Recently, I blogged about my favorite file upload technique for web applications--the free flash/JavaScript-based SWFUpload. While this library is not the perfect solution for all circumstances, it certainly provides a very nice user experience and is worth seeing if it matches your project's requirements.
I have a project I'm working on that needs a graceful file upload process. The environment is compatible with the flash/JavaScript requirements so I made myself a .NET control for the library. The control contains all the necessary JavaScript and you can set the properties (allowed file types, file size, etc.) just like a normal control so you don't have to mess with any of the scripting.
The features of this control include:
- Multiple file upload (queuing)
- Upload progress indicator
- Ability to cancel queued files
- NO visible PostBack (uses AJAX)
For those of you who may be wondering if you just stumbled onto the the "holy grail" of file uploads here, hold y'er horses...
This is my first customer server control ever. I'd never made one before and this was my "learning project". It's probably not a highly tested and production-ready control. That said, you have the source and it's not that complicated so maybe you can customize it or clean it up if necessary. I would like to know what you think--good or bad, so let me know if you find problems or have some ideas to share.
I love multiple monitors. I made everyone at work start using multiple monitors last year. At first they were afraid...they were petrified...but now they don't like working at home if they only have one monitor. If you're looking to justify multiple monitors in your organization, here's a report outlining some productivity research regarding monitor size, aspect ratio, and multiple displays.
Okay, so don't be surprised that display company (NEC) found that larger and more displays improves productivity, but it would appear there is a limit to productivity gains. What's your optimal layout? Check out the report and see for yourself:
On a related note...Here's a gotcha I banged my head into with Vista and multiple monitors...
I recently upgraded my home/office PC. My old system had three monitors under Windows XP and ran great. I used a nVidia AGP card and added an ATI dual-video PCI card to create my surround video.
Enter crotchety ol' Vista with it's fancy-smancy new way of handling multiple graphics cards... Up until now, I've been pretty happy with Vista but this just chaps my hide. If you are planning to use more than two monitors with Vista, you need to read this article first.