Android RestTemplate post multipart/form-data with utf-8

Question

i have problem when i'm posting multipart/form-data with utf-8 content from android.

this is fragment from my AsyncTask for posting data to server. Everything works fine except utf string data. server receives "????????" < question marks instead of utf-8 text.

RestTemplate restTemplate = new RestTemplate();
FormHttpMessageConverter formConverter = new FormHttpMessageConverter();
//formConverter.setCharset(Charset.forName("UTF8")); // don't works

restTemplate.getMessageConverters().add(formConverter);
restTemplate.getMessageConverters().add(new MappingJacksonHttpMessageConverter());
restTemplate.setRequestFactory(new HttpComponentsClientHttpRequestFactory());

HttpHeaders httpHeaders = new HttpHeaders();
httpHeaders.add("Cookie", "my cookie string");

// don't works
//Charset charset = Charset.forName("UTF8");
//ArrayList<Charset> acceptCharset = new ArrayList<>();
//acceptCharset.add(charset);
//httpHeaders.setAcceptCharset(acceptCharset);

File f = new File(this.caller.mainActivity.getApplicationContext().getCacheDir(), "picture");
f.createNewFile();

OutputStream os = new BufferedOutputStream(new FileOutputStream(f));
caller.mainActivity.capturedBitmap.compress(Bitmap.CompressFormat.PNG, 90, os);
os.close();

MultiValueMap<String, Object> map = new LinkedMultiValueMap<>();
map.add("picture", new FileSystemResource(f.getPath()));
map.add("categoryId", "1");
map.add("description", "text with utf-8 content ტესტ . test");

HttpEntity<MultiValueMap<String, Object>> requestDataEntity = new HttpEntity<>(map, httpHeaders);

HttpEntity<HashMap> response = restTemplate.exchange("url.of.server", HttpMethod.POST, requestDataEntity, HashMap.class);

server has no problem. i tested it from postman and server can receive multipart/form-data with utf-8 content.

on server value of "description" is: "text with utf-8 content ???? . test"

Server Side - fragment of route

var express = require('express');

var multer  = require('multer');
var upload = multer({ limits: { fileSize: 2000000, files: 1 }, dest: 'tempFiles/' });

....
....

router.post('/add', app.filters.commons.sessionRequired(),  upload.single('picture'), function (req, res, next) {
    activityBL.add(req, function (error, data) {
        error ? next(error) : res.json(data);
    });
});

....
....

activityBL - fragment of Business Logic

....
....

bl.add = function (req, cb) {

    var file = req.file || null;

    if(!file) {
        cb({errors: [{code: "004", keyword: "PICTURE_REQUIRED"}]}, null);
        return;
    }

    /*
     * retrieve request data
     */
    var requestData = JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(req.body));

    var desc = requestData.description;

    ....
    ....
    ....  
}

Answer 1

Possibly you need to set header to display the utf-8 characters.

header("Content-Type", "application/json; charset=utf-8");

Kindly refer this link : http://expressjs.com/en/api.html will you give you better idea.

Make sure the tables and DB you fetch also applies UTF-8 collation.

Best Luck..!!