having trouble uploading images from Flex to CQ5 DAM - apache-flex

Question

i have written a flex component to allow the user to select an image from the local filesystem and then POST it to a CQ5 DAM.
there are 2 CQ5 instances with which i'm working. the image posts fine to one instance, but not the other. specifically, in the 2nd instance, the renditions are not getting created when using the component.
one difference i've noted is that the working images, when i look at them in crxde, have a jcr:primaryType of dam:Asset. the non-working ones are nt:File.
from Flex, I use URLLoader to POST with a multipart form. the request (in part) looks like this:
POST /content/dam/test/foo.createasset.html HTTP/1.1
Host: xxxxxxxx:4502
Content-type: multipart/form-data; boundary=doudrbitutcfasnbhlpogirdctuxem
--doudrbitutcfasnbhlpogirdctuxem
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="file"
home.png
--doudrbitutcfasnbhlpogirdctuxem
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="Filename"
home.png
--doudrbitutcfasnbhlpogirdctuxem
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="home.png"; filename="home.png"
Content-Type: application/octet-stream
*** image data ***
--doudrbitutcfasnbhlpogirdctuxem
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="Upload"
Submit Query
--doudrbitutcfasnbhlpogirdctuxem--
that does save the image at: /content/dam/test/foo/home.png
i've tried adding a variable to the form:
./jcr:contentType dam:Asset
but that didn't cause the contentType to change. instead, the file didn't show up in CQ5 at all.
i know next to nothing about CQ5. i've seen some (old) examples of code POSTing right to where they want the asset to go, instead of hitting foo.createAsset.html as i've done. i could not get the more-straightforward POST working, and instead used CQ5 DAM to upload and image and captured through Charles, then tried to replicate that.
the CQ5 version that works is 5.5.0.
the version that does not is 5.4.0.
i'm sure that there are other configuration differences as well. in addition, the client is unwilling to upgrade from 5.4.0.
am i on the right track? close?
edit to clarify server setup:
CQ 5.5.0 --> installed locally, this one is an author server. my component works when POSTing to this server. meaning, the uploaded image is marked as dam:Asset and the renditions are generated.
CQ 5.4.0 --> a dev instance used by many. this is an author and publish server. my component does not 100% work when POSTing to this server. however, if i use the DAM admin interface to upload an image, it does properly mark the image as dam:Asset and generate the renditions.
edit #2: WORKING
it turns out that the dev/5.4 instance handles file uploading differently. my multi-part POST code mostly worked, but instead of using createAsset.html, i'm uploading to /tmp/fileupload.
then i issue a 2nd POST, using application/x-www-form-urlencoded, to issue a move command.
for those wishing to do the same, the move code looks like this:
var service:HTTPService = new HTTPService();
var url:String = instanceUrl + "/tmp/fileupload";
service.url = url;
var headerData : Object = new Object();
headerData['Cache-Control'] = 'no-store';
headerData['Authorization'] = getAuthString();
service.headers = headerData;
service.contentType = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=UTF-8";
service.method = URLRequestMethod.POST;
var urlVar:URLVariables = new URLVariables();
var command:String = "/var/dam/" + destPath + "/" + filename + "#MoveFrom";
var arg:String = "/tmp/fileupload/" + filename;
urlVar[command] = arg;
urlVar["_charset_"] = "utf-8";
var token:AsyncToken = service.send(urlVar);
not knowing CQ5, i can only assume the dev server is set up to run some workflow steps when it receives the #MoveFrom; those are the steps that ensure the uploaded file is of type dam:Asset and that the desired renditions are created.

Answer 1

If uploading from the DAM admin page via a browser works on the 5.4.0 instance, I would suggest analysing the HTTP request that this makes, to reproduce the same request from your Flex client. There's probably a subtle difference between the 5.4.0 and 5.5.0 HTTP APIs that explains this.

Answer 2

as a followup, below are the broad steps i took to get this working.
my overall goal was to write a Flex component that, for a specified VO, allowed the user to upload an image from their local filesystem (i used FileReference for this) into the component, then upload that image to CQ5 and publish it. after it was published, i then read it back into the component to display it.
i won't put the full code solution here, as it's involved and belongs to my client. in addition to my component, i wrote a utility for cq5 DAM operations, and an http service with built-in retries (which ended up being necessary because even though cq will give me a 200 when i request a resource, subsequent operations on that resource may fail, because cq doesn't seem to think it's there). Note that in all retry instances, i have a max retry count. the default value is 10, and default retry interval is 250ms.
please understand i know very little of CQ; most of what i learned was reverse engineering through trying things in the tool and watching Charles. also understand the steps below may be very specific to the install of CQ5 i'm working with.
so here are my overall steps. unless indicated otherwise, all requests are on port 4502:
a destination directory is determined from data in the VO and a POST is issued to create it. this is done with Content-type=application/x-www-form-urlencoded. the url is the full path of the folder i want to create, with no trailing slash.
repeat a GET on the created directory until we get a 200. the url here does have a trailing slash.
the image is POSTed to a temp area, [instance]/tmp/fileupload, as multipart form data. To help with this, i used an MIT-licensed AS class called MultipartURLLoader (https://code.google.com/p/in-spirit/). I used Content-type=multipart/form-data; boundary=[boundary]. CQ seemed very picky about the contents of the form data. mine is set up like this:
file: [name of file]
Filename: [name of file]
[name of file]: [file data]
Upload: Submit Query
another POST is issued, with a move command, to move the image from the temp area to the directory created in step 1. the url is [instance]/tmp/fileupload, and Content-type=application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=UTF-8. The form data is set up like this:
/var/dam/[destination_path]/[filename]#MoveFrom: /tmp/fileupload/[filename]
charset: utf-8
repeat step 4 until we get a 200. when new destination folders are indeed created, the first POST to #MoveFrom usually results in a 500, saying the destination folder is not there. perhaps there's another way to ask CQ if the destination is ready? i don't know.
we now need to publish the file, but first we issue a series of GETs on it to ensure it's there, with this url: [instance]/content/dam/[destination]/[filename].assets.json. once it's there, CQ will respond with some JSON that we use next.
check to see if the file has already been published. it may be the case that the user has already uploaded an image with the same name to the same location. the JSON response has a results node, which i check to see if it's 1. if it is, then i look at "pages[0].replication" to see if it has a node called "action". if it does, i see if the value is "ACTIVATE". if it is, it's already published. in every other case, i try to publish it.
POST a command to activate (publish it). the url is [instance]/bin/replicate.json. Content-type=application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=UTF-8. The form looks like this:
path: /content/dam/[destination]/[filename]
cmd: Activate
charset: utf-8
for my purposes, i wanted to then retrieve the published image to re-display it in my component. i waited for the 200 from the publish, then tried my GET. the url i used here had no port number, and no trailing slash: [instance:80]/content/dam/[destination]/[filename]. The first call almost always gave me a 404, so i kept trying until i got the 200.
that's it. i hope this is helpful to someone.
note: just saw that "charset" is in italics in the form specification. note that i'm using (underscore)charset(underscore).