RadUpload and Windows Phone

[BillVo]

Hello,

I'm porting a Silverlight application to Windows Phone.  I seem to be missing the RadUpload control.  Has anyone managed build a client that talks to the server-side RadUploadHandler?

Thanks,
BillVo

[Kiril Vandov]

Hello BillVo,

Unfortunately we does not have a Upload control for WindowsPhone. As the phone and the personal computers have different capabilities and OS some of the controls available for SL are not applicable for phones. For instance the phones have significantly reduced http api and limited file access. An application can access the files located in its Isolated storage and does not have a file chooser. The most common scenario is accessing the phone gallery and uploading some pictures using services.

Could you please give us more information about the your scenario and what kind of files you are trying to upload.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards,
Kiril Vandov
Telerik

[BillVo]

I need to upload to my own ASP.NET applications hosted on my own Windows Server rather than a Telerik-hosted service or a third party service.

Ideally, I'd like to be able to upload the following:
1.  Photos stored on the phone in Camera Roll or Albums.
2.  Videos stored on the phone.
3.  Word, Excel, and other MS Office documents created and stored on the phone.
4.  Files contained in emails sent to the phone.
5.  Files stored on SkyDrive.
6.  Photos and videos captured on demand, not necessarily before the user initiates the upload.

Of these, the first is the most urgent.

My Windows Phone expertise is limited.  I understand there are some limitations concerning which files are accessible to which applications.  I saw one post that suggested a particular type of file could be associated with an application, allowing the user to choose the file and have the associated application launch much like file associations have done since Windows 3.1.  I believe this may have been specifically in reference to videos which are not otherwise readily available to phone apps.

See:  http://feedback.telerik.com/Project/112/Feedback/Details/58083-radupload-for-windows-phone

Thanks,
BillVo

[Deyan]

Hello Bill,

Thanks for writing back and for the requested details.

We can make some research on porting our RadUpload control to Windows Phone and if it proves usable - port it. In general, it will work in pretty much the same way as it works in our Silverlight suite. Currently I cannot share more information on whether we will implement this control and when will this happen though.

As for the scenarios you would like to cover I want to make a note that you do not have access to E-mail attachments and Microsoft Office documents that are stored on the phone. You have access to everything that's on SkyDrive though. All other files you want to have access to should either be part of the Isolated Storage on the phone or of the Media Library.

Thanks again for your time and stay tuned for further updates on the RadControls for Windows Phone suite.

Regards,
Deyan
Telerik

[BillVo]

Deyan,

I appreciate your consideration of my suggestion.  As there are limits not only on what local resources may be accessed, but on the resources one might predict should be uploaded, I would like to scale back my suggestion.

The Silverlight implementation really has three parts:
1. Server-side ASP.NET handler to receive an upload.
2. Client-side class to upload from a local source stream.  (Uploader.)
3. Client-side control to allow selection of a local source stream.  (Chooser.)

What is really needed on Windows Phone is only part 2.  Porting a tightly-coupled combination of 2 and 3 limits the potential of the delivered solution.  Windows Phone already includes Chooser functionality, albeit limited.  Rather than duplicate or embed that, let your developer customers use the existing Chooser (or build their own for non-local sources) and combine that with your Uploader.

BillVo

[Deyan]

Hello Bill,

Implementing only the uploader sounds legit. As I said, we will look into this and will see what we can do for the near future.

You can log this into our Feedback portal for Windows Phone so that we can track the demand for this feature and plan accordingly:

http://feedback.telerik.com/Project/112

Let us know if you have further questions.

Regards,
Deyan
Telerik