collective.upload 1.0b4

Life, the Universe, and Everything

File upload widget with multiple file selection, drag&drop support, progress bars, client-side image resizing and preview images.

collective.upload is smoothly integrated with Plone’s UI and works with any folderish content type based on Archetypes or Dexterity.

Features

• Support for Archetypes and Dexterity-based content types

• Multiple file upload: Allows to select multiple files at once and upload them sequentially (simultaneously is not currently enabled)

• Drag & Drop support: Allows to upload files by dragging them from your desktop or file manager and dropping them on your browser window

• Upload progress bar: Shows a progress bar indicating the upload progress for individual files and for all uploads combined

• Cancelable uploads: Individual file uploads can be canceled to stop the upload progress

• Client-side image resizing: Images can be automatically resized on client-side with browsers supporting the required JS APIs

• Preview images: A preview of image files can be displayed before uploading with browsers supporting the required JS APIs

• No browser plugins required: The implementation is based on open standards like HTML5 and JavaScript and requires no additional browser plugins

• Graceful fallback for legacy browsers: Uploads files via XMLHttpRequests if supported and uses iframes as fallback for legacy browsers

• Cross-site file uploads: Supports uploading files to a different domain with Cross-site XMLHttpRequests

Browsers supported

• Google Chrome 7.0+

• Mozilla Firefox 3.0+

• Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0+

• Opera 10.0+

• Apple Safari 4.0+

Drag & Drop is only supported on Google Chrome, Firefox 4.0+ and Safari 5.0+.

Client-side image resizing is only supported on Google Chrome, Firefox 4.0+.

Microsoft Internet Explorer has no support for multiple file selection or upload progress.

Extended browser support information.

Future features

We want to implement these features at some point in the future:

• Refactoring of widget’s UI

• Resumable uploads: Aborted uploads can be resumed with browsers supporting the Blob API

• Chunked uploads: Large files can be uploaded in smaller chunks with browsers supporting the Blob API

• HTML file upload form fallback: Shows a standard HTML file upload form if JavaScript is disabled

• Enable/disable automatic uploads

• Server side image resizing

• Server side file type constraint

• Asynchronous Module Definition (AMD) support

• Widget for “allowed extensions” option

Why do we need another multiple file upload package?

Because in software development, as in any natural environment, diversity is good.

By mid 2011 we tested the existing packages, collective.uploadify and collective.quickupload, because we were working on a project that required this feature.

We though collective.quickupload was good but, at that point, it had no support for Dexterity-based content types. After some research we found that jQuery File Upload was really nice, so we started this project.

Also, we strongly believe Adobe Flash must die and Microsoft must stop pretending Internet Explorer can continue ignoring web standards forever.

Developer’s notes

In the folder “static” you are going to find the JavaScript used in this project; here a list with the file name and function:

applications.js

The main file; here you will find 2 important things: plugin initialization and inheritance of basic UI code with custom templates (e.g. every new file dropped in the file upload widget is going to generate a new row, here is the code for that).

canvas-to-blob.min.js

Converts canvas elements into Blob objects, is a polyfill for the standard HTML canvas.toBlob method.

load-image.min.js

Load Image is a function to load images provided as File or Blob objects or via URL.

jquery.fileupload.js

The most basic version of the File Upload plugin, with no UI.

jquery.fileupload-fp.js

Extends the basic fileupload widget with image processing functionality.

jquery.fileupload-ui.js

Extends the FP version, adds complete user interface interaction.

jquery.iframe-transport.js

Used for cross-site iframe transport uploads a way of degradation for the XHR upload.

cors/jquery.xdr-transport.js

jQuery XDomainRequest Transport plugin; enables cross-domain AJAX requests (GET and POST only) (not really used, its just there if you need to implement that kind of functionality).

vendor/jquery.ui.widget.js

jQuery UI widget factory; very lightweight, flexible base for building complex, statefull plugins with a consistent API. It is designed for general consumption by developers who want to create object-oriented components without reinventing common infrastructure.

vendor/jquery.getimagedata.min.js

It enables pixel level access to images from different origins. It works by sending a JSONP request with the URL of the image to the server. The server then converts the image into base64 encoded data URL and sends the image back as a JSON object. (what this script does, can be done with CORS)

Roadmap

• Check if constraints are in place before adding the menu item.

Mostly Harmless

Have an idea? Found a bug? Let us know by opening a support ticket.

Installation

To enable this product in a buildout-based installation:

1. Edit your buildout.cfg and add collective.upload to the list of eggs to install:

   [buildout]
   ...
   eggs =
       collective.upload

2. If you’re using Plone 4.2, you may need to pin the right versions of the jQuery and jQuery Tools packages:

   [versions]
   plone.app.jquery = 1.7.2
   plone.app.jquerytools = 1.5.5

After updating the configuration you need to run ‘’bin/buildout’’, which will take care of updating your system.

Go to the ‘Site Setup’ page in a Plone site and click on the ‘Add-ons’ link.

Check the box next to collective.upload and click the ‘Activate’ button.

Note: You may have to empty your browser cache and save your resource registries in order to see the effects of the product installation.

Share and Enjoy

collective.upload would not have been possible without the contribution of the following people:

• Silvestre Huens

• Joaquín Rosales

• Héctor Velarde

• Gonzalo Almeida

You can find an updated list of package contributors on GitHub.

collective.upload is an implementation of the jQuery File Upload plugin for Plone.

Development sponsored by Open Multimedia.

There’s a frood who really knows where his towel is