Posting multipart form data using PHP

@shvi asked me for this code over Twitter, I though it would a good idea to share it here.

The following code is used to post two different fields, a simple text data named “somedata” and a file named “somefile”.
Hope it helps :)

$destination = "http://yourdomain.com/yoururl";

$eol = "\r\n";
$data = '';

$mime_boundary=md5(time());

$data .= '--' . $mime_boundary . $eol;
$data .= 'Content-Disposition: form-data; name="somedata"' . $eol . $eol;
$data .= "Some Data" . $eol;
$data .= '--' . $mime_boundary . $eol;
$data .= 'Content-Disposition: form-data; name="somefile"; filename="filename.ext"' . $eol;
$data .= 'Content-Type: text/plain' . $eol;
$data .= 'Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64' . $eol . $eol;
$data .= chunk_split(base64_encode("Some file content")) . $eol;
$data .= "--" . $mime_boundary . "--" . $eol . $eol; // finish with two eol's!!

$params = array('http' => array(
                  'method' => 'POST',
                  'header' => 'Content-Type: multipart/form-data; boundary=' . $mime_boundary . $eol,
                  'content' => $data
               ));

$ctx = stream_context_create($params);
$response = @file_get_contents($destination, FILE_TEXT, $ctx);

$destination = "http://yourdomain.com/yoururl";

$eol = "\r\n";

$data = '';

$mime_boundary=md5(time());

$data .= '--' . $mime_boundary . $eol;

$data .= 'Content-Disposition: form-data; name="somedata"' . $eol . $eol;

$data .= "Some Data" . $eol;

$data .= '--' . $mime_boundary . $eol;

$data .= 'Content-Disposition: form-data; name="somefile"; filename="filename.ext"' . $eol;

$data .= 'Content-Type: text/plain' . $eol;

$data .= 'Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64' . $eol . $eol;

$data .= chunk_split(base64_encode("Some file content")) . $eol;

$data .= "--" . $mime_boundary . "--" . $eol . $eol; // finish with two eol's!!

$params = array('http' => array(

'method' => 'POST',

'header' => 'Content-Type: multipart/form-data; boundary=' . $mime_boundary . $eol,

'content' => $data

));

$ctx = stream_context_create($params);

$response = @file_get_contents($destination, FILE_TEXT, $ctx);

15 thoughts on “Posting multipart form data using PHP”

Yoan 2009-08-13 at 11:52

Wasn’t he looking for a SOAP client that supports that lovely spec: http://www.w3.org/TR/SOAP-attachments and the offical SOAP implementation of PHP doesn’t support it: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1122292/php-soap-client-that-understands-multi-part-messages

He sits on the other side of the POST.

It’s not a big deal to add this imho, http://developer.jelix.org/ticket/656#comment:1

Cheers,

P.S.: I’m sure you would enjoy using the <<< notation instead of doing so many repetitive concatenations.

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Claude 2009-08-13 at 13:16
I didn’t know this heredoc notation, thanks for the hint :)
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Andrew Glowik 2010-02-22 at 01:37

Thank you much for this exposition of code. I was at an impasse with PHP/curl using GlassFish/Quercus with a multipart/form-data post. Using your example to build my own form unwwedged me!

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Afanasy Kurakin 2011-11-03 at 19:12

Thanks for the great snippet, it still helps!

Please note, that semicolon after $params is missing, plus in my case, when handling upload with php I’ve removed base64 encoding because php couldn’t understand it and kept data encoded.

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Jason 2011-12-13 at 18:32

Dude! You’re the one and only salvation through this nightmare of mine. I struggled hectically trying to find a way to parse a normal text field with my file upload through a multipart/form-data form

Thanks a stash

Jason

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Albi Patozi 2012-03-28 at 06:37

Hey For the solution Thanks it was great, but i have a question : WHY DOESNT IT WORK ONLINE BUT ONLY ON LOCALHOST ?! what shold i try to change ? thanks in advice

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Claude 2012-03-29 at 08:11
Albi, not sure about your particular circumstances but some PHP options must be enabled for file_get_contents to actually work with URLs.
Make sure to check the doc here: http://php.net/manual/en/function.file-get-contents.php
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1. Albi Patozi 2012-03-29 at 15:45
  hmm that seems that file_get_contents does not send the $ctx- context. maybe its problem of the php version. have you ever tested it in php 5.2.* ? (by the way, im vary thankful for your reply)
  Reply ↓
  1. Claude 2012-03-30 at 11:45
    nope, tested on 5.3 only, but there’s no indication it shouldn’t be working with 5.2
    you should be posting your code on StackOverflow and post the link here
    Reply ↓
    1. albi patozi 2012-03-31 at 06:41
      Thanks a lot. i have posted the question there but nobody answered. hehe . it doesnt metter now i have found another solution without post .

upgradingdave 2013-09-13 at 01:25

Thanks much! Worked great. Beware to set Content-Type and Content-Transfer-Encoding appropriately for the type of file being uploaded.

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Amin 2015-09-28 at 18:50
Please give me your script with example data.
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1. Claude Vedovini Post author2015-09-28 at 19:10
  Not sure what you mean Amin, the script is in the article and you can send any file
  Reply ↓