In terms of standards, I agree. If a standard already exists that does the job, then it should not be changed.
However, the HTTP upload standard is slightly flawed. Or at least the current implementations of it are. If I upload a 100 Megabyte file (and there are occasional cases where this is needed), then the server MUST have 100 Megabytes of available memory. Now tie that upload in with other common uploads of 1 or two meg a piece, and the server very quickly runs out of resources. We have written a client communiation tool that allows file uploads. The biggest request we get for improvements is to allow multiple file selection, and/or selection of a folder and upload it's contents recursively. In this type of situation, where the files in question range from < 1 Meg to > 20 Meg, we would crash our server very quickly - because of the way HTTP Upload works. As a result, we have limited the system to one file at a time. My two cents worth. Shawn Grover -----Original Message----- From: Jochem van Dieten [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, April 23, 2002 10:25 AM To: CF-Talk Subject: Re: CF's Most Wanted :: Shawn Grover wrote: > On the topic of CFFILE and uploading, I would luv to see some kinda of > reliable, efficient tool to allow uploading of multiple files/folder > structures. > > The only way to handle this currently is to either include multiple File > Input boxes on your form, or use a third party tool like AppletFile. Doing > uploads of multiple files over HTTP would kill the server eventually (cuz > all uploads go to memory, until the server side code does something with > it). I'm picturing a server side java applet with a listener port, and a > client side interface tool. But these could both be triggered from a CFFile > tag somehow. No thank you :) IMHO, for maximum usability across clients and servers (and firewalls), the only protocol that should be used for communication between the client and the server is HTTP. I would be perfectly happy if the W3C just added a new attribute to <input type="file">. That attribute should be optional and have the name multiple and be a true/false field, with the default to false. The effect should be that people can simply select multiple files or even folders when uploading, but the uploading still happens exactly as it is done now through HTTP. This is an entirely client side matter, I would imagine that with any reasonably advanced Java or even Flash plugin this would already be possible. On the server side, no changes will be needed, sine HTTP already allows for multiple file uploads in one request. I hope that you will all agree with me that employing (propietary?) non-default protocols for something that can be easily handled by HTTP is a practice from the previous century. Jochem ______________________________________________________________________ Get the mailserver that powers this list at http://www.coolfusion.com FAQ: http://www.thenetprofits.co.uk/coldfusion/faq Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/cf-talk@houseoffusion.com/ Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
