Home / Community & Support / Developer Productivity Tools Forums / ASP.NET AJAX > FileExplorer > Multiple download functionality

• Thomas Intermediate

  Posted on May 17, 2010 (permalink)

  I need to build a file download manager that will let users select multiple files and download them all at once with no other prompts than the first to determine where on their local machine to save the files. Is it possible to do this with the FileExplorer control? If it is not possible, does anyone have any recommendations about a third-party control that would enable this functionality?
  

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• Dobromir Dobromir

  Posted on May 20, 2010 (permalink)

  Hi Thomas,
  
  

  Unfortunately, It is not possible to download multiple files at once with a single prompted dialog. This limitation comes from the web itself - for each file the browser should send a different request.
  
  For such scenario, the only workaround that I can offer you is to ZIP the selected files on the server and download that zip file. Please take a look at the following KB articles for more detailed information on how to achieve this:
  Custom field in the GridContextMenu. Pass the selected item's path to the server when the field is clicked.
  Pass all of the selected items' paths to the server
  

  
  Greetings,
  Dobromir
  the Telerik team

  
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• Thomas Intermediate

  Posted on May 20, 2010 (permalink)

  The problem is that in the case where this will be used, the combined file size could easily get over 2-4 GB which is outside the range that ZIP will handle.
  

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• Dobromir Dobromir

  Posted on May 25, 2010 (permalink)

  Hi Thomas,
  
  In order to avoid this problem I suggest you to use Zip64 format which does not have this file-size limitation. There are several open source libraries that support Zip64 - for example DotNetZip.
  
  All the best,
  Dobromir
  the Telerik team

  
  Do you want to have your say when we set our development plans? Do you want to know when a feature you care about is added or when a bug fixed? Explore the Telerik Public Issue Tracking system and vote to affect the priority of the items.

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• Thomas Intermediate

  Posted on May 25, 2010 (permalink)

  Wouldn't Zip64 require that the user that downloads the files have something that will uncompress a Zip64 file or will Windows natively unzip Zip64?
  

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• Dobromir Dobromir

  Posted on May 26, 2010 (permalink)

  Hi Thomas,
  
  ZIP64 format is natively supported by Windows Vista and later versions, thus users with Windows XP will need additional software to unzip such files.
  
  Unfortunately, if this is a showstopper, I am unable to provide you another suitable workaround for such scenario.
  
  Best wishes,
  Dobromir
  the Telerik team

  
  Do you want to have your say when we set our development plans? Do you want to know when a feature you care about is added or when a bug fixed? Explore the Telerik Public Issue Tracking system and vote to affect the priority of the items.

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• Thomas Intermediate

  Posted on Nov 10, 2010 (permalink)

  Dobromir,
  
  I noticed in the 2010.3.1109 version of the ASP.NET controls that the RadAsyncUpload control uses a bit of Flash to allow for multiple file selection. Is there any hope of Telerik implementing some equivalent trick for providing for multiple downloads. As mentioned in the original post, I'm trying to build a download manager that would allow clients to choose multiple files. (It'd be nice if MS provided a means to tap into its File Transfer Manager used for things like MSDN but I digress...). Even if each file represented a new request, that would be fine as long as there were a means to send subsequent files to the same location as the first file.

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• Dobromir Dobromir

  Posted on Nov 12, 2010 (permalink)

  Hi Thomas,
  
  I am afraid that I would have to disappoint you. The required feature cannot be implemented. Allowing 'silent' downloads on the user's machine will be a huge security breach.
  
  Regarding the MS File Transfer Manager, it is a separate desktop application which the user starts - such approach is the only possible solution for multiple downloads.
  
  Kind regards,
  Dobromir
  the Telerik team

  Do you want to have your say when we set our development plans? Do you want to know when a feature you care about is added or when a bug fixed? Explore the Telerik Public Issue Tracking system and vote to affect the priority of the items

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• Thomas Intermediate

  Posted on Nov 12, 2010 (permalink)

  Microsoft handles the scenario of Firefox users downloading from MSDN via Java applet (the File Transfer Manager only works through IE. Probably an ActiveX control). It is a shame since it is a core piece of functionality to any file management system.

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• Vinh

  Posted on Jan 31, 2012 (permalink)

  Hi,
  
  I'm using the DBContentProvider.  but I'm having a problem with selecting multiple files and zip. and send to handle.ashx.  Is there any way I can have the sample for this?  I already have the code for context menu "download" for single item and "zip & download" for multiple items.
  
  Thanks
  

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• Dobromir Dobromir

  Posted on Feb 3, 2012 (permalink)

  Hi Vinh,
  
  You can pass the path to multiple selected files to the handler through URL. IF you pass the same parameter multiple times to the Handler the parameter in the Request will contain all values separated by comma (,). For example, if you pass the following query string to the Handler.ascx:
  

  Handler.ascx?path=image1.jpg&path=image2.jpg&path=image3.jpg

  
  The value of the Request.Params["path"] parameter on the server will be like follows:
  

  "image1.jpg,image2.jpg,image3.jpg"

  
  
  Regards,
  Dobromir
  the Telerik team

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