Overview

This feature will provide the ability to upload files to a ContentBase. This feature will be disabled by default. A configuration option in web.config will be provided to enable the feature.

Uploading files

A menu option will be provided to get to the upload page (upload.aspx). At the upload page, a user will be able to the names of one or more files to upload.

The destination location for the upload files will be based on the extenstion of the filename. The relationship between the file extenstion and the upload directory will be configurable. For example, images (.jpg, .gif, .png, etc) can be uploaded to an images directory, documents (.doc, .xls, etc) be uploaded to a documents directory. A default directory can also be specified. A "blocked extensions list can also be configured. Files with these extensions will not be uploaded to the default directory.

Managing uploaded files

Uploading an existing file will overwrite that file. The user will be warned that they are overwriting a file with the question "Overwrite uploaded file?" with possible options of "Yes", "Yes All", "No", and "No All". The user interface will support deleting, but not renaming, a file.

Each directory will have a configurable maximum size. Once a directory reaches this size, additional uploads will be blocked.

Referencing uploaded files

Uploaded files can be referenced using their absolute URL path. The absolute URL for the file(s) will be displayed on the upload page.

Both EasyMediaLibrary and WikiFeatureRequestImageLibrary suggest mechanisms for referencing files and images on a relative basis. This feature will not implement those ideas. However, this feature will be implemented with those ideas in mind.

Security

This feature, although no longer under active development, would not have allowed "anyone to upload anything" (see comment below). It is obvious that one of the existing FlexWiki security mechanisms would be necessary if this feature were to be used on the Internet.

Status

Work on this feature has been suspended. If you are interested in implementing this feature, please take ownership of it.

Comments and Questions

Please note that this feature is no longer under active development.

Comment

My opinion is that each upload should be unique, regardless of file name. Different topics should be able to have uploads with the same name and even within the same topic files with the same name should be allowed. If the upload is an image then whenever referenced in the content, the system should retrieve the latest version and output an <IMG> tag. If it is not an image then a download link to the latest version should be generated. There should also be a format to return a specific version and uploads from another topic by qualifying the upload file name with the desired topic name. I also have the opinion that multiple uploads should be allowed at once. The topic page should display a list of the available uploads for the topic in one of the side bars or at the bottom of the main content. In Edit Mode, the list of uploads should be presented with options to delete any of the files as well as uploading new ones. I don't like the idea of organizing the files by category (images, docs, etc). I'd rather have the files be stored in the same folder (same as content or one uploads subfolder under that one), with each file being saved renamed into something like TopicName.OriginalFileName.ext(date-time-userid-IP), similar to the content files - SergioPereira

You have suggested a valid (and reasonable) design alternative -- organizing uploaded content by topic. I chose to organize uploaded content by ContentBase. Why? It is an adequate solution to the basic problem - uploading images for display. It's also a simple (and quick) implementation.

Comment

I have implemented the WikiUploadPageScript example, and it is a good starting point. If that is all that has time to be implemented, I think it is better than nothing. In terms of enhancements, I do like the idea of having different upload folders per Wiki namespace. It also would be nice to have some shortcut way to insert the URL from a document into your wiki page. I don't think that uploading a file with the same name should overwrite an existing file unless there is a warning and confirmation (I would lean towards making the user delete the existing file first, and then upload with the same name). One thing that concerned me about the current example, is there is no checking for file extensions. There should be a web.config setting that controls the list of allowable file extensions. This would prevent someone from uploading an ASPX or ASP page that could then be executed on the web server. ToddFas - 3/17/05

Thank you for your comments. I have updated the overview section, incorporating most of your comments. I changed the handling of uploading of existing files so that it confirms overwriting the file - effectively a compromise between the initial design and what you asked for.

Comment

Enabling this feature would allow anyone to upload basically anything with relative anonymity and then tell friends that the files are hosted on the wiki. Imagine that Alice has some porn or a stash of MP3 files that she wants to share with her friends. If she can find any wiki that supports file uploads she can just upload it to the wiki. She gets relative anonymity, Bob gets his files, and the Wiki pays the bills. In order for this feature not to be abused this way image upload will need to require a permission that can only be activated for a posted by the human that owns the Wiki.

Due to non-technical issues, this feature is not longer being worked on. However, it should be noted that FlexWiki has a number of security mechanisms built in that would be available for a FlexWiki administrator to use. The interaction of these security features, in combination with upload scenarios, would have been best documented in the operations documentation of this feature. And, finally, the FlexWiki administrator could simply disable the feature in the configuration file for Internet-based Wikis.

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3/19/2007 2:41:00 PM
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