Converting Multipart/Form-Data to JSON

Question

I am trying to automate faxing using RingCentral for our environment, and was able to fax one attachment, but don't know how to do multiple in JSON format. I am attempting to write the following multipart/form-data in JSON:

POST /restapi/v1.0/account/~/extension/~/fax
Content-Type: multipart/form-data; boundary=Boundary_14_2952358_1361963763144

attachment1
--Boundary_14_2952358_1361963763144
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="attachment"; filename="1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary
Content-Type: text/plain

attachment2
--Boundary_14_2952358_1361963763144
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="attachment"; filename="2"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary
Content-Type: text/plain

attachment3
--Boundary_14_2952358_1361963763144--

However, I'm pretty new to JSON and multipart/form-data and everything I've tried isn't working. Any ideas? Thanks!

Answer 1

A fax cannot be sent as application/json only using the RingCentral API. This is because faxes can include large attachments and it's not efficient to send them in a JSON payload.

That being said, multipart/mixed can be used to send the metadata in JSON format MIME part.

multipart/form-data requires each piece of metadata to be sent in a separate MIME part because web form supporting clients like web browsers will construct requests that way.

This is described in the RingCentral Developer Guide here:

https://developers.ringcentral.com/guide/messaging/fax/fax-multipart-formats

Here's an example request using multipart/mixed with the JSON metadata MIME part. This is more compact than the multipart/form-data example shown further below.

multipart/mixed example

POST /restapi/v1.0/account/11112222/extension/22223333/fax HTTP/1.1
Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary=Boundary_1_14413901_1361871080888
Authorization: Bearer MyToken

--Boundary_1_14413901_1361871080888
Content-Type: application/json

{"to":[{"phoneNumber":"18005554567"}],
 "faxResolution":"High",
 "sendTime":"2013-02-26T09:31:20.882Z"}

--Boundary_1_14413901_1361871080888
Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="fax.txt"

Hello, World!

--Boundary_1_14413901_1361871080888--

multipart/form-data example

POST /restapi/v1.0/account/11112222/extension/22223333/fax HTTP/1.1
Content-Type: multipart/form-data;boundary=Boundary_14_2952358_1361963763144
Authorization: Bearer MyToken

--Boundary_14_2952358_1361963763144
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="coverPageText"; filename=""
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Content-Type: text/plain


--Boundary_14_2952358_1361963763144
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="coverIndex"; filename=""
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Content-Type: text/plain

2
--Boundary_14_2952358_1361963763144
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="faxResolution"; filename=""
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Content-Type: text/plain

High
--Boundary_14_2952358_1361963763144
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="sendTime"; filename=""
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Content-Type: text/plain

2030-03-19T08:00:00.000Z
--Boundary_14_2952358_1361963763144
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="isoCode"; filename=""
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Content-Type: text/plain

UK
--Boundary_14_2952358_1361963763144
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="to"; filename=""
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Content-Type: text/plain

18005554567
--Boundary_14_2952358_1361963763144
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="to"; filename=""
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Content-Type: text/plain

18005554568
--Boundary_14_2952358_1361963763144
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="attachment"; filename=""
Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary
Content-Type: text/plain

attachment0
--Boundary_14_2952358_1361963763144
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="attachment"; filename=""
Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary
Content-Type: text/plain

attachment1
--Boundary_14_2952358_1361963763144
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="attachment"; filename=""
Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary
Content-Type: text/plain

attachment2
--Boundary_14_2952358_1361963763144--

https://developers.ringcentral.com/guide/messaging/fax/fax-multipart-formats