How to save a file in client system?

Question

I have a requiremnet like this:
"When the user selects a file from his local drive (say c:\), I have to upload the file to a LAN connected to his machine."
I have written the TestUpload class like below. It will work if my server is on the same machine. But, how can i do this if it is Unix Server?
I was trying to do this for 2-3 days. Please help.
protected void doGet(
HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response)
throws ServletException, IOException {
PrintWriter out = response.getWriter();
HttpSession session = null;
UploadListener listener = null;
long contentLength = 0;
System.out.println("I am inside doGet");
if (
((session = request.getSession()) == null) ||
listener =
(UploadListener) session.getAttribute("LISTENER")
) == null
) || ((contentLength = listener.getContentLength()) < 1)) {
out.write("");
out.close();
return;
response.setContentType("text/html");
long percentComplite =
((100 * listener.getBytesRead()) / contentLength);
out.print(percentComplite);
out.close();
protected void doPost(
HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response)
throws ServletException, IOException {
response.setContentType("text/html");
// create file upload factory and upload servlet
FileItemFactory factory = new DiskFileItemFactory();
ServletFileUpload upload = new ServletFileUpload(factory);
// set file upload progress listener
UploadListener listener = new UploadListener();
HttpSession session = request.getSession();
session.setAttribute("LISTENER", listener);
// upload servlet allows to set upload listener
upload.setProgressListener(listener);
List items = null;
FileItem fileItem = null;
String filename = null;
String fileName = null;
String directory = null;
String version = null;
String fullPath = null;
String extension = null;
String folderName = null;
try {
// iterate over all uploaded files
items = upload.parseRequest(request);
for (Iterator i = items.iterator(); i.hasNext();) {
fileItem = (FileItem) i.next();
System.out.println("New file Item::: " + fileItem.getName());
if (
(fileItem.getName() != null) &&
!fileItem.getName()
.trim()
.equals("")) {
fullPath = fileItem.getName();
extension = fullPath.substring(fullPath.lastIndexOf("."));
directory = "\\\\MyLAN\\";
fileName =
fullPath.substring(
fullPath.lastIndexOf("\\") + 1,
fullPath.lastIndexOf("."));
folderName = getFolderName(directory, fileName, extension);
version =
getVersionNumber(
directory + folderName, fileName, extension);
String strFilePath =
directory + folderName + fileName + version +
extension;
System.out.println("path:: " + strFilePath);
          //Creating the destination File object.
File file = new File(strFilePath);
if (!fileItem.isFormField()) {
if (fileItem.getSize() > 0) {
// code that handle uploaded fileItem
// don't forget to delete uploaded files after you done with them! Use fileItem.delete();
fileItem.write(file);
fileItem.delete();
                                   System.out.println("upload successful");
// indicate that the upload was successfull
writeLog(
directory + folderName + "log.txt",
now() + " ::: " + "Uploaded the version number:: " + version);
response.getWriter()
.write("upload successful");
} catch (FileUploadException e) {
response.getWriter()
.write(e.getMessage());
e.printStackTrace();
} catch (Exception e) {
response.getWriter()
.write(e.getMessage());
e.printStackTrace();
} finally {
session.removeAttribute("LISTENER");
public String getFolderName(
String directory, String fileName, String extension) {
File dir = new File(directory);
boolean folderFound = false;
String foldername = null;
String logFileName = "";
File getFolderNames[] = dir.listFiles();
for (int i = 0; i < getFolderNames.length; i++) {
foldername = getFolderNames.getName();
if (foldername.equalsIgnoreCase(fileName)) {
folderFound = true;
break;
if (!folderFound) {
File f = new File(directory + fileName);
f.mkdir();
f = new File(directory + fileName + "/log.txt");
try {
f.createNewFile();
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
logFileName = directory + fileName + "/log.txt";
writeLog(logFileName, "***********************************");
writeLog(logFileName, "Log for the file " + fileName);
writeLog(logFileName, "***********************************\n\n");
writeLog(logFileName, now() + " ::: " + "Created");
return fileName + "\\";
public String getVersionNumber(
String directory, String fileName, String extension) {
File dir = new File(directory);
boolean fileFound = false;
int version = 0;
File getFolderNames[] = dir.listFiles();
version = getFolderNames.length;
return "_" + version;
public void writeLog(String fileName, String text) {
try {
Writer output = null;
File file = new File(fileName);
output = new BufferedWriter(new FileWriter(fileName, true));
output.write(text + "\n");
output.close();
System.out.println("Log file has been written");
} catch (IOException e1) {
e1.printStackTrace();
Edited by: AnishThomas on Mar 12, 2008 10:52 PM

Answer 1

Thanks for your reply!!!
jwenting wrote:
no, your code is NOT correct.
It doesn't "upload" anything, as I stated before.It is working perfectly fine if the destination folder is connected to the server machine (which is not the case now).
>
Look into multipart MIME requests, Jakarta Commons File Upload, and things like that to actually upload files to a server instead of insisting on reading them directly from the client's filesystem in your servlet and wondering why that doesn't work if the servlet container is running on a different computer from the client.I AM using Jakarta Commons File Upload. The problem is when I try to access the destination folder(which is in client machine), it can't find as it is searching for the corresponding folder in the server.
>
Unless and until you do that, you're wasting our time and your own.I thought someone could help me i giving me some pointers which I missed. Thanks again!!
Edited by: AnishThomas on Mar 14, 2008 8:13 AM