web based file submit

[nprint]

im looking for a web based app that customers can create accounts (off our site) and fill out a form
with job details and be able to upload the file to our server. Trying to stay away from the monthly payments...

[dwanehollands]

Brent,

Not sure if this is Free or not, but you can now embed Yousendit as an upload form in your website to send multiple files at once to your yousendit account. I've only used Yousendit once so I'm not an expert.

Check out the demo below:
[http://www.yousendit.com/cms/Sitedro...9?cid=sitedrp]

Just happened to glance this in my inbox a few days after reading your post...

(just realised that you mentioned sending text info too. I don't think it does that though)

Edited by: Dwane Hollands on Apr 16, 2008 3:29 PM

[JimmyD]

Hey Brent,

I had a web developer customize me a client log in that allowed for files to be sent back and forth between us and the clients. This allowed for me to customize the system to work exactly the way I wanted it to, but this also came at a price.

If you are looking for a free solution I suggest that you keep your eyes on this program that is currently in beta.

http://www.getdropbox.com/

They have a video on their homepage if you want to check it out.

-Jimmy

[nprint]

I will give it a shot! thanks for the input

[amazingprint.com]

[http://www.amazingprint.com/printshop/|http://www.amazingprint.com/printshop/] has a pdf driver that allows your customers to print to your FTP. Driver is called PDF2U

[neotrog]

I'm with Jimmy. File upload and form data is web design 101. If you don't have anyone in house you should be able to find some wannabe web design magnate willing to put it together for you for a few hundred. Now, I don't know why you're adding in the sub-text "(off out site)". Either you don't have enough space or your site is already a lock-box solution or perhaps you don't think you want the hassle. There's no free lunch. A site with adequate bandwidth would probably have 1.5mb per 10 clients. People are mind bogglingly inept at times so you need a help desk. Expecting an outsource that is free, quality and NOT mining the traffic for saleable marketing data is expecting much from a world with so little to offer. I agree the "per-user-per-month" business model offered by the big box guys as "portals" is an easy way to bleed to death paying for a simple service that you can't charge for. Still, a simple authenticated file upload web site run on open source unix can be set up for short money and serve well.

You really don't want to put a lot of resource into getting the files because you'll still have so much work to do just to get the mutated pile of ill conceived 1's and 0's to print what the customer actually wants. ;-o

[dj]

If you google "cgi file upload" then I think you can find some code to paste into your web site that allows customers to upload files to your site. Easy (if you know a little HTML) and free.

If you want something with more features, then CrushFTP is sweetness. Create accounts, upload via HTTP as well as ftp, automatic email updates. I think it cost us about $50. And oh yeah, it runs on Mac so bonehead hackers can upload viruses all day to the hard drive and you can just laugh.

We use both on our web sites. One for convenience, the other for regular customers who deserves special accounts
Prepress Pilgrim

[LoweringTheBar]

We use a CGI script with HTML order form called PS Dropbox available from www.perlservices.net. I setup directories for each of our sales people, and on the work order the customer picks their rep and uploads their file. On our end I have a Mail Rule for each rep that forwards the notification to the correct rep and plays a MPG sound file unique to each rep that notifies me when a file has arrived. It's $40 and requires a little configuration, but it's not too tough. No status/progress bar during uploads... just an elapsed time counter, which is a bit lame, but it's reliable.

[ezprint]

Hi, a program called FileChucker (you can google it)
Very affordable around $150
Most popular and powerful open source file FTP - and can be configured in multiple ways by you or by the makers.

Has loading progress bar and other display options.
Login / user account capablility - and customized folders with folder heirarchy ability.

Nobody has created an open source FTP like FileChucker that I know of.
Have it customized by the makers and put on your site and probably still cost you under $500
Ask your web guy, as any web dvls and programmers that see that program say the same thing = "wow!..very cool" lol

Hope that helps

[adbox]

Send big files the easy way. Files too large for email attachments? No problem!
---

One time when a customer was having trouble using our hard coded uploading system we sent the customer to this website I use to send large files to friends called sendspace.

And I imagine this could be used frequently between reps and customers if you created a small instructional writeup. Also the file cannot be larger than 300mb. Its free though, and if you purchase their premium service i am sure you could find a way to incorporate it as a system.

otherwise check out hotscripts.com, they might have some good buy and free software that does exactly what your looking for.

ps. I had to implement a new uploading process for my company and I had trouble finding something that was easily implemented and could look seemless. But I had trouble, and settled using PHP and Xajax to rig up a makeshift upload function. Problem is with php and mysql is that the size of your upload is dependent on the setting's of your host's service. I wasnt able to upload a file larger than 30mb. We use a 3rd party script for anything larger. I dont know the name. It works good. This is the name of a javascript file that it needs... so it is my only lead.

"myftpuploader-standard-signed-v122.jar"