403 Forbidden error on swfupload and django

Question

I'm trying to use a script for multiple file uploads, like swfupload or uploadify on my django application but no matter what I try, I always get a 403 forbidden error for the upload URL. If I try to run the 'same' code (just different links to same files) independently, it works like a charm.

Any idea if I'm missing something on my main code or is there some kind of setting that I don't know about?

Answer 1

This is totally related with CSRF protection. In my case I solved that issue such that,

views.py

def photo_upload(request):
    if request.method == 'POST':
         for field_name in request.FILES:
         ....
         ....
         return HttpResponse("ok", mimetype="text/plain")

    else:       
         return render_response(request, 'wpphotos/post/photo_upload.html', {"csrf_token": get_token(request)},context_instance=RequestContext(request))

Because flash useses its own session while uploading, you should set csrf_token value in your middleware such that

swfupload.py

from django.conf import settings
from django.core.urlresolvers import reverse

class SWFUploadMiddleware(object):

def process_request(self, request):
    if (request.method == 'POST') and (request.path == reverse('project_name.module_name.views.photo_upload')) and \
            request.POST.has_key(settings.SESSION_COOKIE_NAME):
        request.COOKIES[settings.SESSION_COOKIE_NAME] = request.POST[settings.SESSION_COOKIE_NAME]
    if request.POST.has_key('csrftoken'):           
        request.COOKIES['csrftoken'] = request.POST['csrftoken']

For the last step, you should set csrftoken as post parameter in your javascript for SWFUpload settings such that

photo_upload.html

window.onload = function() {
    swfupload = new SWFUpload({
        post_params: {
            "csrfmiddlewaretoken": "{{csrf_token}}"
        },
        upload_url: "/module_name/post/photo_upload/",
        flash_url: "/media/flash/swfupload.swf",
        file_size_limit : "2.5 MB",
                    ....
                    ....
                    ....
            });
    };

Answer 2

Just add an extra data when initializing Uploadify (make your changes on "swf" and "uploader" settings):

$('#file_upload').uploadify({
            'formData' : { 'csrfmiddlewaretoken' : '{{csrf_token}}' },
            'swf'       : '/static/js/uploadify.swf',
            'uploader'  : '{% url upload %}',
            // Put your other options here
        });

Answer 3

I use uploadify in my django project, get 403 error too, because django has CSRF protection. so i change this function in my views.py solve this problem.

from django.views.decorators.csrf import csrf_exempt    
@csrf_exempt
def ajax_flash_upload(request):

Answer 4

Thank you very much, brsbilgic. I've tried your solution, and it worked! By the way, the middleware snippet should be modified to:

if request.POST.has_key('csrfmiddlewaretoken'):           
    request.COOKIES['csrftoken'] = request.POST['csrfmiddlewaretoken']

Answer 5

This is probably related to the flash cookie bug: your client has an authentication cookie that the flash is not including in its request to the server. Since the request doesn't have the auth cookie, it gets rejected with a 403.