File not uploading but not getting errors.

[dougancil]

I have a site that I've almost completed and while testing it today noticed that it's not uploading any files or doing the bulk insert in SQL that I need it to. Here is my codebehind:

Imports System.IO
Imports System.Data   
Imports System.Data.SqlClient
Partial Class _Default
    Inherits System.Web.UI.Page
    Protected Sub Submit1_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)
 
        If Not File1.PostedFile Is Nothing And File1.PostedFile.ContentLength > 0 Then
            Dim fn As String = System.IO.Path.GetFileName(File1.PostedFile.FileName)
            Dim SaveLocation As String = Server.MapPath("Data") & "\" & fn
            Try
                File1.PostedFile.SaveAs(SaveLocation)
                Response.Write(<center>Thank you for your submission.</center>)
 
                ' get the file that was submitted and check if it was .txt file   
                Dim theFile As FileInfo = New FileInfo(SaveLocation)
                If theFile.Extension <> ".txt" Then
                    Response.Write(<center>Please submit a text file.</center>)
                End If
 
                Dim importPath As String = Server.MapPath("Data") & "\upload.txt"
                If File.Exists(importPath) Then
                    ' do something with existing upload.txt file, maybe archive?   
                End If
 
                ' rename the uploaded file to upload.txt for importing   
                theFile.MoveTo(importPath)
 
                ' and bulk import the data:   
                Dim connection As String = ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings("Dialerresults").ConnectionString
                Dim results As New DataTable
 
                Using con As New SqlConnection(connection)
                    con.Open()
 
                    ' execute the bulk import   
                    Using cmd As SqlCommand = con.CreateCommand
                        cmd.CommandText = "bulk insert dialerresults from '" & importPath & "' " & _
                            " with ( fieldterminator = ',', rowterminator = '\n' )"
                        cmd.ExecuteNonQuery()
                    End Using
                End Using
 
            Catch Exc As Exception
                Response.Write("Error: " & Exc.Message)
            End Try
        Else
            Response.Write(<center>Please select a file to upload.</center>)
        End If
 
    End Sub
End Class

Can anyone see why the file is not being uploaded? I'm sure its something simple but I've been working on this for a while and may have missed something. Any assistance would be welcome.

Thank you,

Doug

[Frinavale]

First thing that comes to mind is that you've placed your File1 in an UpdatePanel.
UpdatePanels do not support the upload of files...the files will simply not get to the server.

-Frinny

[dougancil]

Frinny,

I'm sorry but I'm new to asp.net and know nothing of UpdatePanels. What would be a good workaround for this issue?

Thank you,

Doug

[Frinavale]

Well if you don't know what an UpdatePanel is then it's very unlikely that you are using it. So just ignore my previous point.

To be quite honest, after skimming through your code right now, I'm not sure that your posted code would even compile. Line 18 is going to cause you problems.


Have you tried stepping through the application and watching what happens to see if you can figure out what's going on?

-Frinny

[Frinavale]

You should probably check out this MSDN documentation on the FileUpload control. It has a working example that you could probably use to get you started.

-Frinny

[dougancil]

Frinny,

This code is comprised of code I've written and something that someone else wrote. The code does compile and I have tried loading two different files (one a .txt file and one a .pdf file) and neither would show up in the destination folder. I've built the page, and debugged it with no errors. When I tried to upload the .pdf page, what should have happened, was that I should have received an error that that files of that format were not accepted and I didn't get that message either. Any ideas as to what may be causing that? Would those be symptoms of a UpdatePanel issue?

[Frinavale]

If you had put your FileUpload control into an UpdatePanel then the FileUpload control's PostedFile will always be nothing.

If you have done this, take the FileUpload control out of the UpdatePanel.

[dougancil]

Frinny,

Can you point out to me where the UpdatePanel is in my code? I'll gladly take the lines of code out once I can identify them.

[Frinavale]

You would have to post the ASPX page "code" (look at the page and click "source" view button).

I can't tell unless you post that code.

[dougancil]

<%@ Page Language="VB" AutoEventWireup="false" CodeFile="Default.aspx.vb" Inherits="_Default" %>
 
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
 
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head runat="server">
    <title>Upload Page</title>
    <style type="text/css">
        #form1
        {
            height: 128px;
        }
        #File1
        {
            top: 66px;
            }
        #Submit1
        {
            top: 103px;
            left: 591px;
        }
        #TextArea1
        {
            z-index: 1;
            left: 303px;
            top: 45px;
            position: absolute;
        }
    </style>
<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">
// <!CDATA[
 
function Submit1_onclick() {
 
}
 
// ]]>
</script>
</head>
<body>
    <form id="form1" enctype="multipart/form-data" runat="server">
    <br />
   &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
    <br />
<input type="File" id="File1" name="File1" runat="server" 
        style="position: absolute; left: 512px;" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<br />
<input type="Submit" id="Submit1" value="Upload" runat="server" 
        style="position: absolute; height: 30px;" 
        onclick="return Submit1_onclick()" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
    </form>
</body>
</html>
 

Frinny, there is my code for the page. As you can see, there's not much too it. I know that it's not really clean but I'll worry about cleaning it up later. Right now I'm just trying to get the "mechanics" of this working.

Thank you for taking a look at it,

Doug

[Frinavale]

Oh....
Well you aren't using an UpdatePanel ;)
But you are using an HTML input element.

You should be using the ASP.NET FileUpload control control instead!!

[Frinavale]

Oh wait there's another thing
You may not even be reaching the code that you have posted because you don't have an asp.net Button on the page either!

Change your submit HTML button into an ASP.NET button as well.

[Frinavale]

Like this:

<%@ Page Language="VB" AutoEventWireup="false" CodeFile="Default.aspx.vb" Inherits="_Default" %>
 
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
 
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head runat="server">
    <title>Upload Page</title>
    <style type="text/css">
        #form1
        {
            height: 128px;
        }
        #File1
        {
            top: 66px;
            }
        #Submit1
        {
            top: 103px;
            left: 591px;
        }
        #TextArea1
        {
            z-index: 1;
            left: 303px;
            top: 45px;
            position: absolute;
        }
    </style>
 
</head>
<body>
    <form id="form1" enctype="multipart/form-data" runat="server">
    <br />
 
    <br />
<asp:FileUpload ID="File1" runat="server" 
        style="position: absolute; left: 512px;" />
<br />
<asp:Button id="Submit1"  runat="server" 
        style="position: absolute; height: 30px;" 
        onclick="Submit1_Click" />
</body>
</html>

[dougancil]

Frinny,

So if I change the html button to an asp.net button will it automatically rewrite the codebehind to reflect the upload controls in Visual Studio?

[Frinavale]

I'm not sure.

The C# IDE is different the the VB.NET IDE and I work with VB.NET most of the time.

But typically what happens is that when you change your HTML code into an ASP.NET control, that control is "registered" into the .designer.cs file so that it is accessable to work in both the ASPX code and your C# code.

ASP.NET controls have 2 aspects to them: client side and server side. In fact when your application has finished executing the server-side code it Renders the page's output which is sent to the browser. The only thing the browser understands is HTML (as you already know). So when the server-side code finishes executing it turns all of the ASP.NET controls into HTML.

The important thing is that the HTML is generated and maintained by ASP.NET

This means that if the user clicks an ASP.NET button on the page, you can handle the buttons Click Event in your C# server code.

If you use just regular HTML for the button then there is no Click Event generated because ASP.NET isn't in control of it.

So it's important that you use ASP.NET controls when developing ASP.NET applications/websites :)


Anyways,

You declare your button in the ASPX code as I have shown you...This will give you access events and properties (and a lot more) for the button in your C# code that you never had before.

[dougancil]

Frinny,

So I changed the button to an asp.net button and now when I attempt to upload a file, I get the following on my page:

Thank you for your submission.
Error: Cannot create a file when that file already exists.
Thank you for your submission.
Error: Cannot create a file when that file already exists.

That was when I try to upload a .txt file, when I try to upload anything but that this is what I get:

Thank you for your submission.
Please submit a text file.
Error: Cannot create a file when that file already exists.
Thank you for your submission.
Please submit a text file.
Error: Cannot create a file when that file already exists.

So it's duplicating the error text and it's not aligning them to center as they should be. I realize that I should put a label to output the errors too but as I said, right now I just want to get the mechanics to work the way that they should. Any idea why it would duplicate the error responses?

[Frinavale]

Well I kind of knew that was your next question.
You should never use Response.Write in your C# code.
If you do then the content that you're writing to the page will be placed somewhere invalid....mainly it's placed above the <html> element...which is clearly invalid

What I recommend is that you add an ASP.NET Label control to the page in the place where you want the error message to appear.

When you encounter an error set this Label's Text property to the text that you want to display.

The center tag has been obsolete for a very long time anyways.
You should use CSS instead ;)

-Frinny

[dougancil]

Frinny,

Could that also be the reason why the file is not being uploaded?

[Frinavale]

?? I thought the file is being uploaded ??

[dougancil]

My apologies, yes in fact the file is being uploaded. I have tried to take the response.write element out and absolute position a label. The reason I wanted to do that is to drap and drop the response write label to beneath the upload button but found that I can't do that. How is the best way to accomplish positioning the label beneath the upload button without completely re-writing my page?

[dougancil]

Also,. the file is being uploaded but the sql bulk insert isn't working. The error message I got is this:

Thank you for your submission.Error: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.Thank you for your submission.Error: Cannot create a file when that file already exists.

[Frinavale]

First we'll address why you can't get your label in the correct spot.
Could you post your aspx code again?

[dougancil]

<%@ Page Language="VB" AutoEventWireup="false" CodeFile="Default.aspx.vb" Inherits="_Default" %>
 
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
 
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head runat="server">
    <title>Upload Page</title>
    <style type="text/css">
        #form1
        {
            height: 189px;
            width: 919px;
        }
        #File1
        {
            top: 66px;
            }
        #Submit1
        {
            top: 103px;
            left: 591px;
        }
        #TextArea1
        {
            z-index: 1;
            left: 303px;
            top: 45px;
            position: absolute;
        }
    </style>
<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">
// <!CDATA[
 
function Submit1_onclick() {
 
}
 
// ]]>
</script>
</head>
<body>
    <form id="form1" enctype="multipart/form-data" runat="server">
    <br />
 
    <br />
<asp:FileUpload ID="File1" runat="server" 
        style="position: absolute; left: 512px;" />
<br />
<asp:Button id="Submit1"  runat="server" 
        style="position: absolute; height: 30px; top: 101px; left: 572px;" 
        onclick="Submit1_Click" Text="Upload" />
        </form>
</body>
</html>
 

[Frinavale]

I don't see a Label at all on your page.
If you want it to appear right under the button then place on there:

<body>
    <form id="form1" enctype="multipart/form-data" runat="server">
    <br />
 
    <br />
<asp:FileUpload ID="File1" runat="server" 
        style="position: absolute; left: 512px;" />
<br />
<asp:Button id="Submit1"  runat="server" 
        style="position: absolute; height: 30px; top: 101px; left: 572px;" 
        onclick="Submit1_Click" Text="Upload" />
<br />
<asp:Label id="message" runat="server"></asp:Label>
 
        </form>
</body>
</html>

[dougancil]

But when I show that in design mode, the label is on the far left hand side of the screen and not beneath the upload button. Secondly, with that, how do I get the error message to show there? I'm assuming at that point that I'm doing some sort of validator. What would be the best validation to use for that? Custom or RegularExpression?

[Frinavale]

It's simple html/css stuff here.

I'm sorry I didn't realize your button was absolutely positioned (seems a bit odd to me)....I think you even mentioned it before.

Since the upload control, the button and the error message (the message label) belong to the same grouping they should be placed in the same block. You could either place them into a div element or you could place them into an asp.net Panel element (which renders as a div). I'd choose the panel element personally because it's assigned a unique ID by ASP.NET and you may want to be able to access it in your C# code.

You can set the style of a Panel the same way as you would set the style of a div. The only difference is that if you have a CSS class that you want to use for the Panel you would set the CssClass property (whereas you'd just set the class property of the div element).

So, the following should work for you:

<body>
    <form id="form1" enctype="multipart/form-data" runat="server">
      <asp:Panel ID="UploadControlsSection" runat="server" style="position: absolute; left: 512px;">
        <asp:FileUpload ID="File1" runat="server"  />
        <br />
        <asp:Button id="Submit1"  runat="server" 
            style="height: 30px; margn-left:60px;" 
            onclick="Submit1_Click" Text="Upload" />
        <br />
        <asp:Label id="message" runat="server"></asp:Label>
     </asp:Panel>
   </form>
</body>
</html>

All of your validation is currently being done server side (in your C# code).
If you encounter an error you should set the message.Text = "error message" to display a message to the user.

You aren't using any custom validators (which run client side) or anything of the sort at this point.

I have a feeling that you are trying to do too many things at once.
First get this working...get your fie to upload, do your validation server side, get your sql update to work.


Then you can think about adding custom client side validation to your page.

-Frinny

[dougancil]

Ok so the file is being uploaded but now I've noticed that there are two files that are being put in the data folder. One is whatever the document is called (in my case it was called test) and also the file that is being renamed. There should only be one file in the directory called "upload.txt." Secondly, I don't think that the SQL bulk insert command (at least from the code side) is working at all.

[Frinavale]

dougancil:
There should only be one file in the directory called "upload.txt."

This doesn't make sense.

Say you have 2 users using the website at the same time and both users upload a file to the server at the same time...in this case one of the user's files will be over written with the other user's files.

Each user should be able to create a file of their own to avoid this problem.

dougancil:
Secondly, I don't think that the SQL bulk insert command (at least from the code side) is working at all.

Are you seeing the same error message as before?

-Frinny

[dougancil]

Frinny,

The way that this is going to be organized is that one user per client will have access to upload pages to this server. They will be divided out by directories on the server so in theory, there should never be 2 users on this page from the same client at the same time trying to upload files.

Secondly, I am seeing this as an error:

Thank you for your submission.Error: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.Thank you for your submission.Error: Cannot create a file when that file already exists.

I can verify that there are two files in the remote directory (the "Data" directory) and the file is a comma delimited file which has been tested and will upload to the sql server with the command that I have in the codebehind.

[Frinavale]

Could you please post your C# code so that I can see what you have?

Basically you're getting an error message stating that you cannot create a file with the same name...you should either overwrite the file or delete it and recreate when you save the file to the server.

You are also getting an "Object reference not set to an instance of an object" error which means you are trying to access something that doesn't exist yet (an object that hasn't been instantiated yet).

If you could point out which lines these errors are occurring on when you post your C# code that would be very helpful.

[dougancil]

Frinny,

This is .vb code not .cs but here's the code. Also, the error I'm getting is when I press the upload button. It's not giving me a line number for the error.

Imports System.IO
Imports System.Data   
Imports System.Data.SqlClient
Partial Class _Default
    Inherits System.Web.UI.Page
    Protected Sub Submit1_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs) Handles Submit1.Click
 
        If Not File1.PostedFile Is Nothing And File1.PostedFile.ContentLength > 0 Then
            Dim fn As String = System.IO.Path.GetFileName(File1.PostedFile.FileName)
            Dim SaveLocation As String = Server.MapPath("Data") & "\" & fn
            Try
                File1.PostedFile.SaveAs(SaveLocation)
                Response.Write("Thank you for your submission.")
 
                ' get the file that was submitted and check if it was .txt file   
                Dim theFile As FileInfo = New FileInfo(SaveLocation)
                If theFile.Extension <> ".txt" Then
                    Response.Write("Please submit a text file.")
                End If
 
                Dim importPath As String = Server.MapPath("Data") & "\upload.txt"
                If File.Exists(importPath) Then
                    ' do something with existing upload.txt file, maybe archive?   
                End If
 
                ' rename the uploaded file to upload.txt for importing   
                theFile.MoveTo(importPath)
 
                ' and bulk import the data:   
                Dim connection As String = ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings("Dialerresults").ConnectionString
                Dim results As New DataTable
 
                Using con As New SqlConnection(connection)
                    con.Open()
 
                    ' execute the bulk import   
                    Using cmd As SqlCommand = con.CreateCommand
                        cmd.CommandText = "bulk insert dialerresults from '" & importPath & "' " & _
                            " with ( fieldterminator = ',', rowterminator = '\n' )"
                        cmd.ExecuteNonQuery()
                    End Using
                End Using
 
            Catch Exc As Exception
                Response.Write("Error: " & Exc.Message)
            End Try
        Else
            Response.Write("Please select a file to upload.")
        End If
 
    End Sub
 
    Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
 
    End Sub
End Class

[Frinavale]

See the comments I've made in the code

Imports System.IO
Imports System.Data   
Imports System.Data.SqlClient
Partial Class _Default
    Inherits System.Web.UI.Page
    Protected Sub Submit1_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs) Handles Submit1.Click
 
        If Not File1.PostedFile Is Nothing And File1.PostedFile.ContentLength > 0 Then
            Dim fn As String = System.IO.Path.GetFileName(File1.PostedFile.FileName)
'The following SaveLocation is going to upload a file with the name of the original file uploaded.
'I thought that you were supposed to be saving the file as "upload.txt"??
'I've changed this so that it suits your requirements.
'            Dim SaveLocation As String = Server.MapPath("Data") & "\" & fn
Dim SaveLocation As String = Server.MapPath("Data") & "\upload.txt"
 
'At this point I would check to see if the file exists already
'If it does exist Delete the existing one so that the new one can be created
If IO.File.Exists(SaveLocation) Then
  IO.File.Delete(SaveLocation)
End If
 
            Try
                File1.PostedFile.SaveAs(SaveLocation)
'Remember how I warned you Not to use Response.Write?
'I know I said don't use it in your C# code....
'but the same thing applies to VB.NET code.
'I've removed this line and I am setting the text of the Message Label instead
'                Response.Write("Thank you for your submission.")
message.Text = "Thank you for your submission"
 
                ' get the file that was submitted and check if it was .txt file   
                Dim theFile As FileInfo = New FileInfo(SaveLocation)
                If theFile.Extension <> ".txt" Then
'Again Response.Write is not good....Commenting it out
'                    Response.Write("Please submit a text file.")
'In the following line I'm replacing the message Label's Text with the error mssage
message.Text = "Please submit a text file."
                End If
 
 
'What are you doing Here?
'I'm commenting this whole block of logic out because it doesn't make sense
'                Dim importPath As String = Server.MapPath("Data") & "\upload.txt"
'                If File.Exists(importPath) Then
'                    ' do something with existing upload.txt file, maybe archive?   
'                End If
' 
'                ' rename the uploaded file to upload.txt for importing   
'                theFile.MoveTo(importPath)
 
                ' and bulk import the data:   
                Dim connection As String = ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings("Dialerresults").ConnectionString
                Dim results As New DataTable
 
                Using con As New SqlConnection(connection)
                    con.Open()
 
                    ' execute the bulk import   
                    Using cmd As SqlCommand = con.CreateCommand
'I changed the command text......
'                        cmd.CommandText = "bulk insert dialerresults from '" & importPath & "' " & _
'                            " with ( fieldterminator = ',', rowterminator = '\n' )"
 
  cmd.CommandText = "bulk insert dialerresults from '" & SaveLocation & "' " & _
  "with ( fieldterminator = ',', rowterminator = '\n' )"
 
                       cmd.ExecuteNonQuery()
                    End Using
                End Using
 
            Catch Exc As Exception
'Again Response.Write is not good....Commenting it out
'                Response.Write("Error: " & Exc.Message)
'You are not seeing a line number that the problem is occurring on
'because you aren't displaying the StackTrace....
'In the following line I'm replacing the message Label's Text with the StackTrace of the exception
 
message.Text = Exc.StackTrace
 
            End Try
        Else
'Again Response.Write is not good....Commenting it out
'            Response.Write("Please select a file to upload.")
'In the following line I'm replacing the message Label's Text with the error message
 
message.Text = "Please select a file to upload"
        End If
 
    End Sub
 
    Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
 
    End Sub
End Class

[dougancil]

Frinny,

I've pasted your code and reloaded the web site. I get the following error:

at _Default.Submit1_Click(Object sender, EventArgs e) in C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\Webfile1\Default.aspx.vb:line 52

[Frinavale]

What line is line 52 in the posted code?

[dougancil]

here is line 52:

Dim connection As String = ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings("Dialerresu lts").ConnectionString

[Frinavale]

Well I'm not seeing any blue underline squiggles when I take that code and past it into a temporary testing page....

Are you seeing this displayed in your message label when you try to upload the file then?

What is the error message?

[dougancil]

I am seeing what I posted in the message label beneath the upload button ... but it's showing when I load the page. So the error is there before I even "post" a file.

Here's my connection string in the web.config file:

<add name="Dialeresults" connectionString="server=10.1.1.40;database=dialer results;uid=xxx;password=xxxx;" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />
</connectionStrings>

[dougancil]

Sorry here's the proper post:

<connectionStrings>
<add name="Dialeresults" connectionString="server=10.1.1.40;database=dialer results;uid=xxxx;password=xxxxxxx;" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />
</connectionStrings>

[Frinavale]

Do you have your connection string defined in your web.config file?
Is it defined with the key value you're using here?


This is probably where you're getting your "object not set to a reference" error.
If you can't see the message then change line 78 to:

message.Text =Exc.Message + " " + Exc.StackTrace

[dougancil]

I changed line 78 and now get the following error:

Object reference not set to an instance of an object. at _Default.Submit1_Click(Object sender, EventArgs e) in C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\Webfile1\Default.aspx.vb:line 52

[Frinavale]

Normally I don't create a test page to help people out but this time I did.

I copied the code we're working on into the test page and noticed a Lot of problems.

First of all you are uploading the file to the server before you are checking the file extension.

What if this file was a virus and all the end user wanted to do was get the virus to the server?

You can check to make sure the file extension is valid before saving it to the server!

In the code I'm posting now I've fixed this problem.
I've also broken the code up into 2 functions: one responsible for uploading the file....and the other is responsible for saving it to the database.

If the file does not upload...then I'm not calling the save-to-database function.

See below:

Imports System.IO
Imports System.Data   
Imports System.Data.SqlClient
Partial Class _Default
    Inherits System.Web.UI.Page
    Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
 
    End Sub
 
    Private Sub Submit1_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Submit1.Click
        Dim SaveLocation As String = Server.MapPath("~/TempImages") & "\upload.txt"
        If UploadFile(SaveLocation) Then
            'the file was uploaded: now try saving it to the database
            SaveToDatabase(SaveLocation)
        End If
    End Sub
 
    Private Function UploadFile(ByVal SavePath As String) As Boolean
        Dim fileWasUploaded As Boolean = False 'indicates whether or not the file was uploaded
 
        'Checking if the file upload control contains a file
        If Not File1.PostedFile Is Nothing And File1.PostedFile.ContentLength > 0 Then
            Try
                'checking if it was .txt file BEFORE UPLOADING IT!
                'You used to upload it first...but the file could be a virus
                If File1.FileName.EndsWith(".txt") = False Then
                    'The file is not the expected type...do not upload it
                    'just post the validation message
                    message.Text = "Please submit a text file."
                Else
                    'The file is a .txt file
                    'checking to see if the file exists already
                    'If it does exist Deleting the existing one so that the new one can be created
                    If IO.File.Exists(SavePath) Then
                        IO.File.Delete(SavePath)
                    End If
 
                    'Now upload the file (save it to your server)
                    File1.PostedFile.SaveAs(SavePath)
 
                    'After saving it check to see if it exists
                    If File.Exists(SavePath) Then
                        'Upload was sucessful
                        message.Text = "Thank you for your submission"
                        fileWasUploaded = True
                    Else
                        'the file was not saved
                        message.Text = "Unable to save the file"
                    End If
                End If
 
            Catch Exc As Exception
                'We encountered a problem
                message.Text = Exc.Message + " " + Exc.StackTrace
            End Try
        Else
            'No file was selected for uploading
            message.Text = "Please select a file to upload"
        End If
        Return fileWasUploaded
    End Function
 
    Private Sub SaveToDatabase(ByVal SavePath As String)
        Try
            ' and bulk import the data:   
            If ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings("Dialerresults") IsNot Nothing Then
            Dim connection As String = ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings("Dialerresults").ConnectionString
            Dim results As New DataTable
 
            Using con As New SqlConnection(connection)
                con.Open()
 
                ' execute the bulk import   
                Using cmd As SqlCommand = con.CreateCommand
 
                    cmd.CommandText = "bulk insert dialerresults from '" & SavePath & "' " & _
                    "with ( fieldterminator = ',', rowterminator = '\n' )"
 
                    cmd.ExecuteNonQuery()
                End Using
            End Using
          Else
            message.Text="ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings('Dialerresults') is Nothing!"
          End If
        Catch ex As Exception
            message.Text = ex.Message + ex.StackTrace
        End Try
    End Sub
End Class

At this time I'm not sure why you're getting an object not set to a reference

[Frinavale]

Change line 11 in my posted code to be the URL to the of the folder where you're uploading the files.

[dougancil]

Frinny,

I also had to change line 10 to Protected Sub not Private Sub but now when I hit submit I get the following error:

ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings('Dialerresu lts') is Nothing!

[Frinavale]

Are you still getting the error message on page load?

[dougancil]

I'm not getting that error anymore no. Now I'm just getting the
ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings('Dialerresu lts') is Nothing! error and no data is being posted to the database.

[Frinavale]

Is that message displayed without clicking the button?

[Frinavale]

Double check that your web.config <conectionStrings> section is correct.

It should be something like:

<configuration>
    <connectionStrings>
        <add name="Dialerresults" connectionString="data source=src;initial catalog=tbl;user id=userID;password=passwordValue" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient"/>
    </connectionStrings>
 
</configuration>

[dougancil]

I didnt have the initial catalog in there but here's the connection string now:

<add name="Dialeresults" connectionString="server=10.2.1.40;data source=IVRDialer;initial catalog=dialerresults;uid=xxxx;password=xxxxxx;" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />
</connectionStrings>

This error is only happening after the upload button is pressed.

[Frinavale]

I don't know why you're getting this error message...it sounds like your application isn't configured properly.

For now try using a hard coded connection string (this is not a good idea to use when you release your code though).

I'm suggesting the following:

Private Sub SaveToDatabase(ByVal SavePath As String)
        Try
            ' and bulk import the data:   
            'If ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings("Dialerresults") IsNot Nothing Then
            'Dim connection As String = ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings("Dialerresults").ConnectionString
Dim connection As String = "server=10.2.1.40;data source=IVRDialer;initial catalog=dialerresults;uid=xxxx;password=xxxxxx;"
            Dim results As New DataTable
 
            Using con As New SqlConnection(connection)
                con.Open()
 
                ' execute the bulk import   
                Using cmd As SqlCommand = con.CreateCommand
 
                    cmd.CommandText = "bulk insert dialerresults from '" & SavePath & "' " & _
                    "with ( fieldterminator = ',', rowterminator = '\n' )"
 
                    cmd.ExecuteNonQuery()
                End Using
            End Using
          'Else
            'message.Text="ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings('Dialerresults') is Nothing!"
          'End If
        Catch ex As Exception
            message.Text = ex.Message + ex.StackTrace
        End Try
    End Sub

[dougancil]

Ok so I changed the connection string so that now it's trying to upload a file and can see it but evidently, the page can't open the file because I get the following message:

Could not bulk insert because file 'C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\Webfile1\Data\upload.txt' could not be opened. Operating system error code 3(The system cannot find the path specified.). at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection.OnError(SqlExc eption exception, Boolean breakConnection) at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlInternalConnection.OnErro r(SqlException exception, Boolean breakConnection) at System.Data.SqlClient.TdsParser.ThrowExceptionAndW arning(TdsParserStateObject stateObj) at System.Data.SqlClient.TdsParser.Run(RunBehavior runBehavior, SqlCommand cmdHandler, SqlDataReader dataStream, BulkCopySimpleResultSet bulkCopyHandler, TdsParserStateObject stateObj) at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.RunExecuteNonQuer yTds(String methodName, Boolean async) at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.InternalExecuteNo nQuery(DbAsyncResult result, String methodName, Boolean sendToPipe) at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.ExecuteNonQuery() at _Default.SaveToDatabase(String SavePath) in C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\Webfile1\Default.aspx.vb:line 78