Different ways to upload a file?

Question

I have read several ways to upload files to server.

• HTTP file uploading as multipart/formdata (How does HTTP file upload work?)

• JSON file uploading (How do I upload a file with metadata using a REST web service?)

Is there other options? The project I am working on needs such function. And my file to upload can be as big as several gigabits. I'd like to get a thorough evaluation of different approaches.

ADD 1

Thanks for so many responses. I am occupied for some other things these days and can't get back to this question until I see the SO notifications. I'd like to apologize for adding details so late as the bounty is about to expire.

In my scenario, there're 1 web server, a file server and many agents. The whole picture kind of looks like this:

• User interacts with Web server through browser for routine operations.
• User uploads files to file server through browser. (I want everything happen in browser to make customer life easier.)
• Agent is desktop applications that communicates with web server and file server.
• Agent gets routine information from web server.
• Agent pulls files from and pushes files to file server. And notifies web server about everything.
• Web server pulls files from file server to present it to customer in browser.

And some coding context:

• Java
• Spring
• Netty

Answer 1

Others ways to upload files to server (summarized):

• FTP: (File Transfer Protocol). It is a standard networking protocol that separates control and data iteration (2 different ports). Because of its insecurity, it can be used SFTP instead (linux systems). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Transfer_Protocol

• SCP: (Secure Copy) which will allow you to transfer files via ssh protocol. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_copy

• WebDAV, which is an HTTP extension which allows to update content remotely from a client. https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Glossary/WebDAV

• GitHub: which whill allow uploading files using git with a combination of commit/push methods. https://github.com/

• Rsync: incremental file transfer usually found in Unix-systems. It allows to copy only the changes from the file in the client to the server, saving bandwidth. https://rsync.samba.org/

Finally, the following link shows an implementation method for HTTP upload for Classical ASP: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/299692

This is a summary of some of the techniques or methods but there are plenty of solutions.