Receive Files via your Web Page

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5. Technical Reference - Web Page

5.1 Concept

WebiToome modifies a local copy of your web page/HTML file so as to include a form for submitting files if the server is running, and to exclude this code if you stop or pause the server. WebiToome is not a web server itself - it handles ONLY the file receiving, so the web page has to be uploaded to your web host as required. This means that your supplementary files and graphics reside as usual on the web host.

When the server is started, the local copy of the HTML is read, modified to reflect your IP address and server port, and uploaded.

When the server is paused or stopped, the local copy of the HTML is modified to EXCLUDE the file submission form, and is uploaded.

5.2 Necessary Code

For the file submissions to work the page MUST contain the following code:

<FORM action = "http://&IP&:&PORT&/" enctype = "multipart/form-data" method="POST">Filename: <INPUT type="FILE" name="name_of_file"><P><INPUT TYPE="SUBMIT" VALUE="Submit File"></FORM>

You may include other HTML immediately after the

and immediately before the  but you are STRONGLY advised not to mess with the form.

When the page is uploaded to enable file submissions, the FORM action parameter is modified to reflect your IP address and server port.

When you pause or stop the server, a modified version of the HTML EXCLUDING EVERYTHING between the

and the  is uploaded.

The minimum complete web page you would therefore need to create would be:

<html> <FORM action = "http://&IP&:&PORT&/" enctype = "multipart/form-data" method="POST">Filename: <INPUT type="FILE" name="name_of_file"><P><INPUT TYPE="SUBMIT" VALUE="Submit File"></FORM> </html>

This is in fact what WebiToome will upload if no local HTML file is specified in the preferences. It will result in something looking like this:

5.3 Browser Versions

Sadly, it is only the most recent browser versions that seem able to POST files correctly. Some of the older versions I have tried make a HUGE mess of it. I am not in a position to test all versions, but I am pretty sure MSIE 5 and up, and Netscape 4.6 and up will work. Some warnings:

If you try to send files to yourself ( for testing on one machine ) with Netscape 4.61 on Mac, make sure the file is less that about 50K. Anything bigger and Netscape gets in a tight loop waiting for the WebiToome server to process the data, and frees NO CPU time for WebiToome to do so. Everything hangs!
MSIE 4.01 on Mac makes a real mess. If the file has a resource fork, MSIE attempts to MacBinarize the file, but creates a CORRUPT MacBinary file. If the file is over what looks like 64k, it sends ONLY the last chunk less that 64k in size ( ie: file size MOD 64k ).

Hey! Don't ask me! I didn't write them ;)

Your mileage may vary, as the saying goes. But warn your users to be careful! Please!

Last updated by DocGen on Sunday, October 22, 2000 at 7:06:30 pm