Request Data Empty with Multiple Files

Kirby 3 Solved ✅
#1

Hey there! This is somewhat of an obscure one. I’m relatively certain this is the actual issue I’m facing.

I have a route which accepts POST requests containing multipart/formdata. This request can contain multiple files. When posting with a single file, I’m able to grab the request data via $kirby->request()->data() with no issues. However, once the request contains multiple files, data() is empty.

Here is a very messy route handler which produces the error.

  public static function contribute() {
    $kirby = kirby();
    $kirby->impersonate('kirby');

    // Data
    $uploads = $kirby->request()->files()->get('file');
    $data = $kirby->request()->data();

    // Verify
    if (!isset($data['name'])) {
      return Response::json(['error' => 'No Name'], 500);
    }

    // Create the Page
    $pageCreated = page('contributions')->createChild([
      'content' => $data,
      'slug' => $data['name'],
      'template' => 'contribution'
    ]);

    // Upload
    if ($uploads && count($uploads)) {
      foreach ($uploads as $upload) {
        try {
          $file = $pageCreated->createFile([
            'filename' => $upload['name'],
            'source' => $upload['tmp_name'],
            'content' => [ 'date' => date('Y-m-d h:m') ]
          ]);
        } catch (Exception $e) {
          return Response::json(['error' => $e->getMessage()], 500);
        }
      }
    }

    return Response::json($data, 200);
  }

I’ve tried commenting varying things out, and the issue occurs with multiple files even I remove everything but the line declaring $data and a simple reference to a key, like $data['name']. However, with a single file it’s fine.

#2

Have you verified that $uploads contains multiple files.

Check out this recipe: https://getkirby.com/docs/cookbook/forms/file-uploads

#3

When sending a single file $uploads represents an array with a single File blob.

[{"name":"001.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg","tmp_name":"\/Applications\/MAMP\/tmp\/php\/phpZ26VLt","error":0,"size":2005238}]

However, when there are multiple files, $uploads is null. The recipe you linked is indeed what I based my implementation off of. The big difference, and what I have a feeling is the root of the error, is that I’m constructed the FormData with javascript on the frontend with multiple <input type="file" … elements.

const formData = new FormData()
this.form.cards.forEach(card => {
  formData.append('file[]', card.imageData)
})

I can see in the request I send to the Kirby route that there are indeed two File blobs contained in the FormData, both with the key file[], which is what I’d anticipate to be correct, although it does seem this is the issue. Perhaps I’ve been staring at this for too long to see the obvious solution!

#4

Ok, then that definitely means that there is an issue with the form data you send and we don’t have to look at the handler for the issue at all.

#5

Agreed. It’s the difference between selecting multiple files within a single <input> vs appending multiple files to FormData with a common key. That said, it’d be helpful to know what structure Kirby is expecting when sending multiple Files. From what I understand my way of constructing the FormData matches what the front-end looks like in the recipe you linked to.

I realize this falls outside of the immediate tooling around Kirby, so if it’s beyond the scope of support it’s fine.

#6

You can dump what a normal file input field that accepts multipe files sends when you submit it.

#7

Of course, good idea! I can verify that the same error occurs when using a simple form field directly within a page:

<form action="/v1/contribute" method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data">
  <input type="text" name="name">
  <input name="file[]" type="file" multiple="">
  <button type="Submit">Submit</button>
</form>

With a single file it is fine, however when there are two files selected no data is contained in $uploads or $data. That is to say, the error is identically reproducible.

Thanks for walking through this with me!

#8

I would have to check out the example again. I’ll see if I get round to it tonight.

Edit: This is what the $uploads array from the example forms looks like when multiple files are attached:

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [name] => a.pdf
            [type] => application/pdf
            [tmp_name] => /private/var/tmp/phpLNqnGq
            [error] => 0
            [size] => 106331
        )

    [1] => Array
        (
            [name] => b.pdf
            [type] => application/pdf
            [tmp_name] => /private/var/tmp/phpqu3jsF
            [error] => 0
            [size] => 122368
        )

)

If the array you build looks different, which I guess it does, then you can either modify the array you send or modify the handling code to match your array structure.

#9

That looks good, but for whatever reason, when submitting via xmlhttprequest Kirby’s response parsing breaks, only when multiple uploads are present. My post request is correctly formatted, and I can verify this by dumping the output of the raw $_REQUEST and $_FILES objects. I’m just going to roll my own solution off of that. Anyway, thanks for helping me look into this!

#10

Wow—thought I’d update this quickly. It appears one of the images I was testing with was malformed in some way. I don’t quite understand why or how it was breaking, but when using different images, it’s fine. Totally bizarre.