Solution for client to transfer big files on my site/server

Business
1

dear forum members,

I’m looking for solution to integrate to my site for the clients who need to send me large files (HD photos only).
Without using services like dropbox, wesendit.
Mostly interested for solutions Wordpress-friendly if possible.

Thank you!

2

If they are trusted you could ftp the files?

I installed some software on a users computer where they had an icon on their desktop and all the ftp settings were setup and all the user had to do was drop the file onto the icon.

3

Assuming you can modify your server settings to allow upload of large files you could set up a front end publishing form so the client could add a file ans an entry, possibly with some notes etc. If you clients had an account on your site you could also password protect the form to prevent abuse.

4

@Rubble I’m sorry, how can computer illiterate client ftp his files on my site?

5

There used to be a windows program where the competent person would set it up with the ftp details including the folder path. The user just had to drag and drop the file over the icon and it was uploaded. I can not find it now and thinking back it was probably 10 years ago when I installed it for somebody!

You could probably do the same thing with a batch file. Setup the batch file and when the user drops the file over the batch file icon which could be on the desktop it would upload the file.

There is some information on the Microsoft site: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/96269

There could be a program you could add to right click and have send to ftp.

6

Thank you @Rubble

unfortunately, I’m really not a Microsoft person and was thinking that this kind program could have some incompatibilities between mac and pc (both sides)

*sigh.

7

@bluedreamer you mean to create a specific page with a request to send file?

something like this:

<?php
$file = 'somefile.txt';
$remote_file = 'readme.txt';

// set up basic connection
$conn_id = ftp_connect($ftp_server);

// login with username and password
$login_result = ftp_login($conn_id, $ftp_user_name, $ftp_user_pass);

// upload a file
if (ftp_put($conn_id, $remote_file, $file, FTP_ASCII)) {
 echo "successfully uploaded $file\n";
} else {
 echo "There was a problem while uploading $file\n";
}

// close the connection
ftp_close($conn_id);
?>
8

That’s OK @Soapmarine it was just an idea.

9

Maybe something like that, yes.

I was thinking a front end web form where you provide an file upload field, plus any other field you want to collect data for, such as email address, name, message. You could send the email as a text message and store the uploaded file on your web server, just include a link to it in the body of the email.

If you are using a CMS they normally come with some sort of front end publish form which you could use to store the uploaded data as an entry…

10

You could set up something like Filezilla on the client’s computer and show them where to drag the files. The rest is done by the software.

11

That’s what I was going to suggest. And, going further, you can use Filezilla’s Site Manager and “bookmark” features to simplify the process.

Essentially, this would let you fix it so that the user only has to launch FileZilla, go to Site Manager and click Connect. They would then see in the left-hand panel a list of files in the local source folder, in descending datetime order. They select the new or updated files - the ones at the top of the list - and drag these to the right-hand panel. And that’s all there is to it.

Mike