From 917cf99e10c41676183d501b86af6e47c95afb89 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: =?UTF-8?q?Lo=C3=AFc=20Hoguin?= <essen@ninenines.eu>
Date: Thu, 6 Feb 2014 19:36:25 +0100
Subject: Add and document the new multipart code

The old undocumented API is removed entirely.

While a documentation exists for the new API, it will not
be considered set in stone until further testing has been
performed, and a file upload example has been added.

The new API should be a little more efficient than the
old API, especially with smaller messages.
---
 guide/multipart_req.md | 112 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 guide/toc.md           |   2 +-
 2 files changed, 113 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
 create mode 100644 guide/multipart_req.md

(limited to 'guide')

diff --git a/guide/multipart_req.md b/guide/multipart_req.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a4d0137
--- /dev/null
+++ b/guide/multipart_req.md
@@ -0,0 +1,112 @@
+Multipart requests
+==================
+
+You can read and parse multipart messages using the
+Req object directly.
+
+Cowboy defines two functions that allows you to get
+information about each part and read their contents.
+
+Checking the content-type
+-------------------------
+
+While there is a variety of multipart messages, the
+most common on the Web is `multipart/form-data`. It's
+the type of message being sent when an HTML form
+allows uploading files.
+
+You can quickly figure out if a multipart message
+has been sent by parsing the `content-type` header.
+
+``` erlang
+{ok, {<<"multipart">>, <<"form-data">>, _}, Req2}
+    = cowboy_req:parse_header(<<"content-type">>, Req).
+```
+
+Reading a multipart message
+---------------------------
+
+To read a message you have to iterate over all its
+parts. Then, for each part, you can inspect its headers
+and read its body.
+
+``` erlang
+multipart(Req) ->
+    case cowboy_req:part(Req) of
+        {ok, _Headers, Req2} ->
+            {ok, _Body, Req3} = cowboy_req:part_body(Req2),
+            multipart(Req3);
+        {done, Req2} ->
+            Req2
+    end.
+```
+
+Parts do not have a size limit. When a part body is
+too big, Cowboy will return what it read so far and
+allow you to continue if you wish to do so.
+
+The function `cow_multipart:form_data/1` can be used
+to quickly obtain information about a part from a
+`multipart/form-data` message. This function will
+tell you if the part is for a normal field or if it
+is a file being uploaded.
+
+This can be used for example to allow large part bodies
+for files but crash when a normal field is too large.
+
+``` erlang
+multipart(Req) ->
+    case cowboy_req:part(Req) of
+        {ok, Headers, Req2} ->
+            Req4 = case cow_multipart:form_data(Headers) of
+                {data, _FieldName} ->
+                    {ok, _Body, Req3} = cowboy_req:part_body(Req2),
+                    Req3;
+                {file, _FieldName, _Filename, _CType, _CTransferEncoding} ->
+                    stream_file(Req2)
+            end,
+            multipart(Req4);
+        {done, Req2} ->
+            Req2
+    end.
+
+stream_file(Req) ->
+    case cowboy_req:part_body(Req) of
+        {ok, _Body, Req2} ->
+            Req2;
+        {more, _Body, Req2} ->
+            stream_file(Req2)
+    end.
+```
+
+By default the body chunk Cowboy will return is limited
+to 8MB. This can of course be overriden.
+
+Skipping unwanted parts
+-----------------------
+
+If you do not want to read a part's body, you can skip it.
+Skipping is easy. If you do not call the function to read
+the part's body, Cowboy will automatically skip it when
+you request the next part.
+
+The following snippet reads all part headers and skips
+all bodies:
+
+``` erlang
+multipart(Req) ->
+    case cowboy_req:part(Req) of
+        {ok, _Headers, Req2} ->
+            multipart(Req2);
+        {done, Req2} ->
+            Req2
+    end.
+```
+
+Similarly, if you start reading the body and it ends up
+being too big, you can simply continue with the next part,
+Cowboy will automatically skip what remains.
+
+And if you started reading the message but decide that you
+do not need the remaining parts, you can simply stop reading
+entirely and Cowboy will automatically figure out what to do.
diff --git a/guide/toc.md b/guide/toc.md
index a0c9a8c..5229167 100644
--- a/guide/toc.md
+++ b/guide/toc.md
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ Multipart
 ---------
 
  *  Understanding multipart
- *  Multipart requests
+ *  [Multipart requests](multipart_req.md)
  *  Multipart responses
 
 Server push technologies
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