Allow model types to be of type=file

Currently only operation parameters can be of type file but in some scenarios you want to have the file as part of your model. In our API we have 1 input model defined for our operation:

"FileUploadRequestViewModel": {
    "required": ["username", "file"],
    "type": "object",
    "properties": {
        "username": {
            "description": "The username of the file owner.",
            "type": "string"
        },
        "description": {
            "description": "A description of the file contents",
            "type": "string"
        },
        "file": {
            "description": "The file to upload.",
            "type": "file"
        }
    }
},

If any model property is of type file, the operation must be called with multipart/form-data. An operation could look like this:

"/v1/files": {
    "post": {
        "summary": "Uploads a new file to the data repository.",
        "operationId": "Files_Upload",
        "consumes": ["multipart/form-data"],
        "produces": ["application/json", "text/json"],
        "parameters": [{
            "name": "request",
            "in": "body",
            "description": "The model describing the file to be uploaded",
            "required": true,
            "schema": {
                "$ref": "#/definitions/FileUploadRequestViewModel"
            }
        }],
        "responses": {
            "200": {
                "description": "The file already existed in the repository and was updated.",
                "schema": {
                    "$ref": "#/definitions/FileUploadResponseViewModel"
                }
            },
            "201": {
                "description": "The file push was successful and it was added as new to the file repository.",
                "schema": {
                    "$ref": "#/definitions/FileUploadResponseViewModel"
                }
            },
            "404": {
                "description": "No user with the given username could be found."
            },
            "415": {
                "description": "If the file push was not called with a multipart mimetype"
            },
            "400": {
                "description": "One or more of the input parameters were invalid, check the body for detailed validation messages.",
                "schema": {
                    "$ref": "#/definitions/HttpError"
                }
            }
        },
        "deprecated": false
    }
},

In the example above, the user would send the following content to upload a file:

POST /v1/files HTTP/1.1
{{Other Headers}}
Content-Type: multipart/form-data; boundary=--389C9546-8F63-47C8-A1D7-51B7D88FDB08
Content-Length: {{Actual Length}}

--389C9546-8F63-47C8-A1D7-51B7D88FDB08
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="request.username"

Username
--389C9546-8F63-47C8-A1D7-51B7D88FDB08
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="request.description"

An archive of my holiday pictures.
-----------------------------735323031399963166993862150
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="request.file"; filename="MyHolidayPictures.zip"
Content-Type: application/zip

{{Binary Content}}
--389C9546-8F63-47C8-A1D7-51B7D88FDB08--

As you can see the model properties are accessed via the name of the single multipart boundaries.

[webron]

Thanks. You’ve given a good idea on how to deal with an existing issue (or a set of issues) and I’ll consider that when approaching it. Need to process it some more, but it may be a way to eliminate formData parameters and provide the extra flexibility that’s missing now. No guarantees though.

[fehguy]

File is dead! Long live File.

See #878