Struts 2 File Upload and Save Tutorial with Example

Welcome to Part-6 of 7-part series of Struts2 Framework. In previous part we went through basics of Struts2 Interceptors. Also we created a custom interceptor and integrated it through Struts2 application. It is strongly recommended to go through previous articles in case you new to Struts2 Framework. [sc:Struts2_Tutorials] Today we will see how to do File Upload in Struts2. We will use Struts2 built-in FileUploadInterceptor in our example to upload the file. The Struts 2 File Upload Interceptor is based on MultiPartRequestWrapper, which is automatically applied to the request if it contains the file element.

Required JAR file

Before we start, we need to make sure commons-io.jar file is present in the classpath. Following are the list of required Jar files.

Getting Started

In order to add file upload functionality we will add an action class FileUploadAction to our project. Create file FileUploadAction.java in package net.viralpatel.struts2. FileUploadAction.java
package net.viralpatel.struts2; import java.io.File; import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest; import org.apache.commons.io.FileUtils; import org.apache.struts2.interceptor.ServletRequestAware; import com.opensymphony.xwork2.ActionSupport; public class FileUploadAction extends ActionSupport implements ServletRequestAware { private File userImage; private String userImageContentType; private String userImageFileName; private HttpServletRequest servletRequest; public String execute() { try { String filePath = servletRequest.getSession().getServletContext().getRealPath(“/”); System.out.println("Server path:" + filePath); File fileToCreate = new File(filePath, this.userImageFileName); FileUtils.copyFile(this.userImage, fileToCreate); } catch (Exception e) { e.printStackTrace(); addActionError(e.getMessage()); return INPUT; } return SUCCESS; } public File getUserImage() { return userImage; } public void setUserImage(File userImage) { this.userImage = userImage; } public String getUserImageContentType() { return userImageContentType; } public void setUserImageContentType(String userImageContentType) { this.userImageContentType = userImageContentType; } public String getUserImageFileName() { return userImageFileName; } public void setUserImageFileName(String userImageFileName) { this.userImageFileName = userImageFileName; } @Override public void setServletRequest(HttpServletRequest servletRequest) { this.servletRequest = servletRequest; } }
Code language: Java (java)
In above class file we have declared few attributes:
  • private File userImage; -> This will store actual uploaded File
  • private String userImageContentType; -> This string will contain the Content Type of uploaded file.
  • private String userImageFileName; -> This string will contain the file name of uploaded file.
The fields userImageContentType and userImageFileName are optional. If setter method of these fields are provided, struts2 will set the data. This is just to get some extra information of uploaded file. Also follow the naming standard if you providing the content type and file name string. The name should be ContentType and FileName. For example if the file attribute in action file is private File uploadedFile, the content type will be uploadedFileContentType and file name uploadedFileFileName. Also note in above action class, we have implemented interface org.apache.struts2.interceptor.ServletRequestAware. This is to get servletRequest object. We are using this path to save the uploaded file in execute() method. We have used FileUtil.copyFile() method of commons-io package to copy the uploaded file in root folder. This file will be retrieved in JSP page and displayed to user.

The JSPs

Create two JSP file in WebContent folder. UserImage.jsp will display a form to user to upload image. On submit, the file will be uploaded and saved on server. User will be sent to SuccessUserImage.jsp file where File details will be displayed. Copy following code into it. UserImage.jsp
<%@ page contentType="text/html; charset=UTF-8"%> <%@ taglib prefix="s" uri="/struts-tags"%> <html> <head> <title>Upload User Image</title> </head> <body> <h2>Struts2 File Upload & Save Example</h2> <s:actionerror /> <s:form action="userImage" method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data"> <s:file name="userImage" label="User Image" /> <s:submit value="Upload" align="center" /> </s:form> </body> </html>
Code language: HTML, XML (xml)
SuccessUserImage.jsp
<%@ page contentType="text/html; charset=UTF-8"%> <%@ taglib prefix="s" uri="/struts-tags"%> <html> <head> <title>Success: Upload User Image</title> </head> <body> <h2>Struts2 File Upload Example</h2> User Image: <s:property value="userImage"/> <br/> Content Type: <s:property value="userImageContentType"/> <br/> File Name: <s:property value="userImageFileName"/> <br/> Uploaded Image: <br/> <img src="<s:property value="userImageFileName"/>"/> </body> </html>
Code language: HTML, XML (xml)

Struts.xml entry

Add following entry for FileUploadAction class to struts.xml file.
<action name="userImage" class="net.viralpatel.struts2.FileUploadAction"> <interceptor-ref name="fileUpload"> <param name="maximumSize">2097152</param> <param name="allowedTypes"> image/png,image/gif,image/jpeg,image/pjpeg </param> </interceptor-ref> <interceptor-ref name="defaultStack"></interceptor-ref> <result name="success">SuccessUserImage.jsp</result> <result name="input">UserImage.jsp</result> </action>
Code language: HTML, XML (xml)
Note that in above entry we have specified two parameter to fileUpload interceptor, maximumSize and allowedTypes. These are optional parameters that we can specify to interceptor. The maximumSize param will set the maximum file size that can be uploaded. By default this is 2MB. And the allowedTypes param specify the allowed content types of file which can be uploaded. Here we have specified it to be an image file (image/png,image/gif,image/jpeg,image/pjpeg). The file upload interceptor also does the validation and adds errors, these error messages are stored in the struts-messsages.properties file. The values of the messages can be overridden by providing the text for the following keys:
  • struts.messages.error.uploading – error when uploading of file fails
  • struts.messages.error.file.too.large – error occurs when file size is large
  • struts.messages.error.content.type.not.allowed – when the content type is not allowed

That’s All Folks

Compile and Execute the project in eclipse and goto link http://localhost:8080/StrutsHelloWorld/UserImage.jsp Image Upload Screen Image Upload Screen in case of error Image Upload Screen on success

Download Source Code

Click here to download Source Code without JAR files (20KB)

Moving On

Struts2 makes life very easy. It was like a piece of cake to implement File Upload with Struts2. In next part we will see Struts2 Ajax Example.

View Comments

  • I am new to struts 2.This is really a very good example....It helped me a lot....Thanks....
    Question : How to store the File in the database(Like Oracle) ??? Can you please provide the code for it???
    Thanks in advance....

  • Hello! Thanks for this tutorial, it was very helpful. I have one problem. When my form is loaded, it needs some dynamic data to be loaded from my DB(some selects, and labels). It works great if I don't upload wrong file types, but when I try to upload a different kind of file, it doesn't load the dynamic data. If I redirect to the action, it works fine, but then it doesn't show the error message, this is my struts.xml, as you can see, it uses wildcards to handle method invocation:

    newTicket.jsp
    /WEB-INF/HelpDeskForms/segResponder.jsp
    /WEB-INF/HelpDeskForms/segRequester.jsp
    /WEB-INF/HelpDeskForms/segAdmSup.jsp
    /WEB-INF/HelpDeskForms/newTicket.jsp
    /WEB-INF/HelpDeskForms/detRequester.jsp
    unassignedByAreaTicket
    postCreateTicket

    ...........

  • Hi,,, Thanks for the article....
    But im not getting output... It says...
    userImageFileName is null
    and giving NullpointerException
    Any extra code to write than you have given above..
    I think no but wat is the reason why its giving NullPointerException.......?
    Plz... Thanks in advance....

  • System.out.println("user Image :" + userImage);
    System.out.println("user Image Name:" + userImageFileName);

    Both are returning null so

    File fileToCreate = new File(filePath, getUserImageFileName());
    returning NullPointerException

    any help plz....

    • Hi,
      The error you have faced - "I have problem with String filePath = servletRequest.getSession().getServletContext().getRealPath(“/”); .It allways return null .And I get a java.lang.NullPointerException
      plz I need your help"
      can be resolved by adding the following interceptor in your struts.xml since the file upload action you are calling doesnt call the servlet class at that instance.

      Interceptor:

      example below is the one used in my application

      application/vnd.ms-excel
      <!-- 10240 10KB -->
      2097152

      fileUpload.def
      Footer.jsp

  • I am really enjoying this tutorial!!! Great job.

    Everything is working for me using jboss; however, I noticed that servletRequest.getRealPath...

    is coming up with a deprecation message.

    What is the replacement for this?

    Thanks again!

    • @swag01: Thanks for pointing out this. ServletRequest.getRealPath() method has been deprecated as the same method is available in javax.servlet.ServletContext interface.

  • Thanks Viral;

    I made the corrections to the FileUploadAction.java (It didn't like the @override so I commented that out too):

    If you want to update your code with the changes, I am fine.

    //src

    • @swag01 - Thanks for the source code. I have updated the above java code and removed call to deprecated method.

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Published by
Viral Patel
Tags: struts file upload Struts2 struts2-series

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