transferring/uploading files - cfftp or cffile

[biosol]

I would like to move .avi files around 6mb each and possibily 3, 4, or 5 at a time from a client machine/browser to the cfserver. I currently use cffile to upload small pictures and 3 or 4 100k .wmv files at the same time and it works great, but I remember trying a larger file a couple years ago and I think it took a long time. However, I've just looked at the livedocs cfftp page and it says for this situation, client browser to cfserver, to use cffile.

Can anyone point me in the right direction? How best to move 3-5 ~6-8mb .avi files from a client browser to a cfserver and preferrably at the same time?

Thanks.

 

[biosol]

A little more info. I just did a test. I uploaded a ~6mb file on a DSL ~300-350k (upload rate) line to my shared CF server. It took about 4-5 minutes. If I was on a T1 or cable line would it reduce this time? Is the upload speed or the servers' cpu/ram the bottleneck? Is there a better way to do this?

Thanks.

 

[krisbrixon]

cfftp has to come from an FTP Server. If the client has an FTP Server then you can use it, but 99.9999999% of people will not have an FTP Server running.

So, for your options in ColdFusion you have to use cffile. However, be mindful of the server timeouts. I had an app that used cffile for large files and if it took more than 20 minutes to upload it would fail. I would make them do one at a time to avoid the timeouts.

Your bottle neck is partly the http upload process (ftp is faster) but mostly the connection speed.

Depending on how important this is, you could look into upload managing programs. I think I have seen Java applets that upload and bypass the http upload process.

Kris Brixon
www.brixon.org

 

[biosol]

Thanks Kris,
The CF site is on a shared server which I found out has a Xeon 2.66 Ghz cpu and 3.87GB of RAM. I did another test last night on my LAN based Dev server which has a Celeron 2.66 Ghz cpu and 1 GB RAM and the 5.7mb file took 2.5-3 minutes to upload.

So I guess with you saying that the connection speed being the main bottleneck, if I was on a T1 line or a 2-4mb cable connection the live upload might take about 2 minutes. If I did 5 files at the same time it might take 10-12 minutes. I could also just upload them one after the other. Do you see problems with uploading 5 at the same time taking about 10-12 minutes?

Thanks.

 

[GryphonsClaw]

RAM on the server could be an issue if you do a lot of files at one time for CFFILE moves the file to RAM, then to disk. 5 files at 6 MB when 3+ GB of RAM wouldn't suggest and issue. Timeouts could be your biggest issue as suggested before.

 

[imstillatwork]

connection speed will be an issue. most people still have very low upload speeds. An the servers connection can't do a thing about that.

Like said above, If this is a major part of the application, look into another purpose built application for this.

 

[biosol]

Ok, thanks for the advice. This feature will be used only by businesses with at least average speed DSL, but more than likely a T1, cable, or better and not a lot of frequency in the beginning. So I think it will work, it's just a matter of deciding to upload them one at time or grouping them in some combination.

I did some testing this afternoon on a LAN with the 2.66 celeron and 1GB RAM machine and got these times. The CPU appeared almost unused in task manager which surprised me.

File size uploaded by cffile=5.7mb
-------------------------------------
1 file = 2'30"
3 files = 7'15"
4 files = 9'45"
5 files = 12'15"