Upload files from SharePoint Document Library to FTP

maria@intelligentsiasoftware.com — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 16:27:06 GMT

In this post I am going to describe a scenario which was a little different from the ones usually found over the internet. The objective was to set up a document library to receive email and upload the received files to an FTP.

I created a workflow in Visual studio 2008 and set it up on the document library. FOllowing is the code in the workflowactivated event. (there is just one activity in the workflow)

        1: Private Sub onWorkflowActivated1_Invoked(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.Workflow.Activities.ExternalDataEventArgs)

       2:         Try

       3:             Dim request As FtpWebRequest = CType(WebRequest.Create(ConfigurationManager.AppSettings("FTPHost") + Me.workflowProperties.Item.File.Name), FtpWebRequest)

       4:             request.Method = WebRequestMethods.Ftp.UploadFile

       5:             request.Credentials = New NetworkCredential(ConfigurationManager.AppSettings("FTPUser"), ConfigurationManager.AppSettings("FTPPassword"))

       6:             Dim webCl As WebClient = New WebClient()

       7:             webCl.Credentials = New NetworkCredential(ConfigurationManager.AppSettings("SPUser"), ConfigurationManager.AppSettings("SPPassword"))

       8:             Dim buffer() As Byte = webCl.DownloadData(ConfigurationManager.AppSettings("CurrentSite") + "/" + Me.workflowProperties.Item.File.Url)

       9:             request.GetRequestStream().Write(buffer, 0, buffer.Length)

      10:             request = Nothing

      11:         Catch ex As Exception

      12:         End Try

      13:     End Sub

Line3: I created an FTPWebRequest object, the configuration key FTPHost contains the FTP host url e.g. http://www.techsolutions.netftp://abc.com; the document name is added to the request url to form a well formed URI

Line4: the mode of the FTPRequest is set to “UploadFile”

Line5: FTP request requires credentials so a new Network credential object is created and assigned to the request object. (I think you wont need this step if your ftp allows anonymous access)

Line6: Since we have to get the data of the file in the document library and upload it, we need to use a webclient object to download the data in the file.

Line7: Access to the document library requires a user name and password as well so i placed my user name and password as a new network credential object (these are the credentials i use to login to the sharepoint site)

Line8: Use the webclient object to download the data of the file in a byte array. The DownloadData method holds the path of the file to be downloaded

Line9: FTPWebRequest object is used to write the byte array. this uploads the file to the FTP

Line10: FTPWebRequest is set to Nothing

Using Nested forms in ASP.NET

maria@intelligentsiasoftware.com — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 11:59:18 GMT

We can use as many forms on an asp.net page; but we need to have only one of them which is server side (i.e. set to runat=”server”). However there are certain situations in which you have to use an HTML form inside a server form.

Situation would have been a bit easier if there was no cross browser compatibility required and had I not been using a custom built CMS. However, I did have these constraints and I had to set up a functionality for a file download that would only be available to a user once he/she provides some specific information and submits it to an external url.

Here’s how I started what I need to do:

Provide a link to the file download (not the actual link but something that triggers the file download process)
Trigger the display of the html form on the link click
show the form on the page
submit the form to the external url
show the actual file download link

For the first two steps I opted to use an overlay div; which can be easily shown and hidden using simple javascript.

Since i am using a CMS, i created the overlay

in the master page and also added the javascript that was required to show and hide the

Inside the

i used a label control (since anthem does not provide a literal) and a server side button; on the show event of the hidden overlay

; i called the click event of the button using javascript; I placed two panels in the div, one of which contained the label to hold the form, while the second panel held the label to link to the actual download link:

        1: <div id="overlayhttp://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net">

       2:       <div id="innerOverlayhttp://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net">

       3:     <div class="wideBoxBlueTop1http://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net"><img src="images/1px.gifhttp://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net" width="1http://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net" height="1http://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net" border="0http://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net" alt="http://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net" />div>

       4:   <div class="wideBoxBlueBottom1http://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net">

       5:     <div class="innerhttp://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net"><div style="clear:bothhttp://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net">div>

       6:   <p align="righthttp://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net"><a href="javascript:hideOverlay()http://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net">Closea>p>      

       7:     <anthem:TextBox  ID="DOC_IDhttp://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net"  AutoUpdateAfterCallBack="truehttp://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net" runat="serverhttp://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net"   />           

       8:     <anthem:Button ID="mybtnhttp://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net" runat="serverhttp://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net"/>       

       9:    <anthem:Panel ID="formPanelhttp://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net" runat="serverhttp://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net"  >

      10:  <anthem:Label ID="lblformhttp://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net"  AutoUpdateAfterCallBack="truehttp://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net" runat="serverhttp://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net"  >anthem:Label>

      11:     anthem:Panel>

      12:     <anthem:Panel ID="myPanelhttp://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net" AutoUpdateAfterCallBack="truehttp://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net" runat="serverhttp://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net">

      13:     <anthem:Label ID="lblThankyouhttp://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net" runat="serverhttp://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net">anthem:Label>

      14:     <anthem:Label ID="DocURLhttp://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net" runat="serverhttp://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net" Width="250pxhttp://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net">anthem:Label>

      15:   anthem:Panel>

      16:          div>

      17:           div>

      18:   div>

      19:   div>

       1: function showOverlay(i) {

       2: var o = document.getElementById('overlay');

       3: if(o!=null){o.style.visibility = 'visible';}

       4: if(i!=null){document.getElementById("<%=DOC_ID.ClientID %>http://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net").value=i;

       5: hideDocPanel();

       6: CallMethod();

       7:     } 

       8: }

       9: function CallMethod()

      10: {

      11: document.getElementById('<%=myBtn.ClientID %>').click();

      12: }

      13: function hideOverlay() {

      14: var o = document.getElementById('overlay');

      15: o.style.visibility = 'hidden';

      16: hideBothPanels();

      17: }

Some other supporting functions in javascript that might be required:

       1: function showDocPanel()

       2: {

       3: //validateForm is just a method to perform validation on the form

       4: if(validateForm()){

       5: submitForm();

       6: document.getElementById("<%=formPanel.ClientID %>http://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net").style.display='none';

       7: document.getElementById("<%=myPanel.ClientID %>http://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net").style.display='block'; 

       8: 

       9: document.getElementById("h2headinghttp://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net").style.display='none';

      10: }

      11: }

      12: function hideDocPanel()

      13: {

      14: document.getElementById("<%=myPanel.ClientID %>http://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net").style.display='none';

      15: document.getElementById("<%=formPanel.ClientID %>http://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net").style.display='block';

      16: }

      17: function hideBothPanels()

      18: {

      19: document.getElementById("<%=myPanel.ClientID %>http://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net").style.display='none';

      20: document.getElementById("<%=formPanel.ClientID %>http://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net").style.display='none';

      21: document.getElementById('<%=formSalesForce.ClientID %>').value='';

      22: }

When the link is clicked, the overlay

is shown; and the myBtn click event is called using Javascript.

       1:  _

       2:    Protected Sub mybtn_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles mybtn.Click

       3:  

       4:        d = CMS.MyDocLink.FindByGId(DOC_ID.Text)        ' Where d gets the object of the Document object 

       5:        lblThankyou.Text = "http://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net" + d.ThankyouText + "
http://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net"

       6:        If (d.DocType.Equals(".pdfhttp://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net")) Then

       7:            DocURL.Text = "
http://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net" + d.DocumentName + "
http://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net"

       8:        Else

       9:            DocURL.Text = "http://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net" + d.DocumentName + "
http://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net"

      10:        End If

      11:  

      12:        Dim s As New StringBuilder

      13:        s.Append("
Document Descriptionhttp://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net" + d.DocDescription + "

http://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net")

      14:        s.Append("Please fill out the following information so that we can proceed with providing you the link to the document
http://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net")

      15:        If (Not Request.Browser.Browser.Equals("IEhttp://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net")) Then

      16:            s.Append("http://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net")

      17:        End If

      18:  

      19:        s.Append("http://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net")  22:    23:        s.Append("http://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net")  24:        s.Append("http://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net")  26:        s.Append("http://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net")  27:        s.Append("http://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net")  29:        s.Append("http://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net")  30:        s.Append("http://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net")  32:        s.Append("http://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net")  33:        s.Append("http://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net")  35:        s.Append("http://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net")  36:        s.Append("http://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net")  38:        s.Append(" http://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net")     'empty row for spacer cells  39:        s.Append("http://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net")  41:        s.Append("http://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net")

      20:        s.Append("http://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net")

      21:        s.Append("
First Name*

    http://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net")

      25:        s.Append("
Last Name*

    http://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net")

      28:        s.Append("
Email*

    http://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net")

      31:        s.Append("
Work Title

    http://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net")

      34:        s.Append("
Company

    http://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net")

      37:        s.Append("
 
 http://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net")

      40:        s.Append("
http://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net")

      42:        If (Not Request.Browser.Browser.Equals("IEhttp://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net")) Then

      43:            s.Append("http://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net")

      44:        End If

      45:        lblForm.Text = s.ToString()

      46:        lblForm.UpdateAfterCallBack = True

      47:    End Sub

The above form will work in the following browsers:

IE 7+
Chrome
FF 3.5 +
Chrome 2.0 +

IE does not show a nested form and I couldnt see my form in the Internet explorer browser. Here’s how I tweaked for the form to be displayed within IE. Note the following code segments:

       1: If (Not Request.Browser.Browser.Equals("IEhttp://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net")) Then

       2:           s.Append("http://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net")

       3:       End If

and

       1: If (Not Request.Browser.Browser.Equals("IEhttp://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net")) Then

       2:          s.Append("http://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net")

       3:      End If

So, if the browser is IE, the string builder object will only have the

markup and if the browsers are other than IE, the tag will be embedded in the label text property.

Now, within IE, since we do not have a form, its not possible to submit the information to an external url, so we have to duplicate the form using javascript. Here z how I did it:

       1: //helper function to create the form

       2: function getNewSubmitForm(){

       3:  var submitForm = document.createElement("FORMhttp://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net");

       4:  document.body.appendChild(submitForm);

       5:  submitForm.method = "POSThttp://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net";

       6:  return submitForm;

       7: }

       8:  

       9: //helper function to add elements to the form

function createNewFormElement(inputForm, elementName, elementValue){

 var newElement = document.createElement("http://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net");

 inputForm.appendChild(newElement);

 newElement.value = elementValue;

 return newElement;

}

  

//function that creates the form, adds some elements

//and then submits it

function createFormAndSubmit(){

var submitForm = getNewSubmitForm();

//alert("form created");

createNewFormElement(submitForm, "oidhttp://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net", document.getElementById("oidhttp://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net").value);

createNewFormElement(submitForm, "first_namehttp://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net", document.getElementById("first_namehttp://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net").value);

createNewFormElement(submitForm, "last_namehttp://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net", document.getElementById("last_namehttp://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net").value);

createNewFormElement(submitForm, "emailhttp://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net", document.getElementById("emailhttp://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net").value);

createNewFormElement(submitForm, "work_titlehttp://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net", document.getElementById("work_titlehttp://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net").value);

createNewFormElement(submitForm, "companyhttp://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net", document.getElementById("companyhttp://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net").value);

createNewFormElement(submitForm, "retURLhttp://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net", window.location.href);

//alert(window.location.href + "::elements added");

submitForm.action= "http://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net";

submitForm.target='myIframe';

//alert("submitting");

submitForm.submit();

}

Since we are posting to an external url, the page posts back when the form is submitted, in order to avoid this. I have added an iframe ‘myIframe’ to the code (lblForm.text) and set the target of the form to be ‘myIframe’.

       1: s.Append("
Document Descriptionhttp://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net" + d.DocDescription + "

http://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net")

       1: s.Append("http://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net")

http://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net") 20: s.Append("	http://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net") 21: s.Append("
First Name*	http://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net") 25: s.Append("
Last Name*	http://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net") 28: s.Append("
Email*	http://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net") 31: s.Append("
Work Title	http://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net") 34: s.Append("
Company	http://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net") 37: s.Append("

	http://www.techsolutions.nethttp://www.techsolutions.net") 40: s.Append("

Web Programming

Upload files from SharePoint Document Library to FTP

Using Nested forms in ASP.NET

Document Description

Document Description