# Adding large files to application

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/adding-large-files-to-application/140134>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [June 11, 2008, 6:52am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/adding-large-files-to-application/140134 "2008-06-11T06:52:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![toro04](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/ea5d25/32.png) [@toro04](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/toro04)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2008, 6:52am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/adding-large-files-to-application/140134/1 "2008-06-11T06:52:13Z")

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Hi Guys,

I am working on what I hope is a simple asset management system for the  
company work for.

Does anyone have any recommendations for uploading large files to the  
system? We work in TV post production, so files can easily 5GB+ , most  
tending to be a few hundred megabytes.

The software is for our intranet (1GB ethernet). However I am trying to  
make this app with the intention of being able to access it from out of  
office.

I have read that some file ‘upload’ ideas peak out at 100MB, at which  
point the app with crash/die.

Apologies if this is poorly explained, I can go into more detail if  
necessary.

Any help would be great!

Thanks!

Adam

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**Author:** ![toro04](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/ea5d25/32.png) [@toro04](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/toro04)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2008, 4:08pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/adding-large-files-to-application/140134/2 "2008-06-11T16:08:50Z")

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Adam T. wrote:

> Does anyone have any recommendations for uploading large files to the  
> system? We work in TV post production, so files can easily 5GB+ , most  
> tending to be a few hundred megabytes.

HTTP is too narrow for reliable file transfers. You need a protocol like  
SCP or  
modern FTP, which treat the target drive as a real file system. This  
gives your  
users all the features - renaming, drag-n-drop, multiple copies,  
bookmarks,  
previews, progress bars, restarts, cancels, etc.

Build a folder on your server with public write permissions, and  
instruct your  
minions to use a client, such as Tranmit or WinSCP, to push the bulk  
files up.

Then develop a web page which reads this folder and displays the names  
of any  
files. Users then click on a file, possibly add information to it, then  
Submit  
its name to a form.

The Rails action can now use FileUtils.mv to efficiently put the data  
into its  
new home. If the action must read the data, you could use spawn{} to  
detach a  
background task to finish the processing.

–  
Phlip

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![toro04](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/ea5d25/32.png) [@toro04](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/toro04)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2008, 4:29pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/adding-large-files-to-application/140134/3 "2008-06-11T16:29:32Z")

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Hi Phlip!

Thanks for the advice! Appreciated!

I figured something like that would be the case.

Do you know of any projects that I can ‘borrow’ some code from to do the  
file navigation on the server via a browser? I have found things that  
seem to use a bit of Java (that i have never understood!)

Thanks again Phlip!

Adam