Spring MVC file upload - Unable to process parts as no multi-part configuration has been provided

Question

So I'm a newbie to Spring and I'm trying to get file upload working for my project (I'm using Spring Tool Suite btw.) and when submitting a form all I'm getting is:

HTTP Status 500 - Could not parse multipart servlet request; nested exception is java.lang.IllegalStateException: Unable to process parts as no multi-part configuration has been provided

Stack trace from browser:

type Exception report

message Could not parse multipart servlet request; nested exception is java.lang.IllegalStateException: Unable to process parts as no multi-part configuration has been provided

description The server encountered an internal error that prevented it from fulfilling this request.

exception

org.springframework.web.multipart.MultipartException: Could not parse multipart servlet request; nested exception is java.lang.IllegalStateException: Unable to process parts as no multi-part configuration has been provided
    org.springframework.web.multipart.support.StandardMultipartHttpServletRequest.parseRequest(StandardMultipartHttpServletRequest.java:100)
    org.springframework.web.multipart.support.StandardMultipartHttpServletRequest.(StandardMultipartHttpServletRequest.java:78)
    org.springframework.web.multipart.support.StandardServletMultipartResolver.resolveMultipart(StandardServletMultipartResolver.java:75)
    org.springframework.web.multipart.support.MultipartFilter.doFilterInternal(MultipartFilter.java:108)
    org.springframework.web.filter.OncePerRequestFilter.doFilter(OncePerRequestFilter.java:106)
root cause

java.lang.IllegalStateException: Unable to process parts as no multi-part configuration has been provided
    org.apache.catalina.connector.Request.parseParts(Request.java:2676)
    org.apache.catalina.connector.Request.getParts(Request.java:2643)
    org.apache.catalina.connector.RequestFacade.getParts(RequestFacade.java:1083)
    org.springframework.web.multipart.support.StandardMultipartHttpServletRequest.parseRequest(StandardMultipartHttpServletRequest.java:85)
    org.springframework.web.multipart.support.StandardMultipartHttpServletRequest.(StandardMultipartHttpServletRequest.java:78)
    org.springframework.web.multipart.support.StandardServletMultipartResolver.resolveMultipart(StandardServletMultipartResolver.java:75)
    org.springframework.web.multipart.support.MultipartFilter.doFilterInternal(MultipartFilter.java:108)
    org.springframework.web.filter.OncePerRequestFilter.doFilter(OncePerRequestFilter.java:106)

note The full stack trace of the root cause is available in the Apache Tomcat/8.0.27 logs.

This is the form tag in jsp:

<form:form class="form-horizontal" role="form" method="post"
            action="newArtist.html" modelAttribute="artist" enctype="multipart/form-data">

Input part:

<div class="form-group">
    <div class="col-lg-3">
        <label for="photo">Artist photo:</label>
        <form:input type="file" id="photo" path="photo"></form:input>
    </div>
</div>

Photo is stored in this field in Artist object:

@Lob
private byte[] photo;

Controller mapping methods:

@RequestMapping(value = "/newArtist", method = RequestMethod.GET)
public String showAddArtistForm(Model model)
{
    model.addAttribute("artist", new Artist());
    return "newArtist";
}

@RequestMapping(value = "/newArtist", method = RequestMethod.POST)
public String addArtist(@ModelAttribute("artist") @Valid Artist artist, BindingResult result,
        @RequestParam("photo") MultipartFile photo) throws IOException
{   
    if (result.hasErrors())
        return "newArtist";

    if(photo.getBytes() != null)
        artist.setPhoto(photo.getBytes());

    artistService.addArtist(artist);

    return "redirect:artists.html";
}

Multipart resolver configuration in servlet-context.xml:

<bean id="multipartResolver" class="org.springframework.web.multipart.commons.CommonsMultipartResolver">
    <property name="maxUploadSize" value="10000000"/>
</bean>

Filters in web.xml:

<filter>
    <filter-name>MultipartFilter</filter-name>
    <filter-class>org.springframework.web.multipart.support.MultipartFilter</filter-class>
</filter>
<filter>
    <filter-name>springSecurityFilterChain</filter-name>
    <filter-class>org.springframework.web.filter.DelegatingFilterProxy</filter-class>
</filter>
<filter-mapping>
    <filter-name>MultipartFilter</filter-name>
    <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
</filter-mapping>
<filter-mapping>
    <filter-name>springSecurityFilterChain</filter-name>
    <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
</filter-mapping>

Dependencies:

<!-- Apache Commons FileUpload -->
    <dependency>
        <groupId>commons-fileupload</groupId>
        <artifactId>commons-fileupload</artifactId>
        <version>1.3.1</version>
    </dependency>

    <!-- Apache Commons IO -->
    <dependency>
        <groupId>commons-io</groupId>
        <artifactId>commons-io</artifactId>
        <version>2.4</version>
    </dependency>

I also imported Tomcat's config file context.xml to META-INF/context.xml and edited Context tag like so:

<Context allowCasualMultipartParsing="true">

Nothing seems to be working, any help will be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

None of the answers address the issue properly. As per Tomcat documentation, on the configuration of allowCasualMultipartParsing:

Set to true if Tomcat should automatically parse multipart/form-data request bodies when HttpServletRequest.getPart* or HttpServletRequest.getParameter* is called, even when the target servlet isn't marked with the @MultipartConfig annotation (See Servlet Specification 3.0, Section 3.2 for details). Note that any setting other than false causes Tomcat to behave in a way that is not technically spec-compliant. The default is false.

So, what's the compliant way? Reading the official JEE 6 tutorial gives a hint. If you want to use a spec-compliant way with Servlet 3 or newer, your servlet must have a MultipartConfig. You have three choices, depending on how you configure your servlet:

• With programmatic configuration: context.addServlet(name, servlet).setMultipartConfig(new MultipartConfigElement("your_path").
• With annotations, annotate the servlet's class with @javax.servlet.annotation.MultipartConfig.

• With XML configuration, add this to the WEB-INF/web.xml descriptor, in the section of your servlet:

  <multipart-config>
       <location>/tmp</location>
       <max-file-size>20848820</max-file-size>
       <max-request-size>418018841</max-request-size>
       <file-size-threshold>1048576</file-size-threshold>
  </multipart-config>