The Online Form Builder Blog

Attach a File to a Form in a Click: File Upload Made Easy

With the new file upload feature, you can now let form users attach a picture or document to a form like in this demo.

Adding a file upload widget to your forms is as easy as adding a simple text box: visit the Fields Tab of the form builder, and create a new field choosing the File Upload widget. That’s all there is to it. Once a file has been uploaded and the form confirmed, that file will be stored on FormSmarts and available to you.

Customizing File Upload Fields

Although a file upload field created as just described will be fully functional, you may want to restrict the type of content the form will allow users to upload, as well as set the maximum file size permitted. You can also specify how long FormSmarts should hold uploaded documents on the server. To change these options, visit the Field Details screen of the form builder.

Allowed Content Type

By default, a file upload field will accept all supported content types: documents (PDF, Word, Excel, RTF, OpenOffice ODF, and HTML documents) and images (JPEG, PNG, and GIF). You can restrict the type of content the form will allow users to upload to either documents or images. For example, if you’re building a job application form, you will want applicants to upload their CV and should restrict uploads to Documents to prevent mistakes.

Maximum File Size

By default, the maximum size of uploaded files is set to the maximum for your plan: 2Mb for Business Starter, 4Mb for Business Plus, and 6Mb for Business Max & Premier. You should use the slider to change that value to whatever makes sense for the purpose of the form.

Storage Policy for Uploaded Content

You can define the period of time during which FormSmarts will store uploaded content. At this time, we support five storage policies:

• 5 days
• 10 days
• 30 days
• 90 days
• Forever (default)

While storing file attachments on the server forever gives you the most flexibility, you may then exceed your storage quota — currently 75Mb for Business Starter, 500Mb for Business Plus, 1Gb for Business Max, and 3Gb for Business Premier. We’ll send you an email if you’re getting close to or exceed that limit.

Secure File Upload with SSL

File upload works with FormSmarts secure form feature so that files attached to a secure form only transit via a secure connection (SSL), both when uploaded to FormSmarts and downloaded to your computer.

Any Feedback?

As always, your feedback is important to us and is our primary inspiration for developing new features and improving existing ones.

Have a wonderful 2011.

Posted by FormSmarts on Tuesday, January 4, 2011 at 8:34 am in file upload.
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Tags: business, file attachment, file upload, form builder, secure form, SSL

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