File upload capability (1GB files)

[misty]

Kuroi has explained where file upload sizes are set

PHP has an ini setting "upload_max_filesize" which by default is set to 2MB. That would need to be increased on your server before any PHP function would co-operate in uploading a larger file.

Might want to ask your webhost to advise..PLUS adding files
to zip may work better...

[Website Rob]

Thanks for the input. We do have an FTP site and encourage our customers to use it. Unfortunately, most customers do not want to download and install an FTP client and IE times out uploading large files. FireFox and Chrome do not even support logging into an FTP site. This is obviously a complex problem with no simple solution. I have been struggling with this for years. We had an open FTP site and ended up with gigs and gigs of ######## and other files. Someone figured out the paths and just took it over.
What is the setting and where is it located for the 2MB file limit? There is a .htaccess file in the root directory and I noticed one in the /image/uploads/ directory also.

Thanks again.

Your FTP problem is common to anyone using anonymous FTP, which is why it is no longer recommended or allowed by many Hosters.

Your upload problem requires an Outside the Box solution. Awhile back with a Client running a Print shop, a 3rd party Upload script was used to get around the upload problems. You should post in the Commercial Section of the Forum. You can post Jobs to be done and deal with people who are familiar with Zen Cart and the coding required.

Something you need to know ahead of time is whether your Hosting account runs PHP as CGI. If that doesn't make sense to you, you can ask your Hoster or you can find it within Zen Cart using:

Admin > Tools > Server Version / Info

Mind you, if you run a Dedicated Server it makes everything a lot easier as you can do what you want.

[kuroi]

The PHP ini values are set in your php.ini file. The location of this file depends upon how php has been installed on your server. It will be outside of your web space and changing values requires the server to be rebooted before they take effect. So definitely one that would require help from whoever manages your server.

There are ways of overriding these values. For example, inserting the following in your .htaccess file may work.

php_value upload_max_filesize 100M
php_value post_max_size 100M
php_value max_execution_time 1000
php_value max_input_time 1000

However these sort of changes are often blocked by web hosts (who tend not to want their defaults overridden). So again one to discuss with whoever manages your server.

So let's step back a moment. The fundamental problem here is that although there are tools for moving large files around the internet, your customers don't want to use them (and I can understand the resistance - even though we know that it's really easy).

Although there is an FTP plugin for Firefox (FireFTP), I'm guessing that needing to install a plugin won't go down to well and anyway most of your customers will most likely be using IE, which believes that it already does the job, though your experiences suggest that it doesn't.

Another browser-based approaches involves slicing. The idea being that the large file is slicing into acceptably small chunks, transmitted and then re-assembled on the server. You can find a low-cost java (not javascript) browser plugin at upload.thinfile.com/resume/ though I've not tried this myself. I think that I saw a javascript/php variant of this approach a couple of years back, but sadly can't remember where.

An alternative approach is that offered by mailbigfile.com. In effect they host the form where the file is uploaded, which for a small charge can be branded with your company's details.

[hllight]

Thank you for your response, the commerical section is an excelent idea. I was not aware of that location.

[hllight]

The PHP ini values are set in your php.ini file. The location of this file depends upon how php has been installed on your server. It will be outside of your web space and changing values requires the server to be rebooted before they take effect. So definitely one that would require help from whoever manages your server.

There are ways of overriding these values. For example, inserting the following in your .htaccess file may work.

However these sort of changes are often blocked by web hosts (who tend not to want their defaults overridden). So again one to discuss with whoever manages your server.

So let's step back a moment. The fundamental problem here is that although there are tools for moving large files around the internet, your customers don't want to use them (and I can understand the resistance - even though we know that it's really easy).

Although there is an FTP plugin for Firefox (FireFTP), I'm guessing that needing to install a plugin won't go down to well and anyway most of your customers will most likely be using IE, which believes that it already does the job, though your experiences suggest that it doesn't.

Another browser-based approaches involves slicing. The idea being that the large file is slicing into acceptably small chunks, transmitted and then re-assembled on the server. You can find a low-cost java (not javascript) browser plugin at upload.thinfile.com/resume/ though I've not tried this myself. I think that I saw a javascript/php variant of this approach a couple of years back, but sadly can't remember where.

An alternative approach is that offered by mailbigfile.com. In effect they host the form where the file is uploaded, which for a small charge can be branded with your company's details.

Thanks for the information. I will contact my ISP and see what can and cannot be done for the short term. I think an external application is likely the way to go if it is possible.