SuperContainer Upload Button

[Uwe]

I am starting to use SuperContainer installed on our server for uploading files via IWP to out Filemaker data base.

I am using the SuperContainer via a webviewer to upload PDF documents. The size of the webviewer is just a bit larger than the PDF icon shown after the file has been uploaded. However, in case there is no file uploaded, the upload button is shown in the webviewer. This button is much larger than the PDF icon.

Therefore, I would like to know whether there is a possibility to have a smaller or custom upload/delete button?

Is there a possibility to call the webviewer via a script so that immediately the file selection window is chosen - without hitting the chose file and/or upload button?

All the best, Uwe

[Smef]

It is not possible to script and upload or download in IWP due to browser security features. Imagine if a webpage could upload files from your ccomputer just from going to a URL!

It sounds like you may have a very, very small web viewer. Why is it that you have such a small web viewer? It sounds like the web viewer may not be the best solution for you if you are needing to make it so small, as your users probably won't be able to see any image previews if the web viewer is so tiny.

If you are trying to determine if a file is preset at a location you may want to use the scgetinfo function of the SuperContainer companion plugin and then use that to fill in or color a field to let the user know that a file is present. If there is not a file present you may want to give them an "upload new file" button which will take them to a new layout which will give them a larger web viewer that will make it easier for them to drag-and-drop a file into SuperContainer or view any images or previews of files stored at that loction.

[Uwe]

Dear David,

thank you for your reply.

I have a very small web viewer. Basically, I just want to use the SuperContainer to upload/download files to a server, which also hosts Filemaker.

Therefore, the small web viewer is basically used only to display the file icon (in my case I always have PDF-files), so that the user can click on the icon and the PDF is displayed in the browser or could be downloaded. If the SuperContainer is empty the upload button is shown and the user should just hit this button to upload the PDF file. I could use a separate layout for uploading the file (I am doing this in another project), but in my opinion it is much less convenient for the user. The user must hit a button to get to the upload layout, hit the upload file button and then hit a button to return to the original layout. With the small web viewer solution, the user just has to press the upload button and that's it. The same is true for downloading...

This approach works fine - but the upload button is too large...so is there an option to make it smaller?

[Smef]

You could use the supercontainer companion plugin to script the upload and download of files, which would let you make the button as small as you want, though for usability's sake I wouldn't recommend making it that much smaller than the one in the web viewer! :

Using scchoosefile and scsetcontainer would give them the same behavior as if they had clicked the upload button in the web viewer. You could use SCgetinfo to determine if there is already a file at that supercontainer URL and display an icon, checkmark, the filename, etc.

[Uwe]

Dear David, thank you for your prompt reply. Is the plugin/file access also working with Instant Web Publishing? I am using a server for hosting the data base and the users access the data base via IWP.

As far as I understood the documentation of the plugin, the upload/download function of the plugin used with a filemaker server just allows to upload/download files from the local hard drive of the server - if not this would be the perfect solution!!!

[Smef]

You cannot script uploads and downloads (other than to and from regular container fields to SuperContainer) using the companion plugin when accessing your database through IWP. This is because of browser security features that prevent files from being automatically uploaded or downloaded to and from a website.

[Uwe]

You cannot script uploads and downloads (other than to and from regular container fields to SuperContainer) using the companion plugin when accessing your database through IWP. This is because of browser security features that prevent files from being automatically uploaded or downloaded to and from a website.

O.k. so there is not other possibility than the one I described above - i.e. using a small webviewer (except for using a separate layout or upload, what is a bit complicated...). Therefore, I would like to ask the question again: is it possible to change the size of the upload button - that should be easily possible in Java, or?