Implementing HTTP File Upload with ASP.NET MVC

Introduction

In this article, I will explore how to upload a file using ASP.NET MVC. Since the MVC framework does not use server controls, it will be interesting to see how file upload works in MVC.

Using the code

Here is my view that renders a form for uploading files:

<%@ Page Title="" Language="C#" 
  MasterPageFile="~/Views/Shared/Site.Master" 
  Inherits="System.Web.Mvc.ViewPage" %>
 
<asp:Content ID="Content1" ContentPlaceHolderID="TitleContent" runat="server">
            FileUpload
</asp:Content>
<asp:Content ID="Content2" ContentPlaceHolderID="MainContent" runat="server">
    <h2>FileUpload</h2>
    
     <% using (Html.BeginForm("FileUpload", "FileUpload", 
                    FormMethod.Post, new { enctype = "multipart/form-data" }))
        {%>
        <input name="uploadFile" type="file" />
        <input type="submit" value="Upload File" />
<%} %>
 
</asp:Content>

Now, I will write a controller for file upload, and here is my FileUploadController.cs:

[HandleError]
public class FileUploadController : Controller
{
    public ActionResult FileUpload()
    {
        return View();
    }

    [AcceptVerbs(HttpVerbs.Post)]
    public ActionResult FileUpload(HttpPostedFileBase uploadFile)
    {
        if (uploadFile.ContentLength > 0)
        {
            string filePath = Path.Combine(HttpContext.Server.MapPath("../Uploads"), 
                                           Path.GetFileName(uploadFile.FileName));
            uploadFile.SaveAs(filePath);
        }
        return View();
    }
}

One thing to note is that the controller has two overloaded methods of FileUpload. The first, ActionResult FileUpload(), is just to render the form and the method that is attributed with [AcceptVerbs(HttpVerbs.Post)] will upload the file. Here is the output form for uploading files:

Summary

The MVC framework does not use server controls, so we built an HTTP File Upload method with ASP.NET MVC.