Upload Progress Bar

[kenji776]

I am posting this in the cold fusion forums cause its the language I know best,
but I will do this in anyway possible. I just want to create a progress bar for
files being uploaded. My site has a feature where people can upload files to
me, but they want to be able to see how much of the file is done. Is there any
way at all possible to do this that anyone can think of?

[LeftCorner]

In the new CF MX 7 book by Ben Forta there is a progress bar example using the <cfflush> tag and some JavaScript. I don't have my copy of the book handy so I can't tell you the page number.

[walker25419]

Page 794...

[Swift]

Kenji,

The CFFlush tag will help you write a progress bar for downloading, but not
for uploading. I guess you create a workaround though. What if you had another
template that checked the temporary upload directory for a new file to come in,
and then displayed the size (in kB) to the user in a separate frame or window
until the first page tells it that the file is now uploaded.

This is kind of hokey, and you might find more problems than you bargained
for, but it might work. Of course, there might be a much better solution as
well, though I don't know of one.

Swift

[kenji776]

Your idea may be slightly hokey but I think it may work pretty good actually.
So what you are saying is:
1) User begins upload of file
2) When the file start uploading launch a new window that gets passed the file
name they are uploading
3)Run the cffile tag against the file being uploaded that reports how many
bytes have been uploaded
4)Have the reporting page refresh every second so it can get the newest info
on the file uploaded.

My only qustion is there a way i can determine the size that the file is going
to be when its done, so I can have a little thing that just says
15/500 kilobytes uploaded so far...
just so I can tell the user the amount uploaded and the total amount, or can I
only tell the user the amount uploaded thus far. I think I like your idea, with
some nifty formatting and maybe a DHTML script from dynamicdrive I could make a
semi decent progress bar. Ill be sure to share my code with the forums if/when
I ever get it written. I have a few other projects I gotta code first, but this
one interests me cause it seems as though nobody has done it thus far. It might
end up being a little outta my league though. We will see. Post any suggestions
or sample code here, i'll kinda make this my running project thread. Thanks
again.

[Lupus 23]

A couple of crazy assumptions have to be made for this idea to even work.

First off, you have to assume that the file is actually going to register in
the filesystem such that CFFILE will see it.

Secondly, you have to assume that the filename on the server will be the same
as it was when the user posted it. The make unique filename fuction will make
this impossible.

I don't think the page that this is posted to will return an HTML header until
the file upload is complete. Therefore how are you going to open the second
window? You can only post a form to 1 location. I suppose you could open
another window and pass it the variables with an onClick event.

You will not know the size of the file until the upload completes.

I would call this impossible using a standard HTTP upload.

I've seen things like this developed, but they either emplyed the use of
activeX or a Java applet.

[kenji776]

Hmm you are brutally correct. Well then I have no choice I must aquire one of
these active X or java applets. I know nothing of either one of these
languages, how hard would it be to implement one? Does anyone have any code
that does something of this sort? I want this feature, several users have
requested it, and I will learn yet another programming language... if I have
to, but I'd rather just plug in some code and have it work, with minimal
ajustments.

[Lupus 23]

The only one I can think of off hand was the posting acceptor for the old
Microsoft Site Server, which is now a defunkt product. But, I think you could
likely Google for somthing that might work. I am sure you are not the first
person to think of this.

An alternative would be to provide an FTP location for your users.

I think the development of such a tool would be somewhat difficult, as you
would either have to know how to use an existing protocol (like FTP), or write
your own.

You might be better off lobbying the browser developers to include this into
web browsers. ;)

[Cyberadvan1]

:disgust;

Yes - Looking for the same upload progress bar function, and it doesn't seem
to exist in CF, and exists in various tortured forms in ASP and other
"languages" (spoken in Papuan New Guinea, that is, where the cannibals live).
It amazes me that after all this time of developing web languages, we still
don't have a conversation between client and server. Just a client requesting a
page, and a server sending it back. Many, many websites have upload progress
bar functions and download progress bars, I don't see why this should be such a
difficult thing to achieve in CF and other tongues.