Chapter 16
Uploading Files with Java Servlet Technology
Supporting file uploads is a very basic and common requirement for many web applications. Prior to Servlet 3.0, implementing file upload required the use of external libraries or complex input processing. Version 3.0 of the Java Servlet specification helps to provide a viable solution to the problem in a generic and portable way. The Servlet 3.0 specification supports file upload out of the box, so any web container that implements the specification can parse multipart requests and make mime attachments available through the HttpServletRequest object.
A new annotation, javax.servlet.annotation.MultipartConfig, is used to indicate that the servlet on which it is declared expects requests to made using the multipart/form-data MIME type. Servlets that are annotated with @MultipartConfig can retrieve the Part components of a given multipart/form-data request by calling the request.getPart(String name) or request.getParts() method.
The following topics are addressed here: