Is there any way to "peek" at a file while it's uploading through HTTP onto a Windows box?

Question

I need to add a file upload function to an ASP.NET website and would like to be able to read a small portion of the file on the server while it's still uploading. A peek or preview type function so I can determine contents and give some feedback to the user while it is still uploading (we're talking about large files here). Is there any way to do this? I'm thinking worst case of writing a custom control which uploads only a fixed number of bytes of the file once chosen and then under the covers starts another upload of the full file. Not totally sure even this is possible, but I'm looking for a more elegant solution anyway... Thanks!

Answer 1

There is an HTTP HEAD method but not PEEK.

HEAD will give you information and headers about the file.

Of course you can make a special request handler that does anything you want. You don't have to work with static resources, you can dynamically create any response you want.

Answer 2

It sounds like you want to avoid the "white screen of death" during large file uploads. If so, you might want to look into Telerik's RadUpload control , which provides a progress bar during upload.

If you want to roll your own, I'd decompile their trial copy for ideas. I've peeked at their source in this way, and they accomplish the progress bar through a combination of a custom HttpModule and HttpHandler along with their control. The handler routes the file in a streamed fashion while the module provides "percent complete" information--or the other way round; it's been a few years since I looked at it.

Edit:

Actually, I'm trying to do server-side processing as the file is still being uploaded. I want to import user data via HTTP, but want to present the user with preview/options of how we'll process their data while the file is still uploading (column definitions, etc.). No matter what, we'll take the file as is, so the upload doesn't need to be interrupted. Given that I actually want interaction during the upload based on reading a relatively small portion of the file as it is being uploaded, would you still recommend the same approach?

Well... it'd be very difficult to do, and it might not work cross-browser, but it could be done with this approach.

Since it's entirely possible to work with the incoming file as a stream as I mentioned, you could have your intial processing update some state as part of that stream processing. If you don't process as a stream, you have to wait for the full file upload before you can do anything with it.

The problem is this: during the file upload, you cannot have any more HTML-based interaction. The post must continue unabated or the upload will fail. The control I linked only works at all because most browsers allow javascript to continue to execute and update page DOM during the post.

So in order to make this work, you have to update some standardized state server-side during your file processing in the HttpModule, which is transmitted back to the client via XmlHttpRequest calls handled by the HttpHandler. You have to use pure javascript/DOM to update the UI for the user.

So, as I said, it's complex and likely to be buggy cross-browser, but it could theoretically be done.

There are alernatives that might be more stable, but might not necessarily be feasible: you could build an ActiveX control or a Click-Once .NET application that pre-processes the file before upload, and maybe even asynchronously transfers the file while the user continues browsing. Some users may not like that option, and I don't know the particulars of your deployment scenario, but it's an option.