Executing a POST object upload

When you execute a POST object upload, you specify a name for the object you're creating.

In the upload request, you can specify custom metadata to be added to the object when the upload is completed. To do this, you use the field x-amz-meta- within the post form.

In the upload request, you can specify an ACL to be added to the object when the upload is completed. To do this, you use the field acl within the post form.

If the ACL you specify in a request to execute an upload is invalid, HCP returns the status code 400 (Bad Request) or 501 (Not Implemented) and does not execute the upload.

When you complete an upload, you become the owner of the resulting object.

Required headers

The list below describes the headers you can use in a request to execute a POST object upload.

Authorization

Specifies user credentials or requests anonymous access.

Host

Specifies the hostname for the request. The host name identifies either a tenant or a bucket.

For a tenant, use this format:

tenant-name.hcp-domain-name

For a bucket, use this format:

bucket-name.tenant-name.hcp-domain-name

Optional headers

x-amz-server-side-encryption

Requests that the response headers include x-amz-server-side-encryption, which indicates whether objects stored in HCP are encrypted. The value of the x-amz-server-side-encryption request header can be any character string.

Data is only encrypted when Encryption for Primary Running Storage is configured.

Required form fields

The content of a POST object upload request contains a form with fields that are passed to HCP as the contents of a Content-Disposition header. The list below describes the fields you can use in a POST object upload.

AWSAccessKeyId

(AWS Signature Version 2 authentication only field)

Required if policy is sent with request

Specifies the owner of the bucket who grants an anonymous user access for a request that satisfies the constraints in the policy.

A Base64-encoded username for a user account.

Signature

(AWS Signature Version 2 authentication only field)

Required if policy is sent with request

Specifies a value calculated using the secret key and the policy string, as "string to sign."

file

Contains file or text content. Can be used with a File or a Textarea form element.

HCP ignores any fields that appear after this field.

You can only upload one file at a time.

key

Specifies the name of the uploaded key.

To use the file name provided by the user, use the variable ${filename}. For example, if the user Greta uploads the file new_hq.jpg and you specify /user/greta/${filename}, the key name is /user/greta/new_hq.jpg.

policy

Required if bucket is not publicly writable

Specifies a security policy describing what is permitted in the request. Requests without a security policy are considered anonymous and work only on publicly writable buckets.

x-amz-algorithm

Required if policy is sent with request

(AWS Signature Version 4 authentication only field)

Specifies the signing algorithm that must be used during signature calculation. The value is AWS4-HMAC-SHA256.

x-amz-date

Required if policy is sent with request

(AWS Signature Version 4 authentication only field)

Specifies the date and time at which the request is being made according to the requester. Normally, this is the current date and time.

x-amz-signature

Required if policy is sent with request

(AWS Signature Version 4 authentication only field)

Specifies a value calculated using the secret key and specific elements of the request, including the policy string, as "string to sign."

x-amz-credential

Required if using V4 authentication and policy is sent with request

(AWS Signature Version 4 authentication only field)

Specifies the credentials that you used to calculate the signature. It provides access key ID and scope information identifying the region and service for which the signature is valid. This should be the same scope you used to calculate the signing key.

Use this format:

access-key-id/date/aws-region/aws-service/aws4_request

For example:

AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE/20191024/us-east-1/s3/aws4_request

For Amazon S3, the aws-service string is s3.

Optional form fields

acl

Adds a canned ACL to the resulting object when the upload is completed. The default is private.

Content-Encoding

REST-specific header. You can use the values in a policy; they are otherwise treated as follows:

If value is gzip and file is gzipped, HCP decodes the file.

Expires

REST-specific headers. You can use the values in a policy; they are otherwise treated as follows:

If present, HCP returns the value in the response header.

success_action_ redirect

redirect

Specifies a URL to which the client is redirected upon successful upload.

If not specified, HCP returns the empty document type specified in the field success_action_status.

If HCP cannot interpret the URL, it acts as if the field is not present.

If the upload fails, HCP displays an error and does not redirect the user to a URL.

Note: The field redirect is deprecated.

success_action_status

If you don't specify success_action_redirect, this status code is returned to the client when the upload succeeds.

Accepts the values 200, 201, or 204 (the default).

If set to 200 or 204, HCP returns an empty document with a 200 or 204 status code.

If set to 201, HCP returns an XML document with a 201 status code.

If not set or set to an invalid value, HCP returns an empty document with a 204 status code.

Note: Some versions of Adobe Flash Player do not properly handle HTTP responses with an empty body. To support uploads through Adobe Flash, set to 201.

x-amz-meta-*

Adds customer metadata, stored as key-value pairs, to the resulting object when the upload is completed.

x-hcp-retention

Specifies the retention value for the object being stored. This value can be a fixed date, an offset, a retention class, or a special value

x-hcp-retentionhold

Specifies whether the object is on hold. This value can be either true or false.

Response headers

The list below describes the headers returned in response to a successful POST object upload request.

Date

The date and time when HCP responded to the request, in Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). The date and time are returned in this format:

DDD dd MMM yyyy HH:mm:ss GMT

For example:

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 14:27:05 GMT

Location

Specifies the URL to which the client is redirected if the upload is successful.

x-amz-server-side-encryption

Specifies whether objects stored in HCP are encrypted. Possible values are:

• If objects are encrypted, AES256
• If objects are not encrypted, None

This header is returned only if the request headers include x-amz-server-side-encryption.

x-amz-version-id

Specifies the version ID of the object. This header is returned only while versioning is enabled for the bucket.

Response body

If success_action_code is set to 201, HCP returns information about the object that results from a successful upload request in an XML response body.

The list below describes the XML elements in the response body returned in response to a request to complete a POST object upload. The elements are listed in alphabetical order.

Bucket

Child of the PostResponse element.

The Bucket element specifies the bucket where the object was created.

ETag

Child of the PostResponse element.

The ETag or entity tag element specifies the MD5 hash of the object. The element reflects the contents of an object, not its metadata.

You can do a conditional GET operation by combining the ETag tag with an If-Modified tag.

Key

Child of the PostResponse element.

The Key element specifies the name of the object.

Location

Child of the PostResponse element.

The Location element specifies the complete URL for the object.

Status codes

The table below describes HTTP status codes that can be returned in response to a request to complete a POST object upload.