File Upload Form

Technical Overview

The North Shore Upload Form is built on HTML5 using the Plupload JQuery Plugin. The form allows users with no access to CatDV Pro to upload assets to a CatDV system, with atached metadata, using only a web form. This is useful when receiving files from users outside your department or production or perhaps even from outside of your organization altogether, depending on your security requirements/restrictions.

The workflow is that the user is presented with a web form where they may enter data. Once the data is entered (fields may be set as "required") the user selects a file to upload and initiates the upload operation. Once the file is delivered, the Upload Form outputs an XML file to match the uploaded file and both files are delivered to a selected Worker Node watch folder where the file and metadata are ingested into CatDV with no user action required from the receiving party. Once ingested, the file is available in CatDV for further automated actions or notifications.

Configuration/Settings

Editing Form Elements

IN-PROGRESS - contact support@northshoreautomation.com for more info.

Editing Chunk Size

NSA form is uses chunked uploads to get around the http upload max file size limit for web uploads.

The default for the form is 50MB chunks. This setting may be modified, however the Apache/PHP configuration settings will need to be changed on your server as well to prevent the form sending a larger data chunk than your server will accept. Contact your system administrator to change this setting on your web server. (For more information on this setting you may refer to these links:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2184513/php-change-the-maximum-upload-file-size

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4220413/how-does-php-max-execution-time-work

To edit the form setting, open the file named upload.php in your form web directory.

Refer to line 101 “chunk_size”. By editing this value you change the chunk size.

Note: As mentioned above, make sure you do not set this value to a size larger than the maximum upload file size that your server will accept.

Limitations

The base product includes no user management or access control. It is intended for use by a limited number of known users and is typically secured with a simple .htaccess file. If you require user management and/or more granular access control, please contact your reseller or North Shore to receive a quote for a custom version of the form.

File size and its effect on transfer time should be taken into account. This form may not be suitable for all workflows due to bandwidth constraints and other factors. Review your needs with the North Shore consulting team or your reseller to confirm that this solution will meet your needs. North Shore has tested this form up to 8GB but we have clients that have used it for much larger files (again, dependent on bandwidth and other factors.)

The web form utilizes standard http protocol for uploads. No transfer acceleration is provided. If you need to accelerate uploads, North Shore recommends one of our web form integrations with File Catalyst or Aspera.

This product is supplied as uncompiled web code (javascript and php). It may be used as a completely functional application as supplied, or as the base for a custom version created by the end user or by North Shore as a service. If used as a starting point for a user-developed product, the license owner is welcome to modify the code in any way, providing that they release NSA from any liability for support of the product and credit North Shore in the source code. At any time, North Shore will be happy to supply a new version of the code if the changes prove unsuccessful. However If the end user is unable to re-deploy, standard service rates will apply.