did you know you dont need to host your own server to accept file uploads?
Creating file uploader scripts is easy ..but, they are the basic uploaders that look like the "browse" and "upload" buttons.. The ones that have nothing fancy to them, no uploading progress bar etc.
That's where the problem comes in. You can create a file upload script in 5 minutes ,BUT most want an activity meter, progress bar or something to show people that their screen didn't freeze and its still uploading. I've been in search of the best file uploader and still haven't found anything that I was completely happy with. Even if they worked, they were annoying or buggy and didnt have the aesthetics and etc .. I downloaded probably every file uploader there is and they pretty much all sucked except one.
A lot of them had the small window that wants to open..which is corny, so I ended up choosing one of the paid scripts and its great but, if you try to edit the aesthetics on it the whole thing will get buggy and do a weird default extension. I'm going to inevitably have to make one because I know the one I would like to have, you'd click the upload button after you chose your fileS (instead of one file at a time) and the script will display a progress spindle or one of them flower-lookin animations where the petals are indicator lights that flash around , and the progress percentage in the center counting 1 - 100%
But, right on the screen before they upload their file, it would have them fill in textbox to give their project a name , which would then autocreate a folder with their project name or order number. But so far as far as fancy looking for the customer, with progress indictators, and 'smart' enough to do all those things without going buggy when editing it ... it doesnt exist. It seems the two things that are still primitive in printing website technology is the file uploader and the shipping interacting scripts. Instead of those shipping scripts that go out to the shipping sites I think it would be a lot better if they let you download a database SQL file every update , and just put it all into your own database..because if you've ever tried to do a lot of data scripts with them shipping scripts, wow what a pain. lol They take too long usually and customer has to have some sort of button trigger or at least one in the script to call the other website ,and if you get into using Ajax for real-time auto-changes and updates as fast as a customer clicks their website buttons.. your screwed. lol I used one of those types of scripts for awhile and then got rid of it, since it was too slow most of the time. The site user would be clicking through various combinations of options of paper stock, ink colors and quantities to get a look at various pricing combinations..and there would come the shipping script on a 3 second lag ..tagging everything weird if the customer was really clicking along.
Inevitably I'm going to make a file uploader I think, if i do I'll post a link for you to check it out. Maybe even sell it to printers ..that way you dont need those whole print template website for the cost of a sportscar.. lol