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I have a web application that needs to take a file upload from the user and upload it to a remote server. I can take input from user to server fine via file_field, but can't seem to work out the next step of uploading from server to remote. Net::HTTP doesn't do multipart forms out of the box, and I haven't been able to find another good solution. I need something that will allow me to go from user -> server -> remote instead of going user -> remote. Anyone succeeded in doing this before?

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2 Answers

up vote 2 down vote accepted

I believe the attachment_fu plugin would allow for this:


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Surprisingly multipart form posts really aren't in Net:HTTP. A thread from comp.lang.ruby seems to have snippet of code you might find useful to perform the encoding necessary:


def encode_multipartformdata(parameters = {})
  ret = String.new
  parameters.each do |key, value|
    unless value.empty?
      ret << "\r\n--" << BOUNDARY << "\r\n"
      ret << "Content-Disposition: form-data; name=\"#{key}\"\r\n\r\n"
      ret << value
  ret << "\r\n--" << BOUNDARY << "--\r\n"
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That looks like it'll do it - I'll try it in a bit and let you know if it works. –  Misplaced Sep 22 '08 at 19:10
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