Using uploadify as part of an asp.net webform? - asp.net

I have a web form that requires users to fill out some information and upload an image.
What I don't understand:
If I use uploadify to select a file doesn't it upload it right away to the server? Is there a way to defer that until the user would click on a form submit button? Or at least not save it to the file system?
Most examples use a custom HttpHandler for uploading files, but my file upload is part of a form. Should I still use a HttpHandler for that?

Well, I'll try to answer all your many questions, one by one. But before anything, open the official documentation because I will rely on it for answers.
If I use Uploadify to select a file doesn't it upload it right away to the server?
As you can see on the first demo, you can have a anchor (or a button or anything) to trigger the upload start. The Uploadify don't upload nothing until it's done (if the property auto isn't true).
Is there a way to defer that until the user would click on a form submit button?
Like described above, yes. And it's the default way (since the default value of auto is false).
Or at least not save it to the file system?
While the button doesn't trigger the .uploadifyUpload() method, nothing goes to the server. But when the Uploadify starts sending, it will be handled by the server (with the HTTP Handler). The handler is the guy that save it to the file system.
Most examples use a custom HttpHandler for uploading files, but my file upload is part of a form. Should I still use a HttpHandler for that?
As described on the script property, you can point to any server-side language that will handle the HTTP Request containing the data. The HttpHandler is the right thing because it haven't any other processing before or after the code you write. It isn't hard. The official forum shows some samples. And here on StackOverflow we have many questions about it, like these: Getting Uploadify Working in C# and Uploadify not working with ASP.NET WebForms.

The server shouldn't save the file until it is actually actioned by a handler. The Uploadify is providing the UI control for the gathering of the files and feedback. There are some settable properties available to control whether you want the "Auto" upload behavior or not.
You still need some king of server side processing for saving the data and an HTTPHandler is the usual way to do it. The HTTPHandler just operates on what file information it gets from the browser as part of a multi-part form data.
Here is an answer that provides more information about Uploadify: Getting Uploadify Working in C#

Related

File download via external link - how to implement?

I have a web application which consists of many aspx pages ... one of them shows a grid with rows that can be exported to a file via button click. This works fine. Now I want to have that feature which allows a user to access an external link to this page (or another) and to export to a file and download. I dont need any information on the page, just the file download. How could I do this also including security features like encryption?
Thanks :)
The easiest way to do this is simply implement an HttpHandler that contains the logic to create that file and write it to the Response stream.
There are lots of examples of how to do this on the web that I won't repeat in this question. Just do a Google search for "Download File HttpHandler" and you should be golden.
One of the search results: http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/UploadFile/jhblankenship/DownloadingFromMemStreamHttp11262005061852AM/DownloadingFromMemStreamHttp.aspx
What you're going to have to do is when the gridview shows the correct rows to provide a 'unique link' which will be your website URL with url variables at the end. When the page loads it can check these variables and then use the database to look up the correct data etc.
Encryption in transit will be done via HTTPS (SSL), and to secure otherwise you would require a login to view the gridview / file.

File Uploading without page refresh in Web pages

Hii,
Any one knows how to upload files to the physical location of the server. It is possible using file upload control that i know. But i want to avoid the external postbacking of the page. For e.g exactly like what in the yahoo mail did.
In yahoo mail latest version if you attach a file that won't post back and attach that file in to server. What is the technology behind that?
Normally when you submit a form it does a POST request to the server, causing a refresh. Ajax requests get round this by using JavaScript to send the POST data through to the server, and that doesn't need a page refresh.
Ajax requests can't be used to send file data though, so the best way to currently do it is with an iframe hack - you use JavaScript to dynamically build up a form within an iframe, submit that form via JavaScript, and listen for the iframe's onload event. So you know when the form has been submitted. A version of this approach is detailed here:
http://www.webtoolkit.info/ajax-file-upload.html
Other methods to do this would include using a Flash-based solution like http://www.swfupload.org/ or a wrapper like http://www.plupload.com/ - these will prevent you having to roll your own solution and will also provide some extra functionality - upload progress feedback, for example.

File uploading in AJAX updatepanel without full postback

I have a update panel, in the update panel I have fileupload control and button control, On button click, I need the file that I have upload in the fileupload control in updatepanel.
Exact scenario, I have 8 tabs on page, each tab contains too much information, One of the tab is Attachment, when user click on Add New Attachment Modal Popup shown, Modal contains detailsview in Updatepanel and in the detailsview I have fileupload control, when user hit save button, detailsview inserting event fired, In the inserting event I need the file that I have upload.
Please Note, My page is heavy and I don't want full postBack.
Does anyone have solution of this issue?
Advance thanks for your kind help.....
For solve this problem, Please see the following step.
Add ajax-upload to your detail view.
iframe-based uploader like Resource#1.
Silverlight-based & Flash-based uploader. I like this technique because it doesn't require any server-side script for display current upload status. But in HTML5, you can create this without using any web browser plug-in.
Commercial uploader like Resource#2. that use hidden iframe for uploading.
Upload file to temporary location.
System response the temporary location. Next, client keep temporary location in hidden input in detail form.
Keep temporary location with session_id. You can store it in database or Session variable depend on your framework.
When you click on the save button, the system will move the files to their real location
Note. System will automatically delete the expired file from the temporary location.
Resource
ASP.NET File Upload with Real-Time Progress Bar
ASP.NET File Upload like GMail (Commercial)
Update
After almost one year, I just found a great 3rd-parties control for this question. This is an open source plug-in of jQuery. It name Plupload that allows you to upload files using HTML5, Silverlight, Flash or normal forms and it provide some unique features such as upload progress, image resizing and chunked uploads.
You can try & test Plupload by click here.
Can't be done without co-operating binaries being installed on the client. There is no safe mechanism for an AJAX framework to read the contents of a file and therefore be able to send it to the server. The browser supports that only as a multipart form post from a file input box.
The problem is with the way the HTML file upload control works, has nothing to do with ASP.net, for the file upload control to work you need a full post of the form data. You can only simulate that your are not doing a full postback, by doing all the operation in a hidden iframe that does the actual uploading
The sites you see that do provide this functionality generally use flash or an iframe so that the postback occurs in the iframe and gives the illusion of an ajax request.
HTH
OneSHOT
I've tried swfupload (http://swfupload.org/), but do keep in mind that you have to jump through hoops if you're using forms authentication with non-IE browsers. This is apparently a flash bug, and it's not fixed in flash 10. I decided against using it in our framework because of this bug, but it was otherwise a great product.
I recommend the uploader widget from YUI. See http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/uploader/
I think you could use it to accomplish your goal. Your javascript would need to fetch the file back down to the client from the server after it completed its upload. But the page would not refresh--the upload is through flash and a hidden iframe. The download to show the file's contents to the user would be via ajax.
If the user does not "approve" the upload, then simply make another ajax call to the server to delete the file.

How can I know when .aspx call is finished?

I am building a Flex Application that calls a .aspx page on the same webserver which builds a PDF report using SQL Reporting Services. When the report is built it prompts the user to open or save the PDF.
We are trying to find a way to display a Progress Bar to let the user know that the report they requested is being built, and then destroy the Progress Bar once the report is finished being built.
I've tried opening a new window using JavaScript and trying to catch when the window closes, as well as trying XMLHTTPRequest, but nothing to seems to work.
Does anyone have any suggestions?
There are 2 options:
Use the FileReference class in Flex to programmatically invoke your aspx file. You will be able to track the progress of the call from within Flex by listening to its events. But the users can only save the PDF, not open it.
Have an intermediate HTML page that displays a loading icon and then refresh itself to your PDF generating ASPX page. Encode your aspx url along with parameters etc and set it as a parameter to this intermediate page so it knows what to load.
If you don't have control over the page to be able to put JavaScript on it to hit a URL (or call back to the parent/opener), then you might consider whipping up an aspx page of your own to host a ReportViewer control, and display the report inside of that. This would require you to create a .NET website with a page and a web.config - you wouldn't need to do more than make it receive any parameters your report needs, and it would be do-able via inline-to-the-aspx code as opposed to requiring in-depth .NET knowledge.
Or, you could hit the SS-RS API and render the report directly. Here, you'd craft a URL with parameters for the report on the SS-RS API site to accept. I think, though I don't know for sure, that the SS-RS UI uses the API itself behind the scenes. By default the API is hosted in a site called "reportserver" - you might sniff HTTP traffic while the report is being rendered to get you started with the URL that you'd need to hit.
Another option not mentioned here is to create a .Net webservice, add it to your flex project and when it hits the result handler you know the file is created at that point.

Uploading file from web user to server using ASP

I am trying to find out how to upload a file from a web user to a server using an ASP page. The displayed page has an Input tag of type "File" like this:
<input type="file" name="uploadfile">
And a submit button that passes the Form info to another .ASP page. This page must take the path it gets from the Input control and use it to somehow save the file to the server.
I keep thinking there must be a common way to do this, since I see this kind of thing on a number of websites, but how is it done? Is there some sort of server object that can be called for it?
This script will help you.
Also, you may google for "asp upload file" - there are tons of results.
If you are doing any serious uploading or have a commercial product you really need to use a COM component in classic asp. Check out SA-FileUp. It has been the defacto standard for this since like forever.
If your hosting service doesn't allow you to install components, you may also want to look at this script:
http://chris.brimson-read.com.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6&Itemid=7
I've seen a wide variety of upload scripts floating around, and they ... vary ... in quality. I've not used the script in the selected answer, but its worth trying a few different options.
I can recommend SA-FileUp and Dundas Upload. They both are easy to install and have good tutorials on how to implement.

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