Getting Started

This page provides instructions to help you get Upload ease working with your website quickly. For many this will be all you need, but for those who need more detail or wish to use the software's advanced features, please refer to the reference documentation.

Of course the first place to start is to get an overview, then a look at the advanced features of Upload ease, and a live demonstration. If you haven't done that already, we suggest you do it now. If you have, then read on and be uploading with ease in minutes!

Download the software

If you haven't already, you will need to register with in order to download the software. Once registered, login and visit the download page, where you can download the bundle of your choice.

Acquiring Licences

As mentioned on the licensing page you may download the Software in order to integrate and test it with your website on your local computer ("localhost" with IP 127.0.0.1) without needing to purchase a licence. To use the Software anywhere else, however, you will need to acquire the appropriate licence(s) by purchasing them from our online purchasing page. International purchases can be made instantly online via PayPal, with Australian customers also able to pay via EFT or cheque.

Once your purchase is complete your licence token(s) will be available from your licences page. From there you can copy & paste your licence tokens into your web pages as per the example below.

Extract & Install

Once downloaded, extract the files, usually into your website's document root, which will result in an UploadEase-X.Y folder being created (where X & Y represent the software's major and minor versions respectively).

By default, the "UploadEase.jar" file (which contains the Java applet) is placed in a folder named "java" under a website's document root. If you don't already have a folder named "java" you can simply copy & paste it from the UploadeEase-X.Y folder you extracted, otherwise copy & paste the "java/UploadEase.jar" file directly into the "java" folder.

Similarly, the "UploadEaseHelper.js" file (which contains the JavaScript helper code) is placed by default in a folder named "js" under the document root. Copy & paste the "js" folder from the extracted folder to the website's document root or the "js/UploadEaseHelper.js" into the "js" folder as appropriate.

Note: Both the above files can be placed in folders of your choice, but any deviation from the defaults may require additional configuration and changes to any example code used.

Check the Installation

If you followed the instructions above exactly you can now test your installation to ensure everything is in the right place. In your browser, navigate to the "UploadEase-X.Y/examples/" folder, where you can visit the demo pages to check your installation. If you don't see what you expect to, something may be wrong with your installation.

Adding Upload ease to Your Web Page

After checking your installation (see above) you're ready to add Upload ease to your web page. You can use the example code as a guide or follow the instructions below.

Accessing the "Helper JavaScript"

In order to use the helper javascript (UploadEaseHelper.js) you need to reference it from the "head" section of your page (i.e. inside the <head> and </head> tags), which would look like this for a self-contained HTML page:

<html>
  <head>
    ...
    <script type='text/javascript' src='/js/UploadEaseHelper.js'></script>
    ...
  </head>

  <body>
    ...
  </body>
</html>

Using the "Helper JavaScript"

Now that you've accessed the helper JavaScript from the head section of your web page, you can set about using it to embed Upload ease into your page. At the point in your page where you want Upload ease to appear (often in a <div> element or similar) , just add some JavaScript as follows (example for a PHP based website):

<html>
  <head>
    ...
  </head>

  <body>
    ...
    <div id='mydiv'><!-- <= the "div" you want to contain UploadEase -->
      
      <script type="text/javascript">
        function uploadDone() { //<= a JavaScript function can be called when upload is done
          alert("Upload done!");
        }

        var ue = new ueAppletHelper( {
          width       : 800,
          height      : 600,
          uploadURL   : 'upload.php'//<= URL of the server-side handler 
        } );

        ue.setCallbacks({ onUploadDone: 'uploadDone' });//<= set callbacks 

        ue.setProperties({ backgroundColor: '#888' });//<= customise properties 

        ue.setVariables({ fileCount: true, fileNames: 'mynames[]' });//<= customise upload variables 

        var ih = new ue.ImageHelper({ width: 128, height: 128 });//<= create an ImageHelper 

        ih.setWatermark({ text: 'MySite.com' });//<= add a watermark 

        ue.addImage(ih);//<= add the image 

                       //⇓ replace this example token with yours ⇓
        ue.addToken('Xc0ZjkqDfMi7r1uQs6lUk34FhcYevWBtbE4Z8On6gRC=');
        ue.write();
      </script>
      
    </div>
    ...
  </body>
</html>

Handling the Uploaded Files

With Upload ease now embedded in your web page, you just need to put in place something on the web server to handle the uploaded files. Any technology that can handle form uploads will suffice, and we give a simple example here for PHP (a very common server side technology). The default handler specified by the uploadURL parameter to the helper is upload.php, which will look for a PHP script called upload.php in the same folder as the web page on your web server that displays Upload ease. This example PHP script simply moves the uploaded files into the folder specified by the $uploadFolder variable (relative to the document root). You will probably want to make your own additions to tailor the upload behaviour. Feel free to use the examples as a guide.

<?php
  $uploadFolder = '../uploads';

  if (!is_dir($uploadFolder)) {
    if (!@mkdir($uploadFolder, 0755)) {
      echo "WARNING: Upload folder ($uploadFolder) does not exist.\n";
    }
  }
  
  foreach ($_FILES as $file_info) {
    $src = $file_info['tmp_name'];
    $dst = $uploadFolder.'/'.$file_info['name'];
    echo "move_uploaded_file('$src', '$dst');\n";
    if (is_dir($uploadFolder)) {
      move_uploaded_file($src, $dst);
    }
  }
  
?>

You're Done!

You now have Upload ease installed and uploading files to your website. If you want to explore the advanced features and how to configure them please see the reference documentation which provides those details. Alternatively, you can look at the example code in the "examples" folder of the installation. We are adding new examples all the time, so check back regularly.