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 consider the following steps to develop a Dynamic Form based Web Application using Spring Web Framework −

FileModel.java

package com.tutorialspoint;

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.tutorialspoint;

import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.nio.file.Files;
import java.nio.file.Path;
import java.nio.file.Paths;

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;

import jakarta.servlet.ServletContext;

@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();
         Path uploadPath = Paths.get(context.getRealPath("") + File.separator + "temp");
         File uploadedFile = null;
         if (!Files.exists(uploadPath)) {
             Files.createDirectories(uploadPath); // Create directory and any necessary parent directories
             uploadedFile = new File(uploadPath+  File.separator + file.getFile().getOriginalFilename());
         }
         //Now do something with file...
         FileCopyUtils.copy(file.getFile().getBytes(), uploadedFile);
         String fileName = multipartFile.getOriginalFilename();
         model.addAttribute("fileName", fileName);
         return "success";
      }
   }
}

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 hello/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.

hello-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.tutorialspoint" />

   <bean class = "org.springframework.web.servlet.view.InternalResourceViewResolver">
      <property name = "prefix" value = "/WEB-INF/jsp/" />
      <property name = "suffix" value = ".jsp" />
   </bean>
 
   <bean id = "studentValidator" class = "com.tutorialspoint.StudentValidator" />
   <bean id = "multipartResolver"
      class = "org.springframework.web.multipart.support.StandardServletMultipartResolver" />
</beans>

web.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<web-app
    version="4.0"
    xmlns="http://xmlns.jcp.org/xml/ns/javaee"
    xmlns:javaee="http://xmlns.jcp.org/xml/ns/javaee"
    xmlns:xml="http://www.w3.org/XML/1998/namespace"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://xmlns.jcp.org/xml/ns/javaee http://xmlns.jcp.org/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_4_0.xsd">
    <display-name>Spring MVC Application</display-name>

   <servlet>
      <servlet-name>hello</servlet-name>
      <servlet-class>
         org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet
      </servlet-class>
      <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
      <multipart-config>
         <max-file-size>20848820</max-file-size>
         <max-request-size>418018841</max-request-size>
         <file-size-threshold>1048576</file-size-threshold>
      </multipart-config>
   </servlet>

   <servlet-mapping>
      <servlet-name>hello</servlet-name>
      <url-pattern>/</url-pattern>
   </servlet-mapping>
</web-app>

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>

Output

Once you are done with creating source and configuration files, export your application. Right click on your application, use Run As → Maven Install option and save your hello.war file in 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/hello/addStudent and we will see the following screen if everything is fine with the Spring Web Application.

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