Spring Boot File Upload with AngularJS Example

Objective of lesson
Create a Spring Boot Project
Form, Controller, Exception Handler
Javascript & View (Thymeleaf)

1. Objective of lesson

In this lesson, I am going to guide you for creating a File Upload application using Spring Boot and AngularJS. Below is the preview image of the application to be performed by us:

Notify on the interface when uploading fails:

Display the list of uploaded files and handle downloading when an user clicks a link.

2. Create a Spring Boot Project

On the Eclipse, create a Spring Boot project:

pom.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0
    http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
    
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

    <groupId>org.o7planning</groupId>
    <artifactId>SpringBootFileUploadAngularJS</artifactId>
    <version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
    <packaging>jar</packaging>

    <name>SpringBootFileUploadAngularJS</name>
    <description>Spring Boot + File Upload + AngularJS</description>

    <parent>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
        <version>2.0.0.RELEASE</version>
        <relativePath/> <!-- lookup parent from repository -->
    </parent>

    <properties>
        <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
        <project.reporting.outputEncoding>UTF-8</project.reporting.outputEncoding>
        <java.version>1.8</java.version>
    </properties>

    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-thymeleaf</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
        </dependency>

        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-test</artifactId>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>

    <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
                <artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>


</project>

SpringBootFileUploadAngularJsApplication.java

package org.o7planning.sbfileupload;

import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;

@SpringBootApplication
public class SpringBootFileUploadAngularJsApplication {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SpringApplication.run(SpringBootFileUploadAngularJsApplication.class, args);
    }

}

3. Form, Controller, Exception Handler

The UploadForm class represents for the data of HTML form.

UploadForm.java

package org.o7planning.sbfileupload.form;

import org.springframework.web.multipart.MultipartFile;

public class UploadForm {

    private String description;

    private MultipartFile[] files;

    public String getDescription() {
        return description;
    }

    public void setDescription(String description) {
        this.description = description;
    }

    public MultipartFile[] getFiles() {
        return files;
    }

    public void setFiles(MultipartFile[] files) {
        this.files = files;
    }

}

MainController.java

package org.o7planning.sbfileupload.controller;

import org.springframework.stereotype.Controller;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.GetMapping;

@Controller
public class MainController {

    @GetMapping("/")
    public String index() {
        return "upload";
    }

}

The MainRESTController class defines REST APIs to process the data of the files uploaded by users. These REST APIs will be called by the AngularJS (See in the UploadFileCtrl.js).

MainRESTController.java

package org.o7planning.sbfileupload.restcontroller;

import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.net.MalformedURLException;
import java.nio.file.Files;
import java.nio.file.Path;
import java.nio.file.Paths;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;

import org.o7planning.sbfileupload.form.UploadForm;
import org.springframework.core.io.Resource;
import org.springframework.core.io.UrlResource;
import org.springframework.http.HttpHeaders;
import org.springframework.http.HttpStatus;
import org.springframework.http.ResponseEntity;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.GetMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.ModelAttribute;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.PathVariable;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.PostMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RestController;
import org.springframework.web.multipart.MultipartFile;

@RestController
public class MainRESTController {

    // Linux: /home/{user}/test
    // Windows: C:/Users/{user}/test
    private static String UPLOAD_DIR = System.getProperty("user.home") + "/test";
 
    @PostMapping("/rest/uploadMultiFiles")
    public ResponseEntity<?> uploadFileMulti(@ModelAttribute UploadForm form) throws Exception {

        System.out.println("Description:" + form.getDescription());

        String result = null;
        try {

            result = this.saveUploadedFiles(form.getFiles());

        }
        // Here Catch IOException only.
        // Other Exceptions catch by RestGlobalExceptionHandler class.
        catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
            return new ResponseEntity<>("Error: " + e.getMessage(), HttpStatus.BAD_REQUEST);
        }

        return new ResponseEntity<String>("Uploaded to: " + result, HttpStatus.OK);
    }

    // Save Files
    private String saveUploadedFiles(MultipartFile[] files) throws IOException {

        // Make sure directory exists!
        File uploadDir = new File(UPLOAD_DIR);
        uploadDir.mkdirs();

        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();

        for (MultipartFile file : files) {

            if (file.isEmpty()) {
                continue;
            }
            String uploadFilePath = UPLOAD_DIR + "/" + file.getOriginalFilename();

            byte[] bytes = file.getBytes();
            Path path = Paths.get(uploadFilePath);
            Files.write(path, bytes);

            sb.append(uploadFilePath).append(", ");
        }
        return sb.toString();
    }

    @GetMapping("/rest/getAllFiles")
    public List<String> getListFiles() {
        File uploadDir = new File(UPLOAD_DIR);

        File[] files = uploadDir.listFiles();

        List<String> list = new ArrayList<String>();
        for (File file : files) {
            list.add(file.getName());
        }
        return list;
    }

    // @filename: abc.zip,..
    @GetMapping("/rest/files/{filename:.+}")
    public ResponseEntity<Resource> getFile(@PathVariable String filename) throws MalformedURLException {
        File file = new File(UPLOAD_DIR + "/" + filename);
        if (!file.exists()) {
            throw new RuntimeException("File not found");
        }
        Resource resource = new UrlResource(file.toURI());
        return ResponseEntity.ok()
                .header(HttpHeaders.CONTENT_DISPOSITION, "attachment; filename=\"" + file.getName() + "\"")
                .body(resource);
    }

}

The default size of the file uploaded to the Server doesn't exceed 1MB. And if an user uploads a lot of files at the same time, total size of the files doesn't also exceed 1MB. However, you can configure to change these parameters.

application.properties

spring.servlet.multipart.max-file-size=1MB
spring.servlet.multipart.max-request-size=5MB

spring.thymeleaf.cache=false

RestGlobalExceptionHandler is a custom class, extended from the ResponseEntityExceptionHandler class. In this class, you can handle exceptions thrown from REST methods. This will help you handle the exceptions centralized at a location instead of handling an exception at each REST method.

RestGlobalExceptionHandler.java

package org.o7planning.sbfileupload.exceptionhandler;

import org.springframework.http.HttpStatus;
import org.springframework.http.ResponseEntity;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.ControllerAdvice;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.ExceptionHandler;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.ResponseBody;
import org.springframework.web.multipart.MultipartException;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.ResponseEntityExceptionHandler;
 
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
 
@ControllerAdvice
public class RestGlobalExceptionHandler extends ResponseEntityExceptionHandler {
 
    // Catch max file size Exception.
    @ExceptionHandler(MultipartException.class)
    @ResponseBody
    public ResponseEntity<?> handleControllerException(HttpServletRequest request, Throwable ex) {
 
        HttpStatus status = this.getStatus(request);
        return new ResponseEntity<String>("(Message in RestGlobalExceptionHandler *): " + ex.getMessage(), status);
    }
 
    // Catch Other Exception
    @ExceptionHandler(Exception.class)
    @ResponseBody
    public ResponseEntity<?> handleControllerRootException(HttpServletRequest request, Throwable ex) {
 
        HttpStatus status = this.getStatus(request);
        return new ResponseEntity<String>("(Message in RestGlobalExceptionHandler **): " + ex.getMessage(), status);
    }
 
    private HttpStatus getStatus(HttpServletRequest request) {
        Integer statusCode = (Integer) request.getAttribute("javax.servlet.error.status_code");
        if (statusCode == null) {
            return HttpStatus.INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR;
        }
        return HttpStatus.valueOf(statusCode);
    }
 
}

4. Javascript & View (Thymeleaf)

upload.html

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html xmlns:th="http://www.thymeleaf.org">
   <head>
      <title>Spring Boot File Upload with AngularJS</title>
      <meta charset="utf-8" />
      <!-- Check other AngularJS version at: -->
      <!-- https://code.angularjs.org/1.6.9/docs/misc/downloading -->
      <script
         src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/angularjs/1.6.9/angular.min.js"></script>
      <script src="/js/MainApp.js"></script>
      <script src="/js/UploadFileCtrl.js"></script>
      <script src="/js/GetFilesCtrl.js"></script>
   </head>
   <body ng-app="MainApp">
      <h2>Spring Boot File Upload with AngularJS</h2>
      <div ng-controller="UploadFileController">
         <form>
            Description: <br/>
            <input type="text" name="description" ng-model="myForm.description" style="width:350px;"/>
            <br/><br/>                 
            File to upload (1): <input type="file" file-model="myForm.files[0]"/><br />      
            File to upload (2): <input type="file" file-model="myForm.files[1]"/><br />    
            File to upload (3): <input type="file" file-model="myForm.files[2]"/><br />    
            File to upload (4): <input type="file" file-model="myForm.files[3]"/><br />    
            File to upload (5): <input type="file" file-model="myForm.files[4]"/><br />    
            <button type="button" ng-click="doUploadFile()">Upload</button>
         </form>
         <h2>Upload Results:</h2>
         <div style="border:1px solid #ccc;padding: 5px;">
            <span ng-bind="uploadResult"></span>
         </div>
      </div>
      <!-- Get Files -->
      <hr>
      <div ng-controller="GetFilesController">
         <button type="button" ng-click="getAllFiles()">Get All Files</button>
         <ul>
            <li ng-repeat="file in allFiles">
               <a href='/rest/files/{{file}}'>{{file}}</a>
            </li>
         </ul>
      </div>
   </body>
</html>

In the AngularJS, use the ng-model attribute to help you with 2-way binding between Input element of Form and Model, which means that if the data of the Model changes, the interface of Input element will be updated and vice versa, if an user changes the interface of (Input element), the Model will be updated.

Unfortunately, the ng-model attribute does not support the two-way binding between Model and Input[file], therefore, you need to define an directive called "fileModel" to build the two-way binding between the Model and the Input[file]. This directive is defined in the MainApp.js:

js/MainApp.js

// main app.
var mainApp = angular.module('MainApp', []);
 
// DIRECTIVE - FILE MODEL
mainApp.directive('fileModel', ['$parse', function ($parse) {
    return {
       restrict: 'A',
       link: function(scope, element, attrs) {
          var model = $parse(attrs.fileModel);
          var modelSetter = model.assign;
          
          element.bind('change', function(){
             scope.$apply(function(){
                modelSetter(scope, element[0].files[0]);
             });
          });
       }
    };
    
}]);

The UploadFileCtrl.js file contains AngularJS functions to control uploading files to the Server.

js/UploadFileCtrl.js

// CONTROLLER UPLOAD FILE
mainApp.controller('UploadFileController', function($scope, $http) {

    $scope.uploadResult ="";
    
    $scope.myForm = {
        description: "",
        files: []
    }

    $scope.doUploadFile = function() {  

        var url = "/rest/uploadMultiFiles";


        var data = new FormData();

        data.append("description", $scope.myForm.description);
        for (i = 0; i < $scope.myForm.files.length; i++) {
            data.append("files", $scope.myForm.files[i]);
        }

        var config = {
            transformRequest: angular.identity,
            transformResponse: angular.identity,
            headers: {
                'Content-Type': undefined
            }
        }
       

        $http.post(url, data, config).then(
            // Success
            function(response) {
                $scope.uploadResult =  response.data;
            },
            // Error
            function(response) {
                $scope.uploadResult = response.data;
            });
    };

});

The GetFilesCtrl.js file contains the AngularJS functions to control obtaining the list of files uploaded to the Server.

js/GetFilesCtrl.js

mainApp.controller('GetFilesController', function($scope, $http) {

    $scope.allFiles = [];


    $scope.getAllFiles = function() {  

        // REST URL:
        var url = "/rest/getAllFiles";
        $http.get(url).then(
            // Success
            function(response) { alert("OK");
                $scope.allFiles = response.data;
            },
            // Error
            function(response) {
                alert("Error: " + response.data);
            }
        );
    };
});