curl_formadd(3) 						  libcurl Manual						   curl_formadd(3)

NAME

       curl_formadd - add a section to a multipart/formdata HTTP POST

SYNOPSIS

       #include <curl/curl.h>

       CURLFORMcode curl_formadd(struct HttpPost ** firstitem, struct HttpPost ** lastitem, ...);

DESCRIPTION

       curl_formadd()  is  used  to  append  sections  when building a multipart/formdata HTTP POST (sometimes refered to as rfc1867-style posts).
       Append one section at a time until you've added all the sections you want included and then you pass the firstitem pointer as parameter	to
       CURLOPT_HTTPPOST.   lastitem  is set after each call and on repeated invokes it should be left as set to allow repeated invokes to find the
       end of the list faster.

       After the lastitem pointer follow the real arguments. (If the following description confuses you, jump directly to the examples):

       CURLFORM_COPYNAME or CURLFORM_PTRNAME followed by a string is used for the name of the section. Optionally one may use  CURLFORM_NAMELENGTH
       to  specify  the  length of the name (allowing null characters within the name). All options that use the word COPY in their names copy the
       given contents, while the ones with PTR in their names simply points to the (static) data you must make sure remain until  curl	no  longer
       needs it.

       The  four options for providing values are: CURLFORM_COPYCONTENTS, CURLFORM_PTRCONTENTS, CURLFORM_FILE, or CURLFORM_FILECONTENT followed by
       a char or void pointer (allowed for PTRCONTENTS).

       CURLFORM_FILECONTENT does a normal post like CURLFORM_COPYCONTENTS but the actual value is read from the filename given as a string.

       Other arguments may be CURLFORM_CONTENTTYPE if the user wishes to specify one (for FILE if no type is given the library	tries  to  provide
       the correct one; for CONTENTS no Content-Type is sent in this case).

       For  CURLFORM_PTRCONTENTS or CURLFORM_COPYNAME the user may also add CURLFORM_CONTENTSLENGTH followed by the length as a long (if not given
       the library will use strlen to determine the length).

       For CURLFORM_FILE the user may send multiple files in one section by providing multiple CURLFORM_FILE arguments each followed by the  file-
       name (and each FILE is allowed to have a CONTENTTYPE).

       Another possibility to send single or multiple files in one section is to use CURLFORM_ARRAY that gets a struct curl_forms array pointer as
       its value. Each structure element has a CURLformoption and a char pointer. For the options only	CURLFORM_FILE,	CURLFORM_CONTENTTYPE,  and
       CURLFORM_END (that is used to determine the end of the array and thus must be the option of the last and no other element of the curl_forms
       array) are allowed. The effect of this parameter is the same as giving multiple CURLFORM_FILE options  possibly	with  CURLFORM_CONTENTTYPE
       after or before each CURLFORM_FILE option.

       Should  you  need  to  specify extra headers for the form POST section, use CURLFORM_CONTENTHEADER. This takes a curl_slist prepared in the
       usual way using curl_slist_append and appends the list of headers to those Curl automatically generates for  CURLFORM_CONTENTTYPE  and  the
       content disposition. The list must exist while the POST occurs, if you free it before the post completes you may experience problems.

       The last argument in such an array must always be CURLFORM_END.

       The  pointers  *firstitem and *lastitem should both be pointing to NULL in the first call to this function. All list-data will be allocated
       by the function itself. You must call curl_formfree after the form post has been done to free the resources again.

       This function will copy all input data except the data pointed to by the arguments after CURLFORM_PTRNAME and CURLFORM_PTRCONTENTS and keep
       its  own  version  of  it allocated until you call curl_formfree. When you've passed the pointer to curl_easy_setopt, you must not free the
       list until after you've called curl_easy_cleanup for the curl handle. If you provide a pointer as an arguments  after  CURLFORM_PTRNAME	or
       CURLFORM_PTRCONTENTS you must ensure that the pointer stays valid until you call curl_form_free and curl_easy_cleanup.

       See example below.

RETURN VALUE

       0 means everything was ok, non-zero means an error occurred as <curl/curl.h> defines.

EXAMPLE

	struct HttpPost* post = NULL;
	struct HttpPost* last = NULL;
	char namebuffer[] = "name buffer";
	long namelength = strlen(namebuffer);
	char buffer[] = "test buffer";
	char htmlbuffer[] = "<HTML>test buffer</HTML>";
	long htmlbufferlength = strlen(htmlbuffer);
	struct curl_forms forms[3];
	char file1[] = "my-face.jpg";
	char file2[] = "your-face.jpg";
	/* add null character into htmlbuffer, to demonstrate that
	   transfers of buffers containing null characters actually work
	*/
	htmlbuffer[8] = '';

	/* Add simple name/content section */
	curl_formadd(&post, &last, CURLFORM_COPYNAME, "name",
		     CURLFORM_COPYCONTENTS, "content", CURLFORM_END);

	/* Add simple name/content/contenttype section */
	curl_formadd(&post, &last, CURLFORM_COPYNAME, "htmlcode",
		     CURLFORM_COPYCONTENTS, "<HTML></HTML>",
		     CURLFORM_CONTENTTYPE, "text/html", CURLFORM_END);

	/* Add name/ptrcontent section */
	curl_formadd(&post, &last, CURLFORM_COPYNAME, "name_for_ptrcontent",
		     CURLFORM_PTRCONTENTS, buffer, CURLFORM_END);

	/* Add ptrname/ptrcontent section */
	curl_formadd(&post, &last, CURLFORM_PTRNAME, namebuffer,
		  CURLFORM_PTRCONTENTS, buffer, CURLFORM_NAMELENGTH,
		  namelength, CURLFORM_END);

	/* Add name/ptrcontent/contenttype section */
	curl_formadd(&post, &last, CURLFORM_COPYNAME, "html_code_with_hole",
		     CURLFORM_PTRCONTENTS, htmlbuffer,
		     CURLFORM_CONTENTSLENGTH, htmlbufferlength,
		     CURLFORM_CONTENTTYPE, "text/html", CURLFORM_END);

	/* Add simple file section */
	curl_formadd(&post, &last, CURLFORM_COPYNAME, "picture",
		     CURLFORM_FILE, "my-face.jpg", CURLFORM_END);

	/* Add file/contenttype section */
	curl_formadd(&post, &last, CURLFORM_COPYNAME, "picture",
		     CURLFORM_FILE, "my-face.jpg",
		     CURLFORM_CONTENTTYPE, "image/jpeg", CURLFORM_END);

	/* Add two file section */
	curl_formadd(&post, &last, CURLFORM_COPYNAME, "pictures",
		     CURLFORM_FILE, "my-face.jpg",
		     CURLFORM_FILE, "your-face.jpg", CURLFORM_END);

	/* Add two file section using CURLFORM_ARRAY */
	forms[0].option = CURLFORM_FILE;
	forms[0].value	= file1;
	forms[1].option = CURLFORM_FILE;
	forms[1].value	= file2;
	forms[2].option  = CURLFORM_END;

	/* no option needed for the end marker */
	curl_formadd(&post, &last, CURLFORM_COPYNAME, "pictures",
		     CURLFORM_ARRAY, forms, CURLFORM_END);
	/* Add the content of a file as a normal post text value */
	curl_formadd(&post, &last, CURLFORM_COPYNAME, "filecontent",
		     CURLFORM_FILECONTENT, ".bashrc", CURLFORM_END);
	/* Set the form info */
	curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_HTTPPOST, post);

SEE ALSO

       curl_easy_setopt(3), curl_formparse(3) [deprecated], curl_formfree(3)

BUGS

       Surely there are some, you tell me!

libcurl 7.9.8							    21 May 2002 						   curl_formadd(3)