ASP.NET MVC file uploads using Valums Ajax Uploader plugin

File uploading is one of the common tasks in web development.

One of the best scripts for file uploading is valums/file-upoader.

Valums Ajax Upload Plugin Overview

This plugin uses XHR for uploading multiple files with progress-bar in FF3.6+, Safari4+, Chrome and falls back to hidden iframe based upload in other browsers, providing good user experience everywhere.

Features

• multiple file select, progress-bar in FF, Chrome, Safari
• drag-and-drop file select in FF, Chrome
• uploads are cancellable
• no external dependencies
• doesn’t use Flash
• fully working with https
• keyboard support in FF, Chrome, Safari
• tested in IE7,8; Firefox 3,3.6,4; Safari4,5; Chrome; Opera10.60;

Setup File Uploader plugin on ASP.NET MVC site

Here is step-by-step instructions how to setup file-uploader script on your page on ASP.NET MVC site.

– Download the script from github.

– Save files to the root of your project (or any folder you want). You need these three files:

/js/fileuploader.js

/css/fileuploader.css

/img/loading.gif

– Put the script on your page (view):
[codesyntax lang=”csharp”]

<link href="@Url.Content("~/css/fileuploader.css")" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />

<script src="@Url.Content("~/js/fileuploader.js")" type="text/javascript"></script>

<div id="file-uploader">
<noscript>
<p>Please enable JavaScript to use file uploader.</p>
</noscript>
</div>

<script type="text/javascript">
var uploader = new qq.FileUploader({
element: document.getElementById('file-uploader'),
action: '@Url.Action("upload")' // put here a path to your page to handle uploading
//,allowedExtensions: ['jpg', 'jpeg', 'png', 'gif'] // user this if you want to upload only pictures
sizeLimit: 4000000, // max size, about 4MB
minSizeLimit: 0, // min size

 });
</script>

[/codesyntax]

– Create an ASP.NET MVC  controller which will handle the file uploading and save the file to some location on the server:

[codesyntax lang=”csharp”]

public class HomeController : Controller
{
..

[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Upload(HttpPostedFileBase qqfile)
{
if (qqfile != null)
{
// this works for IE

var filename = Path.Combine(Server.MapPath(“~/app_data”), Path.GetFileName(qqfile.FileName));

qqfile.SaveAs(filename);
return Json(new { success = true }, “text/html”);
}
else
{
// this works for Firefox, Chrome

var filename = Request[“qqfile”];
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(filename))
{
filename = Path.Combine(Server.MapPath(“~/app_data”), Path.GetFileName(filename));
using (var output = System.IO.File.Create(filename))
{
Request.InputStream.CopyTo(output);
}
return Json(new { success = true });
}
}
return Json(new { success = false });
}
}

[/codesyntax]

Note that the controller action must return JsonResult.

Also note that there are two different ways to handle uploads from IE and other (Firefox/Chrome) browsers. The issue here that IE uploads uses multipart-mime while other browsers use Octet-Stream. And Valums Ajax plugin sends an application/octet-stream instead of multipart/form-data which is what the default model binder can work with.

Fine more examples on github.

Some discussions on stackoverflow about known issues:

– http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4884920/mvc3-valums-ajax-file-upload

– http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9882692/valums-file-uploader-doesnt-work-under-internet-explorer-9

– http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4888632/mvc-valums-ajax-uploader-ie-doesnt-send-the-stream-in-request-inputstream