trying to post file to php server using python and requests

Question

I am trying to emulate this java code

            public static void uploadFile(String filename, String systemID){
            try{
                    String createNew = "false";

                    //check for backup files to know if we should make a new file on the server
                    File f = new File(filename + ".1");
                    if(f.exists()){
                            createNew = "true";
                            f.delete();
                    }

                    HttpURLConnection httpUrlConnection = (HttpURLConnection)new URL(uploadURL).openConnection();
            httpUrlConnection.setDoOutput(true);
            httpUrlConnection.setRequestMethod("POST");
            httpUrlConnection.setRequestProperty("Content-encoding", "deflate");
            httpUrlConnection.setRequestProperty("Content-type", "application/octet-stream");
            java.io.OutputStream os = httpUrlConnection.getOutputStream();
            Thread.sleep(1000);

            String fileData = IOUtils.toString(new FileReader(filename));

            String request = "filedata=" + fileData + "&filename=" + filename + "&systemid=" + systemID + "&createNew=" + createNew;

            DeflaterOutputStream deflate = new DeflaterOutputStream(os);
            deflate.write(request.getBytes());
            deflate.flush();
            deflate.close();

            os.close();
            BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(httpUrlConnection.getInputStream()));

            String s = null;
            while ((s = in.readLine()) != null) {
                System.out.println(s);
            }
            in.close();
            //fis.close();
            }catch(Exception e){
                    e.printStackTrace();
            }
            static String uploadURL = "http://vp-creations.com/utilities/fileupload.php";

in python using requests, I think im missing something simple because I havent been able to get the right response from the server

import requests
url = 'http://vp-creations.com/utilities/fileupload.php'
files = {'file': open('C:\\etc\\guitartab.txt', 'rb')}
headers = {'Content-encoding': 'deflate', 'Content-type': 'application/octet-stream'}

payload = {'filedata=': 'foo', 'filename=': 'bar', 'systemid=' : 'fooe', 'createNew=' : 'false'}

r = requests.post(url, files=files, headers=headers, data=payload)

the response from the server that I keep getting is {"response":"error","comment":"missing at least one parameter"}' any help please?

Answer 1

When you pass a dictionary to the data parameter of requests.post , it will be form-encoded. I'm not totally familiar with the Java code, but it looks like it is actually using an encoded String as the data of the request. In order to achieve the same thing with requests , pass a string as the data parameter, like so:

data = 'filedata=foo&filename=bar&systemid=&fooe&createNew=false'
r = requests.post(url, files=files, headers=headers, data=data)

See a similar example in the documentation here .

Answer 2

You need to try changing the following things.

Firstly, data sends the given dictionary in the POST body. If that is genuinely where you want it, you need to remove the '=' elements from the dictionary:

payload = {'filedata': 'foo', 'filename': 'bar', 'systemid' : 'fooe', 'createNew' : 'false'}

Secondly, you're adding a pair of incorrect headers. When you use Requests' file parameter, Requests prepares the body data (including your file) as multipart/form-data' . You then override that Content-Type with your application/octet-stream , which is not the form of the body. Additionally, you are claiming that your body data is compressed using deflate , which it is not.

Try the following code:

import requests
url = 'http://vp-creations.com/utilities/fileupload.php'
files = {'file': open('C:\\etc\\guitartab.txt', 'rb')}

payload = {'filedata': 'foo', 'filename': 'bar', 'systemid' : 'fooe', 'createNew' : 'false'}

r = requests.post(url, files=files, data=payload)