UploadZen only works for SharePoint site visitors using Windows (XP or newer) and Internet Explorer (6.0 or higher) or Firefox (with the installed). The UploadZen Upload Multiple Files menu item will be disabled (or hidden) for other clients.

Preparing a Web Application for using UploadZen

As a minimum requirement for UploadZen to work for remote clients (i.e. your users), you need to:

1. enable both the Browse Directories and the Use Remote Interfaces Site Permissions on the User permissions for Web application page (in Central Administration → Application Management → Application Security — be sure you selected the correct target Web Application), as well as
2. perform the following steps in Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager on each SharePoint web front-end server:

• Locate the _layouts/roxority_UploadZen/help virtual directory in the IIS Web Site corresponding to the SharePoint Web Application you want to UploadZen-enable.
• Open the Properties dialog box for the _layouts/roxority_UploadZen/help virtual directory from its context menu and on the Directory Security tab, in the Authentication and access control section, click the Edit button.
• In the Authentication Methods dialog box, tick the Enable anonymous access check box and click OK. Back in the Properties dialog box, click OK. (If you are now prompted about applying your changes to child directories or files, select all of them in the prompt dialog box and click OK.)

Granting anonymous read access exclusively to this virtual directory is acceptable with regards to server security, since no sensitive information is ever stored underneath the help virtual directory, nor does it at all expose access to any server-side code anonymous users could ever invoke. Granting this anonymous read access is however also required for UploadZen to work, as the software is based on the Microsoft .NET Framework ClickOnce deployment technology, the integration of which with both SharePoint and remote Internet Explorer users with varying Windows versions, security and authentication settings more often than not simply does not work without making this simple, safe and proven-to-work adjustment.

For remote Internet Explorer users, the UploadZen Upload Multiple Files menu item is likely to produce only HTTP 401 error messages unless and until you take the above steps for all IIS Web Sites associated with your content Web Applications on all SharePoint web front-end servers — even though the menu item is already available in all Document Library Upload menus throughout your server farm immediately after solution installation.

Granting Web Service Access

While running, the UploadZen window will attempt to access via HTTP / SOAP, under the user-specified credentials, the following XML Web Services:

• http://site/_layouts/roxority_UploadZen/Files.asmx
• http://site/_vti_bin/Lists.asmx
• http://site/_vti_bin/SiteData.asmx
• http://site/_vti_bin/Authentication.asmx

It is the responsibility of the administrator deploying UploadZen to make sure that remote users are granted access to these interfaces. In most environments, completing step 1. outlined above should be sufficient to grant this access.

Review Server-side Upload Limits

To support bulk-uploads of large file sets, you may want to review the maximums currently supported by your SharePoint server farm.

• Review the Maximum Upload Size setting on the Web Application General Settings page under Central Administration → Application Management → SharePoint Web Application Management.
• Internet Information Services (IIS) respects the ASP.NET maximum request length setting, pre-empting even the above SharePoint Web Application Maximum Upload Size setting. The maximum request length setting is stored and can be modified manually in the <wwwroot>\wss\VirtualDirectories\<webapp>\web.config file (on each web front-end server) by locating the <httpRuntime> node and editing the maxRequestLength attribute value.
  • The stored attribute value represents KB — divide by 1024 to get the value represented in MB (for example, the default value 51200 represents 50 MB). If you decide you want to change the setting to a different MB value, multiply that one with 1024 and store the result as the new attribute value.
• To prevent a large file upload from timing out before completion, review and customize if required the Request execution timeout (seconds) setting on the Application tab in the ASP.NET Configuration Settings dialog box by opening the Properties dialog box for the SharePoint Web Application in Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager on each SharePoint web front-end server and clicking Edit Configuration on the ASP.NET tab.

Document Libraries and Other Libraries

No special preparation considerations apply to Document Libraries or other libraries. All Library Views with a full tool bar provide the UploadZen Upload Multiple Files menu item and hide the SharePoint Upload Multiple Documents menu items (but this can be configured on the farm and site-collection level).

XSL, Data Form, Data View Web Parts

If you have in use XSL / Data Form / Data View Web Parts that were created by converting from an out-of-the-box Library View (for example using SharePoint Designer), keep in mind that their menu structures are "frozen" at conversion time:

• the UploadZen Upload Multiple Files menu item will never be visible if UploadZen was not installed at conversion time, and
• the UploadZen Upload Multiple Files menu item will always remain visible if UploadZen was installed and the menu item enabled at conversion time.

If you intend to create such Web Parts by converting from Views, uninstall or disable UploadZen temporarily prior to the conversion. You can still generate your own Upload Multiple Files links manually and add them to your pages for such Web Parts or Document Libraries if desired.

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)

UploadZen will work fine over SSL, except when Internet Explorer raises a prompt about the SSL certificate. The prompt can be raised when there is something wrong with the certificate, such as when the site names do not match or the certificate has expired. To make UploadZen work over an SSL connection, make sure that the certificate is up-to-date, and that the certificate data matches the site data.

Proxy Authentication

For UploadZen to work with default proxy authentication in a corporate setting, the defaultProxy element in the .NET Framework machine.config file on all client computers (under %WINDIR%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\<version>\CONFIG\) must be set to allow System.Net to use default security credentials. Alternatively, you can configure defaultProxy on client computers to use a specific proxy server.