MultiPowUpload 2.1 control documentation

MultiPowUpload is easy client-side solution that can be used to perform multiple file uploads from a user machine to the web server. MultiPowUpload is a Macromedia Flash movie supported by most browsers and needs just Flash player plug-in on users side and any standard file processing script on server side.

MultiPowUpload features:

• Multiple file selection at once by Ctrl or Shift keys.
• Selection the all files of the folder by Ctrl+A hot key.
• Rich progress and status information during the upload process.
• Loading images thumbnails at client side (without loading to the server) from images EXIF metadata or whole image file. (only at Flash player 10)
• Images Rotate and Crop actions at client side (only at Flash player 10)
• File filters by extension in the "Choose Files" dialog.
• Limit the maximum allowed size of individual files.
• Limit the maximum allowed total size of files.
• Limit the maximum allowed number of files to be uploaded at the same time.
• Access to server response.
• Can be used with classic Form and uploads files with Form fields values by POST or GET methods.
• Sends cookies and session ID at request (Firefox bug workaround)
• Possibility to cancel an upload anytime.
• Access to files date modified, date created, name, size and creator(Mac users) information.
• Download files feature.
• Multilingual and customizable interface.
• Interface can be replaced with custom HTML and Java Script code.
• Supports SSL (HTTPS).
• Generate and send to server image thumbnails (new in 2.1 version).

MultiPowUpload system requirements:

Server's side:

• Any OS and web server.
• Standard script which receives files on server. ASP, ASP.NET, PHP and Perl examples are included..

User's side:

• Any of popular browsers.
• Macromedia Flash Player 9 plug-in should be installed. Flash Player 10 required by MultiPowUpload 2.1 for image thumbnails generation. If Player with older version installed control installs new automaticaly.

Classic Form-based upload disadvantages:

In a pure-HTML solution, client files can be uploaded to the server via a multipart/form-data form with one or more <INPUT TYPE=FILE> items on it. However, the form-based approach has the following limitation:

• The "Choose File" dialog shown by a browser does not allow multiple selections.
• To upload multiple files at once, the HTML form must contain multiple <INPUT TYPE=FILE> boxes, and each file must be selected individually.
• An entire folder cannot be selected for uploading.
• There is no way to specify file filters to be displayed in the Files of Type box of the "Choose File" dialog.
• There is no way to put a limit on the type, size and number of files being uploaded before an upload begins.
• File date information cannot be preserved.
• There is no progress state information while upload.

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