Setting a default value for the input type file?

21 Sep 2006 3:40 PM

ramkum

Hi,

I'm building a system where a presenter uploads a PPT to my server and
then I show it to all the participants. The problem is that most of the
media in the PPT is usually linked, so I'll need to upload all that
too. Assuming I can parse the PPT and figure the exact name and
location of each of the media files I need from his hard-disk, is there
any way I can upload all these files automatically, without having to
make the user choose each of these files manually? If that's not
possible, can I atleast show the user a page with a list of input boxes
of type file, pre-populated with the file-path and name of the media
files I need, so that the user can just click 'Submit' without having
to browse and select each of them?

Please say yes. It would be a major usability crisis if my users had to
keep hitting the browse button so many times for each PPT! Especially
when I know exactly what files I need and where they are! I know that
this has a lot to do with browser security, but there's got to be SOME
way out?

Thanks,

21 Sep 2006 3:52 PM

mike.biang

ram***@gmail.com wrote:
Show quoteHide quote

> Hi,
>
> I'm building a system where a presenter uploads a PPT to my server and
> then I show it to all the participants. The problem is that most of the
> media in the PPT is usually linked, so I'll need to upload all that
> too. Assuming I can parse the PPT and figure the exact name and
> location of each of the media files I need from his hard-disk, is there
> any way I can upload all these files automatically, without having to
> make the user choose each of these files manually? If that's not
> possible, can I atleast show the user a page with a list of input boxes
> of type file, pre-populated with the file-path and name of the media
> files I need, so that the user can just click 'Submit' without having
> to browse and select each of them?
>
> Please say yes. It would be a major usability crisis if my users had to
> keep hitting the browse button so many times for each PPT! Especially
> when I know exactly what files I need and where they are! I know that
> this has a lot to do with browser security, but there's got to be SOME
> way out?
>
> Thanks,

Unfortunately, the file input field does not allow you populate it
using default values. This is due to security considerations. Also,
it isn't possible to "grab" files from a users hard drive through an
ASP script processing on the server. Think of the major security
problems that would cause! I could write a script to search the hard
drives of every browser of my site for quickbooks files, etc and upload
them to my server. Fortunately, this isn't possible.

My solution to this problem would be to only allow zip files to be
uploaded (use a script to check the 3 letter file extension of the
uploaded file). Then use a commercially available unzip component to
extract the files into a folder on your server. All this can be done
through an ASP page. Here is a link to an article on unzipping files
in ASP:
http://classicasp.aspfaq.com/general/how-do-i-zip/unzip-files-from-asp.html

Best of Luck!
Mike Biang
Cramer Development
mike.bi***@gmail.com

21 Sep 2006 7:18 PM

ramkum

Thanks a lot, Mike. I guess I'd be better off with a signed Java applet
that does all the uploading for me though; my users wont be too happy
with a zip-up-and-upload approach.

mike.bi***@gmail.com wrote:
Show quoteHide quote

> Unfortunately, the file input field does not allow you populate it
> using default values. This is due to security considerations. Also,
> it isn't possible to "grab" files from a users hard drive through an
> ASP script processing on the server. Think of the major security
> problems that would cause! I could write a script to search the hard
> drives of every browser of my site for quickbooks files, etc and upload
> them to my server. Fortunately, this isn't possible.
>
> My solution to this problem would be to only allow zip files to be
> uploaded (use a script to check the 3 letter file extension of the
> uploaded file). Then use a commercially available unzip component to
> extract the files into a folder on your server. All this can be done
> through an ASP page. Here is a link to an article on unzipping files
> in ASP:
> http://classicasp.aspfaq.com/general/how-do-i-zip/unzip-files-from-asp.html
>
> Best of Luck!
> Mike Biang
> Cramer Development
> mike.bi***@gmail.com

21 Sep 2006 4:38 PM

Slim

Why not use a web dav folder and drag and drop the files in one go?

<ram***@gmail.com> wrote in message
Show quoteHide quote

news:1158853208.772870.233000@h48g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...
> Hi,
>
> I'm building a system where a presenter uploads a PPT to my server and
> then I show it to all the participants. The problem is that most of the
> media in the PPT is usually linked, so I'll need to upload all that
> too. Assuming I can parse the PPT and figure the exact name and
> location of each of the media files I need from his hard-disk, is there
> any way I can upload all these files automatically, without having to
> make the user choose each of these files manually? If that's not
> possible, can I atleast show the user a page with a list of input boxes
> of type file, pre-populated with the file-path and name of the media
> files I need, so that the user can just click 'Submit' without having
> to browse and select each of them?
>
> Please say yes. It would be a major usability crisis if my users had to
> keep hitting the browse button so many times for each PPT! Especially
> when I know exactly what files I need and where they are! I know that
> this has a lot to do with browser security, but there's got to be SOME
> way out?
>
> Thanks,
>