Image Uploader Features

The main purpose of Image Uploader is to transfer files from the client machine to the server in a quick and efficient manner. To this end, Image Uploader delivers the following upload-related features:

• Ability to extract metadata (EXIF/IPTC) and upload it along with an image.
• Sending user comments along with files.
• Ability to rename standard Image Uploader POST request fields and add your own ones.
• Uploads files from browser directly to cloud storages (such as Amazon S3 and Nirvanix).
• ZIP compression of files.
• Uploads of any kinds of files without any limitations over their type or size (unless you configure file restrictions).
• Uploads an unlimited number of resized copies of an image (either accompanied by the original file or not).
  Important

  This feature greatly increases the upload speed when you need to upload a downsized image instead of a large photo.

• Sending additional information along with files in an attached HTML form.
• Sending files in several concurrent upload threads.
• Uploads of entire folders including all subfolders. Here, the folder structure can be retained server-side.
• Ability to upload files to several servers or pages within the same upload session (e.g. if balancing servers are used).
• Automatic upload resuming if the upload has been interrupted. Attempts count and interval is configurable.
• Progress dialog with customizable statistics is displayed for the upload process.
• Full control of the upload process through JavaScript.
• Estimation of the remaining upload time.
• Automatic redirection to a specified page upon the upload completion.
• Ability to upload hash value for each file, allowing for file integrity checks server-side.
• File uploads in separate requests. This means that if the upload process interrupts, the user will be able to resume it. They will not have to upload files that have already been uploaded.
• Memory-friendly behavior regardless of the number of files or their size.

Although Image Uploader is able to upload any kind of files, it implements a number of features that make it a largely image-oriented solution:

• Support of the following image formats:
  • JPEG (EXIF thumbnail is extracted if possible - extremely fast)
  • TIFF
  • GIF
  • PNG
  • BMP
  • WBMP
  • PSD
  • PCX
• Memory-friendly resize algorithm is used.
• Ability to generate an unlimited number of thumbnails per image client-side for uploading them to the server.
• Ability to preserve image resolution metadata from original file or set resolution to arbitrary value in thumbnails.
• Ability to rotate images client-side.
• Lossless JPEG rotation is used whenever possible.
• Ability to put a text or image watermark over images uploaded to the server. You can configure size, opacity, position, font, color, background color, and some other settings for an image or a text string.
• Handling EXIF and IPTC fields.
• Photos can be automatically rotated if they have a wrong orientation (based on EXIF information stored in the photo).

All Image Uploader features are intended to make uploads convenient and friendly even for inexperienced users.

• Easy navigation through the folders on the user's computer.
• High level of accessibility. All the operations can be carried out using the keyboard.
• Thumbnails for image files of all the supported formats are displayed.
• Standard icons are displayed for non-image files.
• Ability to open files in an associated viewer software.
• Files can be browsed in several view modes:
  • Thumbnails;
  • Detailed list;
  • Simple list;
  • Icons;
  • Advanced detailed list (thumbnails + details).
• Instant upload. The upload can start immediately after the file is selected for upload.
• Files can be re-arranged in the upload list using the drag-and-drop operation or using some criteria such as file name, size, date, etc.
• Both files and folders can be uploaded.
• Automatic change tracking in the file system. Image Uploader automatically refreshes when:
  • File is added to a folder currently browsed by the user.
  • Removable device (such as USB drive, digital camera, etc) is plugged into the computer.
• Several layouts of Image Uploader panes - select one that fits you more. Panes may have custom background images.
• Drag-and-drop operation support. In particular, it is possible to select files for the upload by dragging them from Windows Explorer.
• Both single and multiple selection is supported.
• Image rotation with a single click.
• Built-in description editor for each file.
• Large preview of thumbnails.
• Quality meter that indicates which print formats the photo can be printed with.
• You can upload bitmap currently found in the system clipboard (useful when uploading screenshots).

Configurable Behavior

Image Uploader is designed to be flexible enough for any kinds of applications. Depending on your needs, you can enable or disable some specific features. For example, you can configure whether to:

• Allow users to select a view mode.
• Display specific buttons.
• Enable users to rotate images or edit descriptions.
• Redirect the user to another page after the upload.
• Show quality meter.
• Display specific error messages.
• Delete files after upload.
• Display the progress dialog.
• ...and many more.

Furthermore, you can configure restrictions for files the user uploads:

• Maximum total files size.
• Maximum or minimum number of files to be uploaded.
• Maximum or minimum size of a single file.
• Maximum or minimum image dimensions.
• File mask for allowed and denied file names.
• CMYK image can be disallowed for uploads.

Customizable Appearance

The appearance of Image Uploader is essentially customizable. You can adjust it to fit the look and feel of your website. You can do it using the following features:

• Customizable fonts of Image Uploader buttons, panes, and labels.
• Customizable colors of all Image Uploader elements.
• Customizable background images for panes.
• Customizable buttons and icons. Each button or icon can be replaced by a specified set of images (one image for each button state). Also, each button can be hidden.
• Customizable splitter and border style.
• Customizable thumbnail styles - colors, borders, and so on. Each thumbnail can be customized separately.
• Rich client-side API that enables to bring certain parts of Image Uploader to the HTML code. This way you can noticeably modify the layout. For example:
  • Place buttons and progress bar outside of Image Uploader.
  • Put the pane with files selected for upload separately from Image Uploader.
  • Organize your own upload list with custom data for each file, etc.
  • Use separate folder navigation controls to allow users to select a folder to upload files from.

International Languages Support

Image Uploader user interface is easy to translate into other languages. Every piece of text displayed in Image Uploader can be modified. A great thing about this is that it allows modifying the language on-the-fly, which is very important for globally-targeted multilingual websites.

There are virtually no limitations when it comes to languages, locales and encodings: even East Asian (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc) languages are fully supported.

Moreover, Image Uploader already includes translations into several languages. They are

• Chinese (simplified)
• Chinese (traditional)
• Czech
• Dutch
• English
• French
• German
• Italian
• Japanese
• Korean
• Norwegian
• Russian
• Swedish
• Turkish
• Ukrainian

Of course, you may add any other locale, if you wish. For details, check the Localization topic.

Client Side

Image Uploader consists of an ActiveX control and a Java applet. The helper JavaScript automatically detects the browser and loads either the ActiveX or the Java version. This way, a variety of modern browsers and operating system are supported.

See a full list of supported operating systems and browsers in the System Requirements topic.

Server Platform

Aurigma Image Uploader Dual is a purely client-side application, and, therefore, it does not depend on the server platform. It uploads data in the multipart/form-data format (see RFC 1867). It means that any HTTP-compliant server platform is able to process uploaded files.

Image Uploader is shipped with a number of demo applications written for different server platforms, namely:

• ASP.NET (VB.NET and C#; Mono-compatible)
• PHP

These demo applications are distributed with the source code. They can be used as great starter kits. You will find code examples or even reusable blocks of code for the most typical cases. The following applications are available:

• Basic Demo Sample
• User Quota Sample
• Optimized Upload Sample
• Photo Order Sample
• Localization Sample
• Concurrent Upload Sample
• Open File Dialog Sample
• Multiple Descriptions Sample
• Robust Upload Sample
• Watermark Sample
• Server Imaging Sample

One more way to deploy Image Uploader on your web site is to use Image Uploader ASP.NET control. This is ASP.NET server control which offers the following advantages:

• Easy to embed and configure Image Uploader in Visual Studio, in design mode.
• Ability to process uploaded files in a more efficient way.

See the detailed instructions on how to use the control in the Inserting Image Uploader ASP.NET Control into ASP.NET Page article.