POST binary data from browser to JFrog / Artifactory server without using form-data - ajax

Question

So we get a file (an image file) in the front-end like so:
//html
<input type="file" ng-change="onFileChange">
//javascript
$scope.onFileChange = function (e) {
e.preventDefault();
let file = e.target.files[0];
// I presume this is just a binary file
// I want to HTTP Post this file to a server
// without using form-data
};
What I want to know is - is there a way to POST this file to a server, without including the file as form-data? The problem is that the server I am send a HTTP POST request to, doesn't really know how to store form-data when it receives a request.
I believe this is the right way to do it, but I am not sure.
fetch('www.example.net', { // Your POST endpoint
method: 'POST',
headers: {
"Content-Type": "image/jpeg"
},
body: e.target.files[0] // the file
})
.then(
response => response.json() // if the response is a JSON object
)

Answer 1

You can directly attach the file to the request body. Artifactory doesn't support form uploads (and it doesn't look like they plan to)
You'll still need to proxy the request somehow to avoid CORS issues, and if you're using user credentials, you should be cautious in how you treat them. Also, you could use a library like http-proxy-middleware to avoid having to write/test/maintain the proxy logic.
<input id="file-upload" type="file" />
<script>
function upload(data) {
var file = document.getElementById('file-upload').files[0];
var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
xhr.open('PUT', 'https://example.com/artifactory-proxy-avoiding-cors');
xhr.send(file);
}
</script>

Answer 2

Our front-end could not HTTP POST directly to the JFrog/Artifactory server. So we ended up using a Node.js server as a proxy, which is not very ideal.
Front-end:
// in an AngularJS controller:
$scope.onAcqImageFileChange = function (e) {
e.preventDefault();
let file = e.target.files[0];
$scope.acqImageFile = file;
};
// in an AngularJS service
createNewAcqImage: function(options) {
let file = options.file;
return $http({
method: 'POST',
url: '/proxy/image',
data: file,
headers: {
'Content-Type': 'image/jpeg'
}
})
},
Back-end:
const express = require('express');
const router = express.Router();
router.post('/image', function (req, res, next) {
const filename = uuid.v4();
const proxy = http.request({
method: 'PUT',
hostname: 'engci-maven.nabisco.com',
path: `/artifactory/cdt-repo/folder/${filename}`,
headers: {
'Authorization': 'Basic ' + Buffer.from('cdt-deployer:foobar').toString('base64'),
}
}, function(resp){
resp.pipe(res).once('error', next);
});
req.pipe(proxy).once('error', next);
});
module.exports = router;
not that we had to use a PUT request to send an image to Artifactory, not POST, something to do with Artifactory (the engci-maven.nabisco.com server is an Artifactory server). As I recall, I got CORS issues when trying to post directly from our front-end to the other server, so we had to use our server as a proxy, which is something I'd rather avoid, but oh well for now.