Need some ideas please!

They have: 32 posts

Joined: Nov 2003

Hello everyone...

I'm hoping some of you can give me some ideas on the following issue. I am going to be creating a site for a company. The site will have password protected areas. No problem there! Now within these protected directories the customer wants to allow various users to input documents. This would be all fine and dandy if I were making a form for users to type in the document and it could show up in a directory but this would be very time consuming for the individuals that were filling in the form. What I need is a way for users to submit a document (i.e. Word document, PDF, etc.) and have that document automatically go to a protected directory from which people whom are granted access can download the documents. The potential amount of documents that will be submitted will be far too many for one individual to sit and upload constantly so I'm looking for ideas on how to simplify all of this. Now... I could just create a directory for people to upload to but the problem there is, a lot of the people will not even know what "upload" means and therefore will definitely not know how to upload the documents. I need something that will be very simple for computer illiterate people to use.

Any ideas will really help me out...

Thanks,

Mark

He has: 1,758 posts

Joined: Jul 2002

You can upload using html forms and then move the files to the correct directory using a server side scripting language. It's pretty simple. see THIS ARTICLE for more info on how to do it with PHP.

Andy

They have: 32 posts

Joined: Nov 2003

Hi Andy...

Are you saying they will be able to use an html form to upload the documents? Please remember..the documents that will be "uploaded" already exist in various offices. They may be in pdf format, etc. I need to avoid users having to completely retype the documents in a form. So if you're saying I can use the html forms to allow people to upload the documents by say, simply hitting a submit button, then this just may very well be the ticket! Smiling

He has: 1,758 posts

Joined: Jul 2002

Yup... it's exactly what I'm saying. The document will be posted to the servers temp directory and you move it to where you want it using the scripting language. Now if you want to convert the document to another format or make it into html then thats a different matter all together.

Andy

They have: 32 posts

Joined: Nov 2003

Okay..I'm trying to get this down but no such luck yet. The use of the html form is great. The users simply browse to and submit their files and it goes to a directory. The problem I'm having is..

How can I have the various files submitted go to certain directories to make them available for download to users. I'd like it to be all automated but not sure if its possible..

Thanks,

Mark

He has: 1,758 posts

Joined: Jul 2002

Just add a dropdown to the form with a selection of directories. Then you just use the input from that with an if statement to decide which directory you move the file to when it's uploaded.

Andy

They have: 32 posts

Joined: Nov 2003

Hey Andy...

I know this may be a bit much to ask..but I guess it doesn't hurt to ask since I'm goin crazy here..lol! Would you mind giving me an example? Is that a possibility? I'd greatly appreciate it...

Thanks,

Mark

He has: 1,758 posts

Joined: Jul 2002

Show me your code so far, and I'll amend it to add the feature.

He has: 26 posts

Joined: Jun 2004

Take a look at some open source CMS boards on how they allowed article submissions with security perhaps??

They have: 2 posts

Joined: Jul 2004

http://www.rumblegroupusa.com/
Their FHT app might be exactly what you need. Tried it myself, and it works quite nicely.
Very newbie friendly as well. You can even drag and drop! Smiling

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