Handling Large File Uploads

November 21, 2005 11:23 AM

Large file uploading: I currently have a homebrew CMS solution that includes file management. The one complaint users have is the file manager cannot handle large (say 20meg and up) uploads. Other than creating FTP accounts, what are some options I could integrate into the CMS?

The client is a large organization spread out over the globe, which brings its own plusses and minuses. They are standardized on IE6/Windows XP and the server is running on IIS. I'm trying to come up with something more elegant that an enormous script timeout on an ASP page. For pay controls or software recommendations happily accepted.

posted by yerfatma to computers & internet (8 comments total)

Is the max upload set in the web.config? Why not just bump the "maxRequestLength" attribute in the "httpRuntime" element of the web.config? (Probably the "executionTimeout" attribute, too).
posted by PantsOfSCIENCE at 11:30 AM on November 21, 2005

Embedding a Java FTP client in the page might be your best bet. I don't know which one to recommend, but here's a demo of the one that comes top in Google:

http://www.jscape.com/ftpapplet/ftp_applet_demonstration.php
posted by AmbroseChapel at 12:05 PM on November 21, 2005

We use ASPUpload. It ain't cheap, but we're real happy with it.
posted by fishfucker at 12:19 PM on November 21, 2005

We use ASPUpload.

We use SAFileUp. Is there any advantage of ASPUpload over SAFileUp? The problem we've run into with HTTP transport solutions is if the user's connection breaks just once, they're done.

Why not just bump the "maxRequestLength"

The problem with the timeout solution is some of the files that are being sent up are 150-600 megs, so this begins to threaten the server's memory.
posted by yerfatma at 1:18 PM on November 21, 2005

Your problem is that web servers timeout after a certain amount of time a query has taken place. Your problem is not filesize limitations as much as it is "reasonable file size guesses given most servers default timeout of X minutes"...

You could increase this timeout, or buy special software that uses some non-HTTP client (like the aforementioned Java one), but FTP is going to be your most reliable option.

Increasing the timeout doesn't guarantee any specific size because all of your users may have different upload speeds, but it's a start...
posted by twiggy at 1:26 PM on November 21, 2005

We use SAFileUp. Is there any advantage of ASPUpload over SAFileUp?

Unfortunately, I don't know the answer to this. I've never used anything but ASPUpload (we already had a copy when I started working here, so I didn't evaluate other solutions). For when we're writing asp apps, the ASPUpload has been pretty much trouble-free using the stock demo code -- I've successfully uploaded 600 meg CD images before using it, as have our clients. There is a free 30-day trial, I believe, so you can check it out on your server real quick and see if you like it. I can't recall whether I've upped the script timeout a lot to accomodate ASPUpload or not, but supposedly it can handle 2 gig uploads (we've got a server dedicated to taking uploads so the timeout issue wasn't a big deal for us).
posted by fishfucker at 2:22 PM on November 21, 2005

You could integrate WebDAV and treat your online files like a filesystem. Plone (a CMS I do some work with) offers this, and it is very nice. If I recall correctly, WebDAV support is integrated into newer Windows systems. It is certainly a snap with Linux and Mac.
posted by Invoke at 3:51 PM on November 21, 2005

I was wondering about WebDAV, though my one experience with it on XP (trying to talk to my TextDrive account) was less than ideal. It required a third-party client to make it work. However, I'd only want a one-way connection for users (i.e., they can upload files but not affect previously uploaded files). Is that possible?
posted by yerfatma at 4:51 AM on November 22, 2005