ns plugin add @nativescript/background-http


The below attached code snippets demonstrate how to use @nativescript/background-http to upload single or multiple files.

Uploading files

Sample code for configuring the upload session. Each session must have a unique id, but it can have multiple tasks running simultaneously. The id is passed as a parameter when creating the session (the image-upload string in the code bellow):

// file path and url
var file = '/some/local/file/path/and/file/name.jpg'
var url = 'https://some.remote.service.com/path'
var name = file.substr(file.lastIndexOf('/') + 1)

// upload configuration
var bghttp = require('@nativescript/background-http')
var session = bghttp.session('image-upload')
var request = {
  url: url,
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
  description: 'Uploading ' + name

For a single file upload, use the following code:

var task = session.uploadFile(file, request)

For multiple files or to pass additional data, use the multipart upload method. All parameter values must be strings:

var params = [
  { name: 'test', value: 'value' },
  { name: 'fileToUpload', filename: file, mimeType: 'image/jpeg' }
var task = session.multipartUpload(params, request)

In order to have a successful upload, the following must be taken into account:

  • the file must be accessible from your app. This may require additional permissions (e.g. access documents and files on the device). Usually this is not a problem - e.g. if you use another plugin to select the file, which already adds the required permissions.
  • the URL must not be blocked by the OS. Android Pie or later devices require TLS (HTTPS) connection by default and will not upload to an insecure (HTTP) URL.

Upload request and task API

The request object parameter has the following properties:

urlstringThe request url (e.g.https://some.remote.service.com/path).
methodstringThe request method (e.g. POST).
headersobjectUsed to specify additional headers.
descriptionstringUsed to help identify the upload task locally - not sent to the remote server.
utf8boolean(Android only/multipart only) If true, sets the charset for the multipart request to UTF-8. Default is false.
androidDisplayNotificationProgressboolean(Android only) Used to set if progress notifications should be displayed or not. Please note that since API26, Android requires developers to use notifications when running background tasks. https://developer.android.com/about/versions/oreo/background
androidNotificationTitlestring(Android only) Used to set the title shown in the Android notifications center.
androidAutoDeleteAfterUploadboolean(Android only) Used to set if files should be deleted automatically after upload.
androidMaxRetriesnumber(Android only) Used to set the maximum retry count. The default retry count is 0. https://github.com/gotev/android-upload-service/wiki/Recipes#backoff
androidAutoClearNotificationboolean(Android only) Used to set if notifications should be cleared automatically upon upload completion. Default is false. Please note that setting this to true will also disable the ringtones.
androidRingToneEnabledboolean(Android only) Used to set if a ringtone should be played upon upload completion. Default is true. Please note that this flag has no effect when androidAutoClearNotification is set to true.
androidNotificationChannelIDstring(Android only) Used to set the channel ID for the notifications.

The task object has the following properties and methods, that can be used to get information about the upload:

uploadnumberBytes uploaded.
totalUploadnumberTotal number of bytes to upload.
statusstringOne of the following: error, uploading, complete, pending, cancelled.
descriptionstringThe description set in the request used to create the upload task.
cancel()voidCall this method to cancel an upload in progress.

Handling upload events

After the upload task is created you can monitor its progress using the following events:

task.on('progress', progressHandler)
task.on('error', errorHandler)
task.on('responded', respondedHandler)
task.on('complete', completeHandler)
task.on('cancelled', cancelledHandler) // Android only

Each event handler will receive a single parameter with event arguments:

// event arguments:
// task: Task
// currentBytes: number
// totalBytes: number
function progressHandler(e) {
  alert('uploaded ' + e.currentBytes + ' / ' + e.totalBytes)

// event arguments:
// task: Task
// responseCode: number
// error: java.lang.Exception (Android) / NSError (iOS)
// response: net.gotev.uploadservice.ServerResponse (Android) / NSHTTPURLResponse (iOS)
function errorHandler(e) {
  alert('received ' + e.responseCode + ' code.')
  var serverResponse = e.response

// event arguments:
// task: Task
// responseCode: number
// data: string
function respondedHandler(e) {
  alert('received ' + e.responseCode + ' code. Server sent: ' + e.data)

// event arguments:
// task: Task
// responseCode: number
function completeHandler(e) {
  alert('received ' + e.responseCode + ' code')
  var serverResponse = e.response

// event arguments:
// task: Task
function cancelledHandler(e) {
  alert('upload cancelled')

Testing the plugin

In order to test the plugin, you must have a server instance to accept the uploads. There are online services that can be used for small file uploads - e.g. http://httpbin.org/post However, these cannot be used for large files. The plugin repository comes with a simple server you can run locally. Here is how to start it:

cd demo-server
npm i
node server 8080

The above commands will start a server listening on port 8080. Remember to update the URL in your app to match the address/port where the server is running.


If you are using the iOS simulator then http://localhost:8080 should be used to upload to the demo server. If you are using an Android emulator, should be used instead.


Apache License Version 2.0