Drag and Drop Additon of Multiple Attachments
An upcoming task of mine is to investigate the various File Upload widgets available for use in the web browser. You know the type I mean? Like the one they added to iNotes but was impossible for us to use.
My aim is to find the best-fit solution that allows drag and drop of multiple files to a Notes document via the browser. Does anybody have any experience of using them with Domino? Good or bad. ActiveX or not. Which is the best?
As ever, whatever I find will be relayed back here. Hopefully, this will be a worthy exercise for us all. It's not just me invoking the lazyweb!
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I've achieved this with the jUpload Java applet {Link} and a custom servlet (using Apache's Common Fileupload package) running on the Domino servlet manager. If you are interested, I can provide you the source code of the servlet.
I believe the SWFUpload component {Link} is way much user friendly than that ugly Java applet, but Flash 8 is required and in my customer environment, only Flash 7 was supported.
Anyway, uploading multiple files is not so difficult, but the main question is : how to edit documents in an "inline way", just as you do with the DWA ActiveX component ? Not jUpload nor SWFUpload seems to be able to handle this. Having to download, edit on your desktop then delete and upload the file again is a real burden for end users.
Just my 2 cents.
You might want to check this too :
{Link}
YoGi beat me to it. I have heard some good reviews of the MooTools solution.
The MooTools one looks great, but it only seems to be an uploader. What about editing/downloading attached files as well? It needs to be more about file management than merely uploading.
Just in reply to what you said about the Inotes/quickplace upload: I remember that a couple of months ago the upload could be downloaded from the LDD sandbox. I did download it then, but didn't have the time/necessity to test it in the mean time. I checked again, and can't find it anymore (don't know why it was taken off). At the time the datebase was called inse_upl.nsf. I could send it to you if you want.
Yeah, Manu, send it over if you've got a copy.
Manu, you're probably talking about this uploader {Link} available at OpenNTF.org.
DLI has a file upload/download component with which they have won a beacon award a few years back. I have never tried it. I also seem to remember that this is IE only (could have changed by now). Oh, and it's not free. Hope this helps anyway.
{Link}
Roman (and Manu):
Thanks for that link!!!
A big thing I don't understand is why neither MS nor any of the other Browser vendors seem to have fixed the file upload control. It would seem simple to allow users to select multiple files. Sure, there is the issue of how to render those several files, but as long as there were a standard for what was required of the control and how the server would handle it, the way it's implemented shouldn't matter.
One vendor might keep the current format and simple allow multiple files to be selected and present them in a list (ever open multiple files in a windows app? that's exactly what I'm describing). Heck, it could even accept drag-and-drop.
Another vendor might render a box that you could drag-and-drop into.
It just seems like after all this time we'd have some kind of native support (meaning no activeX, Java, or flash etc).
Gerald Mengisen:
I have used the DLI component in several projects and it works excellent both for online editing and down/uploads. Unfortunately only in IE
YoGi
Could you send me an example db of jupload...?
email me:
adam at the internet domain of mail dot com
or post a link to it...
Thanks!
My vote is for the DLI Uploader pointed out by Gerald. I've used it many times with great results.
It's inexpensive, installs gracefully, and gives you a full set of features.
It's limited to IE. If you can live with that then their uploader is likely to satisfy all your requirements.
I have also used DLI uploader. It satisfies all the requirements you mentioned. It also has a set of usefull javascript APIs where you can customize many of its behaviour. Only problem is its an IE only solution..
I've played a little with the File Uploaded found over at OpenNTF. Had a little issue getting it working but the author posted the solution in the discussion area and it worked just fine after that. It is basically the same thing you get in iNotes as it uses the iNotes.cab file
I don't think this answers your question exactly but its worth a looksee {Link}
select 'extended filemanager' or 'imagemanager' and click reload.
I'd love to use the file manager with Domino but I believe it relies on a PHP module - presumably it could be re-engineered to work with Domino but I haven't tried. Most of the XINHA editor modules are JS and work very well with Domino web apps. {Link}
A big thanks to you all. I'll let you know the outcome of my investigations.
Sorry this is late... but I totally agree with YoGi. The Apache Commons package will make it too easy as all the heavy lifting is already done for you. Your post recently shows that you're more than familiar with representing files as links on a page so now all you have to do is allow your users to drag and drop the files to a text area (with an alternative 'browse' button for grabbing other files from their hard drive) and then using the commons package to do the uploading.
The DLI solution is the best I have found too.
Another approach maybe WebDav.
I have seen some top tools from dli-tools called DLI uploader.
{Link}
I used DLI.Tools Enterprise wide at Oxy Inc. This is a great tool. They have many other web tools that are worth a close look too. Great people to work with, excellent service.
Hi Jake,
I have a servlet ready that allows webDAV access to existing Domino attachments. While it doesn't help with the upload problem it is very suitable for roundtrip editing (work on existing attachments and save them back). It has quite some rough edges but I share the current tarball with you. drop me an email
:-) stw
For using the 'IE Only' controls in Firefox, try using a plug-in like IE Tab (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1419). Not the ideal solution, but might get you over the ‘IE only’ hurdle … Just a thought
Well - back in 1999 I developed an ocx that handes the front end and a servlet that handles the updating on the domino server side. It did drag and drop, multiple files and also edit - save roundtripping to the client.
I thought it was really cool.
The front end is developed with visual basic.
It would be nice to contribute the source if anyone would like to master chef such an open source project somewhere.
Again I will second the DLI Uploader product - I used it at my last company and found it to be a very robust efficient tool.
Documentation was excellent too.
Is there any java applet/application available that supports everything which is supported by DLI Uploader.
From my perspective, I'd love the least common denominator - I guess everyone would really.
That means no to DLI Uploader - it looks ace, but it's so much money - I'm sorry, I have some clients that cannot afford such things. I have many clients and on a per host/domain basis, I'd end up funding their holidays for the next two years if I bought for all the requirements I have!
That also means no to Java as an option - I can't rely on it being enabled on some of my client's intranets nor can I rely on it being on most of my user's computers on some of the internet/large consumer websites.
So that means OCX/ActiveX or a Flash-based solution or better still, something JS_based with the server doing the work.
I have people who can maybe cross-code the the work from Peter, if that's something of interest and could port it to .NET or some such?
MooTools looks ACE but no idea how to integrate this but would gladly put in the hours if someone can point me in the right direction.
The File Uploader on OpenNTF is nearly what I need but it doesn't work with Website documents!
Marky_UK
Hello CodeStore users,
Any news, since 2007, or will we all have to buy the DLI component ???
We are now in Domino 8.5+ and it seems that this damn web "edit in place" component is still missing to the Lotus framework.
If someone have a good solution to deal with *missing feature*, I would be really interested in it (and I guess I'm not alone).
Thanks for your great website, CodeStore.
Best regards,
David
There's a file uploader on the openNTF site. It used to be called inse, but it's now GNU licenced.
http://www.openntf.org/projects/pmt.nsf/ProjectLookup/File%20uploader