As a regular to ASP 101, I feel it neccesary to give a little back to the site that keeps me on top of things in the world of ASP. And so, I give you the FileUploader ASP Library. In a nutshell, the FilerUploader library is simply a single ASP include that provides an object-oriented approach to getting files from Internet clients.
I have seen numerous "pure ASP" upload solutions, some you even had to purchase, that did the job, but required you to wade through pages of code just to see how things worked. Then there are the COM components that you can buy that do what you want and more, but cost an arm and leg to obtain. What I wanted was something simple, centralized, easy to use and FREE! The FileUploader Library was the solution and now I want to share my work with fellow developers.
NOTE - YOU MUST HAVE VBSCRIPT v5.0 INSTALLED ON YOUR WEB SERVER
FOR THIS LIBRARY TO FUNCTION CORRECTLY. YOU CAN OBTAIN IT
FREE FROM MICROSOFT WHEN YOU INSTALL INTERNET EXPLORER 5.0
OR LATER.
The library consists of two VBScript classes: FileUploader and UploadedFile. The FileUploader is the top-level object in the model and is the only one that you will need to instantiate.
Here is how to do it: (this assumes that you have included "upload.asp")
<%
Dim MyUploader
Set MyUploader = New FileUploader
%>
Now once your FileUploader object is initialized, you can begin recieving the uploaded data from the client by a single call to the Upload() method.
<%
MyUploader.Upload()
%>
Or, since Upload() is the default method, you can use a shortcut and start the upload process like this: (Use one or the other, not both)
<%
MyUploader()
%>
Once that is complete, you can begin access and saving the file to your hard-drive or to a database. The uploaded files are accessed through the Files Collection of the FileUploader object. The Files Collection is a set of UploadedFile objects that represent each file uploaded.
Here is an example of how to enumerate the Files Collection and write each uploaded files' information to the browser:
<%
Dim File
For Each File In MyUploader.Files.Items
Response.Write "File Name:" & File.FileName
Response.Write "File Size:" & File.FileSize
Response.Write "File Type:" & File.ContentType
Next
%>
Here is an example of how to access a specific file in the Files Collection using the HTML file input element name as the Index:
For simplicity sake, I will be the using the For Each...Next variation for the following samples. Now, all the files are uploaded and its time to put them somewhere. There are two places you can save the uploaded files...on your hard-drive or to a database.
Here is how to save the files to disk:
<%
Dim File
For Each File In MyUploader.Files.Items
File.SaveToDisk "C:\UploadedFiles"
Next
%>
And how to save to a database: (Replace "MyUploadTable", "CONNECT STRING.." and field names accordingly)
<%
Dim RS
Dim File
Set RS = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Recordset")
RS.Open "MyUploadTable", "CONNECT STRING OR ADO.Connection", 2, 2
For Each File In MyUploader.Files.Items
RS.AddNew
RS("filename") = File.FileName
RS("filesize") = File.FileSize
RS("contenttype") = File.ContentType
File.SaveToDatabase RS("filedata")
RS.Update
Next
RS.Close
%>
I think that should just about cover everything. I hope this helps out and that you found my blathering somewhat interesting. If you have any questions or comments about this article or the code provided, feel free to email me. (avis7@airmail.net)
You can download the library and sample files here (4 KB).
p34c3 +0 4|| c0d3rz!
Update: Pure ASP File Upload Gets a Speed Boost
Jacob Gilley's
Pure ASP File Upload
is an effective, free method for uploading user files to your server.
Although well implemented, I found that the file I/O needed improvement.
Concatenation is quite slow in VBScript and it was actually faster to
write a single byte at a time to the disk than to concatenate the file
prior to saving.
Here Robbert Nix's
improved concatenation algorithm
comes to the rescue. I stumbled upon this algorithm when searching
for performance enhancements in VBScript. Essentially Nix's code
allows Gilley's Pure ASP File Upload to return to concatenation as
a viable method for preparing the file prior to saving.
Two files are included with this implementation: upload.asp
and buffering.inc.
These files are meant to be incorporated with the existing distribution
for Gilley's Pure ASP File Upload. The upload.asp file
replaces the existing version and the include file buffering.inc
is used to improve upload time.
Note: if you replace your existing
version of upload.asp you must also copy buffering.inc to the same
directory! No changes in existing upload pages are required to take
advantage of this upgrade.
Gilley's Pure ASP File Upload files are needed and
can be found above.
You can download the updated upload.asp
and new buffering.inc in a zip file from here:
fileuploader_buffering.zip (3.4 KB)
It seems that the update above caught the atention of one of
our other authors... here's his message:
Hello. I already have a few articles posted on your website so far. I just got
your newsletter concerning ASP uploads: Update: Pure ASP File Upload Gets a Speed Boost
While this may be faster - it is still very slow. I have found a way around this
in the past and had posted my findings on planet source code
at:
I am including the
zip file (28 KB) for you to go over and review with this message. The
zip file also includes a screen shot to demonstrate the simplicity of the code,
and also contains a working sample. It is commented well and uses classes for a
more object-oriented approach. Rather then converting each character between
ansi and unicode 1 at a time - this class calls the ADODB Stream object to do it
all at once. ADO 2.5+ is required along with vbScript 5.0+
I have had very good reviews posted by others about this code on planet source
code.
Allowing files to be translated quicker allows users to post larger files before
the server times out. Happy Coding!
Our "Pure ASP File Upload" article has been getting update
after update recently and here's one more. When we left it
last, updated files were getting entered into a database.
This update brings a simple little script to display a list
of those files. Here's the message:
I just wanted to share some code I came up with to display all
the files uploaded to the database using Lewis Moten's code (which was
very useful and fairly easy to use). I needed to create an area on our
company website where the advertising and sales staff could share files
back and forth easily but I found that Lewis's code only took care of
the upload part. We needed to be able to view all the files as well.
Well, here it is. It just runs through the database until it reaches
End Of File (EOF) and displays the filenames as links to that file. It
requires Lewis Moten's DataFile.asp file to work but there is no need to
modify it. The modifications have been made in my code to make it work
with that file as is.
<%
Dim oConn
Dim oRS
Dim sSQL
Dim lngFileID
Set oConn = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")
oConn.Open("DRIVER={Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb)}; DBQ=" _
& Server.MapPath("db\Files.mdb"))
sSQL = "SELECT FileID, FileName, Date FROM Files " _
& "ORDER BY Date desc, FileName"
Set oRS = oConn.Execute(sSQL)
If oRS.EOF Then
Response.Write("<font face=arial size=2><b>There are " _
& "currently no files in the database.</b></font><br>")
Else
Do While NOT oRS.EOF
lngFileID = oRS("FileID").Value
Response.Write("<a href=DataFile.asp?FileID=" _
& lngFileID & " target=_blank>" _
& oRS("FileName").Value & "</a><br>")
oRS.MoveNext
Loop
End If
oConn.Close
Set oRS = Nothing
Set oConn = Nothing
%>
The only thing that might throw people is that I've changed the path to
the database since mine is stored in the "db" directory on my server
therefore the path is db/Files.mdb. I've also included an ORDER BY
clause in my sql statement to display the files from newest to oldest
and then in alpha order by filename. This code can be placed anywhere
on your page that you want the files displayed. You can also set it up
to display the files in multiple columns across the page in a <table>
instead of one long column down the page but you need to add additional
"If NOT oRS.EOF Then" code before each new table cell. I've used this
code on a page with other asp code so if you use it by itself you'd need
to add the Option Explicit statement at the top.
Thanks for the great asp resource. Many of my peers have recommended
your site to me when I've had questions about developing asp solutions
for various things on my websites. Have a great day.
Regards,
Bryan Hovey
Thanks Bryan... I'm sure you're not the only one who needs this functionality.
A number of our users are sure to find this helpful.
