Chapter 13 of "The Joy of Dreamweaver MX" explains how to easily add a file upload feature to your site. It covers the most popular file upload extensions for ASP and ColdFusion MX, as well as storing image dimensions in hidden fields, and inserting the filename into a database.
This tutorial, and others like it, can be found in the book "The Joy of Dreamweaver MX," published by McGraw-Hill/Osborne.
There are literally dozens of ASP file upload components available on the Internet.
Some are free, but most of the components that enjoy wide support require costly
per-server or per-site licenses. Here are four of the most popular ASP upload
components:
Soft Artisans FileUp ($179) Arguably the most popular
ASP component, FileUp offers upload and download capabilities, and also comes
bundled with FileManager and SMTPmail. Installation registers safileup.dll
on your server. To use the progress indicator, you must manually register
saprgres.dll. A 14-day trial is available from www.softartisans.com.
Persits AspUpload ($149) AspUpload offers many of
the same features as FileUp and also includes a nifty HTML progress bar. The
setup program automatically registers aspupload.dll on your server. For more
information, and to download the 30-day trial, visit www.aspupload.com.
w3 Upload ($49) From the makers of the popular mail
component, JMail, comes w3 Upload. Although the site license is relatively
inexpensive, the trade-off is skimpy documentation. A free trial is available
from www.dimac.net.
ASP Simple Upload (free) Because it's free, ASP
Simple Upload is a favorite of discount NT hosting providers. The setup program
automatically registers the component on your server. For more information,
visit www.asphelp.com.
Before you run out and buy one of these components,
check with your hosting provider. Chances are, they've already installed one
of them on your remote server. If that's the case, visit the manufacturer's
web site to view and download documentation and sample code.
Dreamweaver Upload Extensions
Of the four components just listed, only FileUp and AspUpload are supported
by Dreamweaver extensions. ColdFusion users have two extensions to choose from:
CF Upload and CFFILE. At the time of this writing, CFFILE is compatible only
with UltraDev 4 pages.
CF Upload 1.2 (ColdFusion) Written by Massimo Foti,
CF Upload offers the same features as many commercial upload extensions at
a very uncommercial price (i.e., free). Make sure to download the latest,
Dreamweaver MX–compatible version from Massimo's web site: www.massimocorner.com.
CFFILE (ColdFusion) Tom Muck's CFFILE extension
is like nine extensions in one. This is because the <cffile>
tag supports many different actions, including upload,
move, rename, delete,
etc. Future versions will probably offer Dreamweaver MX support. For more
information, visit www.basic-ultradev.com.
UltraUploads (ASP) The UltraSuite 4000 Extensions
Package ($69.99) includes no fewer than 16 upload extensions: eight each for
FileUp and AspUpload. Written by Jag S. Sidhu, these extensions are great
time-savers. For more information, visit www.ultrasuite.com.
WA FileUp Integration Kit (ASP) WebAssist.com's
FileUp Integration Kit extension ($29.99) is not compatible with Dreamweaver's
standard Insert Record SB. In practical terms, this means you cannot use it
with forms that contain non-binary data (i.e., text fields). For more information,
visit www.webassist.com.
Pure ASP File Upload (ASP) George Petrov offers
free and commercial versions of his popular Pure
ASP File Upload extension on his web site, www.udzone.com.
The commercial version, Pure ASP File Upload 2.0.8 ($49), comes with lots
of extras, including the ability to save an image's dimensions to a database.
In fairness to WebAssist.com, Pure ASP File Upload
is the only ASP upload extension that is compatible with Dreamweaver's standard
Insert Record server behavior. So that's what we're going to use to revise the
Add Listing page.
Author of "The Joy of Dreamweaver MX: Recipes for Data-Driven Web Sites," Paul Newman is President of BRAVE NEW WURLD, a New York web design firm. He has a BA in English and Creative Writing from Binghamton University and an MFA in Film Production from the UCLA Department of Film, Television, and Digital Media.
Paul's computer experience dates back to 1985, when he bought one of the first Apple Macintosh computers in his senior year of college. He has been building web sites since 1997, and his clients include RaikaUSA.com, VoiceoverAmerica.com, Officetek.com, and BarbaraTyson.com.
Chapter 13 of "The Joy of Dreamweaver MX" explains how to easily add a file upload feature to your site. It covers the most popular file upload extensions for ASP and ColdFusion MX, as well as storing image dimensions in hidden fields, and inserting the filename into a database.
Author of "The Joy of Dreamweaver MX: Recipes for Data-Driven Web Sites," Paul Newman is President of BRAVE NEW WURLD, a New York web design firm. He has a BA in English and Creative Writing from Binghamton University and an MFA in Film Production from the UCLA Department of Film, Television, and Digital Media.