Silverlight Multi-part File Upload Form Post

Silverlight not actually very web friendly. It lacks of built-in support for the current HTML form post protocol. So, we have to write it our own. I have written an extension class and two serializer classes, one for normal form post (DataContractQueryStringSerializer) while the other for multipart upload form post (DataContractMultiPartSerializer).

If you only want to have the working code, just copy the code below. Detail explanation is available at Multi-Part Form Post in Shane's Shelf

  public static class Extensions
  {
      public static void PostFormAsync(this HttpWebRequest request, object parameters, AsyncCallback callback)
      {
          request.Method = "POST";
          request.ContentType = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded";
          request.BeginGetRequestStream(new AsyncCallback(asyncResult =>
          {
              Stream stream = request.EndGetRequestStream(asyncResult);
              DataContractQueryStringSerializer ser = new DataContractQueryStringSerializer();
              ser.WriteObject(stream, parameters);
              stream.Close();
              request.BeginGetResponse(callback, request);
          }), request);
      }

      public static void PostMultiPartAsync(this HttpWebRequest request, object parameters, AsyncCallback callback)
      {
          request.Method = "POST";
          string boundary = "---------------" + DateTime.Now.Ticks.ToString();
          request.ContentType = "multipart/form-data; boundary=" + boundary;
          request.BeginGetRequestStream(new AsyncCallback(asyncResult =>
          {
              Stream stream = request.EndGetRequestStream(asyncResult);

              DataContractMultiPartSerializer ser = new DataContractMultiPartSerializer(boundary);
              ser.WriteObject(stream, parameters);
              stream.Close();
              request.BeginGetResponse(callback, request);
          }), request);
      }
  }

  public class DataContractQueryStringSerializer
  {
      public void WriteObject(Stream stream, object data)
      {
          StreamWriter writer = new StreamWriter(stream);
          if (data != null)
          {
              if (data is Dictionary<string, string>)
              {
                  foreach (var entry in data as Dictionary<string, string>)
                  {
                      writer.Write("{0}={1}&", entry.Key, entry.Value);
                  }
              }
              else
              {
                  foreach (var prop in data.GetType().GetFields())
                  {
                      foreach (var attribute in prop.GetCustomAttributes(true))
                      {
                          if (attribute is DataMemberAttribute)
                          {
                              DataMemberAttribute member = attribute as DataMemberAttribute;
                              writer.Write("{0}={1}&", member.Name ?? prop.Name, prop.GetValue(data));
                          }
                      }
                  }
                  foreach (var prop in data.GetType().GetProperties())
                  {
                      if (prop.CanRead)
                      {
                          foreach (var attribute in prop.GetCustomAttributes(true))
                          {
                              if (attribute is DataMemberAttribute)
                              {
                                  DataMemberAttribute member = attribute as DataMemberAttribute;
                                  writer.Write("{0}={1}&", member.Name ?? prop.Name, prop.GetValue(data, null));
                              }
                          }
                      }
                  }
              }
              writer.Flush();
          }
      }
  }

  public class DataContractMultiPartSerializer
  {
      private string boundary;
      public DataContractMultiPartSerializer(string boundary)
      {
          this.boundary = boundary;
      }

      private void WriteEntry(StreamWriter writer, string key, object value)
      {
          if (value != null)
          {
              writer.Write("--");
              writer.WriteLine(boundary);
              if (value is FileInfo)
              {
                
                  FileInfo f = value as FileInfo;
                  writer.WriteLine(@"Content-Disposition: form-data; name=""{0}""; filename=""{1}""", key, f.Name);
                  writer.WriteLine("Content-Type: application/octet-stream");
                  writer.WriteLine("Content-Length: " + f.Length);
                  writer.WriteLine();
                  writer.Flush();
                  Stream output = writer.BaseStream;
                  Stream input = f.OpenRead();
                  byte[] buffer = new byte[4096];
                  for (int size = input.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length); size > 0; size = input.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length))
                  {
                      output.Write(buffer, 0, size);
                  }
                  output.Flush();
                  writer.WriteLine();
              }
              else
              {
                  writer.WriteLine(@"Content-Disposition: form-data; name=""{0}""", key);
                  writer.WriteLine();
                  writer.WriteLine(value.ToString());
              }
          }
      }

      public void WriteObject(Stream stream, object data)
      {
          StreamWriter writer = new StreamWriter(stream);
          if (data != null)
          {
              if (data is Dictionary<string, object>)
              {
                  foreach (var entry in data as Dictionary<string, object>)
                  {
                      WriteEntry(writer, entry.Key, entry.Value);
                  }
              }
              else
              {
                  foreach (var prop in data.GetType().GetFields())
                  {
                      foreach (var attribute in prop.GetCustomAttributes(true))
                      {
                          if (attribute is DataMemberAttribute)
                          {
                              DataMemberAttribute member = attribute as DataMemberAttribute;
                              WriteEntry(writer, member.Name ?? prop.Name, prop.GetValue(data));
                          }
                      }
                  }
                  foreach (var prop in data.GetType().GetProperties())
                  {
                      if (prop.CanRead)
                      {
                          foreach (var attribute in prop.GetCustomAttributes(true))
                          {
                              if (attribute is DataMemberAttribute)
                              {
                                  DataMemberAttribute member = attribute as DataMemberAttribute;
                                  WriteEntry(writer, member.Name ?? prop.Name, prop.GetValue(data, null));
                              }
                          }
                      }
                  }
              }
          }
          writer.Write("--");
          writer.Write(boundary);
          writer.WriteLine("--");
          writer.Flush();
      }
  }

The usage is as follows:
First a PHP file

<?php
print_r($_REQUEST);
$src = $_FILES['y']['tmp_name'];
$dest = "C:\\Windows\\Temp\\".$_FILES['y']['name'];
echo $src;
echo "\r\n";
echo $dest;
echo @copy($src, $dest);
?>

Then the Page control

    public partial class Page : UserControl
  {
      public Page()
      {
          InitializeComponent();
          // Create a request object
          HttpWebRequest request = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(new Uri("http://localhost/rms/test.php"));
          OpenFileDialog dlg = new OpenFileDialog();
          if (dlg.ShowDialog().Value)
          {
              request.PostMultiPartAsync(new Dictionary<string, object> { { "x", "1" }, { "y", dlg.File } }, new AsyncCallback(asyncResult =>
              {
                  HttpWebResponse response = (HttpWebResponse)request.EndGetResponse(asyncResult);

                  Stream responseStream = response.GetResponseStream();
                  StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(responseStream);
                  this.Dispatcher.BeginInvoke(delegate
                  {
                      // output is a TextBlock
                      output.Text = reader.ReadToEnd();
                      response.Close();
                  });
              }));
          }
      }
  }

Since it is able to serialize data contract, you could actually replace

new Dictionary<string, object> { { "x", "1" }, { "y", dlg.File } }

with

new Point(){X=1, Y=2}

given the point class is like this:

    [DataContract]
  public class Point
  {
      [DataMember]
      public int X { get; set; }
      [DataMember(Name="y")]
      public int Y { get; set; }
  }