 100));                 out.write(bts, st, end);            }

first of all: huge thanks for the original question/answer. Since HttpPost is now deprecated, I reworked it a bit though, using additional input from this article and made a micro library of it: https://github.com/licryle/HTTPPoster

It wraps the whole in an ASync task; uses the MultipartEntityBuilder & HttpURLConnection and let's you listen for callbacks.

To use:

1. Download & extract
2. In your build.gradle Module file, add the dependency:

dependencies {         compile project(':libs:HTTPPoster') }

3. You need a class to implement the HttpListener interface so you can listen to the callbacks. It has four callbacks in HTTPListener:

   • onStartTransfer
   • onProgress
   • onFailure
   • onResponse

4. Configure the ASyncTask & start it. Here's a quick usage:

HashMap<String, String> mArgs = new HashMap<>();mArgs.put("lat", "40.712784");mArgs.put("lon", "-74.005941");ArrayList<File> aFileList = getMyImageFiles();HttpConfiguration mConf = new HttpConfiguration(    "http://example.org/HttpPostEndPoint",    mArgs,    aFileList,    this, // If this class implements HttpListener    null,  // Boundary for Entities - Optional    15000  // Timeout in ms for the connection operation    10000, // Timeout in ms for the reading operation);new HttpPoster().execute(mConf);

hope that can help :) Feel also free to suggest improvements! It's very recent, and I extend it as I need it.

Cheers