Re: File upload from a Web browser

Patrick Petit (ppetit@wct.fr)
Fri, 14 Jul 1995 14:39:26 +0000 (GMT)


I wrote some time earlier.

> I am going through this list to get some advices on the
> following problem.
>
> I have to design an application where a client browsing a Web
> could decide to upload a local file to that serveur for processing
> and get the result of that processing some time latter into another file.
>
> .............
>
> How would you solve that problem ?

First thing first. Thanks to everyone for your abundant feedback.

Sounds like it's a hot concern shared by many developers and service providers.

Let's summarize the most determinant pieces for those who asked.

An IETF draft proposal for "Form-based file upload in HTML" (thanks to Ingo
Macherius and many others to point the information) is available at :

> > http://www.ics.uci.edu/pub/ietf/html/draft-ietf-html-fileupload-02.txt.

An implementation of this draft exists for Mosaic (thanks to Brian and Larry).

> The patches for Mosaic are available at ftp://ftp.eit.com/pub/fileup/
>
> You don't need to 'patch' your httpd, the server-side is all done with
> CGI. The only problem with the files at EIT is that it implements the
> -01 proposal, and the format of multipart/form-data changed between
> -01 and -02 (because of concerns about fitting in with general
> multipart/... rules in media types.)

That's a promising begining to solve our problem.

However, I can hardly conceive that proposing a wide open Web server
allowing file upload based on that solution will reach many commitment
and enthusiasm.

We cannot ask people to get Mosaic, Motif, apply the patch
and recompile the all stuff just to be able to browse our pages.
We cannot neither afford to maintain all the Mosaic binaries for
the various plateforms on earth.

Additionaly, we cannot even thing about going without Netscape Navigator
as a matter of fact. Mozilla is reaching more than 60 % of the market.

Rob Hartill wrote :

> Well we've needed this feature for over a year, and have pestered
> Netscape to implement it. No luck so far.
>
> We even tried using the larger number of licensed Netscapes here at
> LANL as some kind of leverage in the "discussion", but Netscape don't
> even bother to reply.

So, now what ???????????

Does this mailing list not have the weight to draw Netscape attention to
our needs ?

What about stamping our feets load enough to make that little dragon of ours
to spit his "flames"... ;-)

P. Petit