Uploading a File with HTTP (Post)

Author: Carl Sassenrath
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Here is simple example of how to upload a file using HTTP. This code has been tested and proven to work on our server. (And REBOL/IOS is based on this code, so we know it works quite well.)

The Uploader

The code below is the upload script.

    REBOL [Title: "HTTP Post Uploader"]

    url: http://www.rebol.net/cgi-bin/test/post.r
    data: read/binary %/c/rebol/rebol.exe
    print ["Sending Size:" length? data "Checksum:" checksum data]
    result: read/custom url reduce ['post data]
    print ["Server Replied:" result]

It will read a file (as binary) and post it to the web server using HTTP POST. Note the REDUCE in front of the POST block. Do not forget it.

The Server Script

Here is the script you need on your web server. Put this in your CGI-BIN directory and make sure that it has execute permissions (also change the first line to be the correct path to REBOL):

    #!/home/web/rebol -cs
    REBOL [Title: "HTTP Post Tester"]
    print ["content-type: text/plain" newline]

    read-post: func [/local data buffer][
        either system/options/cgi/request-method = "POST" [
            data: make string! 1020
            buffer: make string! 16380
            while [positive? read-io system/ports/input buffer 16380][
                append data buffer
                clear buffer
            ]
        ][
            data: system/options/cgi/query-string
        ]
        data
    ]

    data: read-post
    print ["Size:" length? data "checksum:" checksum data]

This script will read the data and return a string that indicates the size and checksum for the data received by the server.

Of course, you can expand on this script with code that saves the data to disk or generates an HTML web page result, etc.

Want to try it?

The CGI script above is actually installed on our REBOL web server, so you can try it out. Run the first script, and you will get a result something like this:

    do %upload.r
    Sending Size: 268288 Checksum: 11356574
    Server Replied: Size: 268288 checksum: 11356574

The size and checksum values should match.

Version and CGI Warning

Make sure that you use a recent version of REBOL. Earlier versions had a bug that created a length mismatch on the server. Also, when you use CGI scripts, there are many things that can go wrong. See Fixing Your CGI Script for a complete list of what can go wrong and how to fix them.