Error uploading a file

Report · Mar 01, 2016

I inherited an application a few years ago and up until today, a particular part of the code has worked flawlessly. It was supposed to upload a pdf file and attach it to a record in the database. Now, I receive a generic message and I have no clue what is wrong. I mostly am an Oracle DBA and can do enough CF to get by, until now. What can I add to this to help give me an idea of what is wrong? Thanx. In the below code piece, the cflocation line just goes on, but I can't do that here.

<cftry>

<cffile action = "upload"

fileField = "requiredFILENAME"

destination = #newDest#

accept = "application/pdf">

<CFLOCATION url="upload378.cfm?F378_ID=#FORM.F378_ID#&ERROR=We were unable to upload your file. Please try again..&FMBIC_DT=#FORM.FMBIC_DT#&IE_PMO_DT=#FORM.IE_PMO_DT#

&IE_PMOMILCON_DT=#form.IE_PMOMILCON_DT#">

</cfcatch>

</cftry>

Report · Mar 01, 2016

To get more details, temporarily try the following:

<cftry>
  <cffile action = "upload"  
            fileField = "requiredFILENAME"  
            destination = #newDest#      
            accept = "application/pdf">
<cfcatch>
 <!--- <CFLOCATION url="upload378.cfm?F378_ID=#FORM.F378_ID#&ERROR=We were unable to upload your file. Please try again..&FMBIC_DT=#FORM.FMBIC_DT#&IE_PMO_DT=#FORM.IE_PMO_DT#
                                &IE_PMOMILCON_DT=#form.IE_PMOMILCON_DT#"> --->
  <cfdump var="#cfcatch#">
  <cfabort showError="debugging">
</cfcatch>
</cftry>

I suspect you are getting a file collision.

Cheers

Eddie

Report · Mar 01, 2016

Just

<cffile action = "upload"

fileField = "requiredFILENAME"

destination = "#newDest#"

accept = "application/pdf">

and Coldfusion will tell you what the matter is.

Report · Mar 01, 2016

Is the file being inserted into the database? Or does it reside on the web server and is somehow associated with a database record?

If the former, check the database table for unique constraints. If the file (or even the file name) already exists in the database and the constraint for unique binary value or unique filename is set, that could cause an issue.

Also, in your CFTRY/CFCATCH, set it to either email you a CFDUMP of cfcatch, or display it right on the page as EddieLotter suggested (remembering, of course, to remove that part before going to production.)

HTH,

^_^

Report · Mar 17, 2016

The file is stored in a directory elsewhere on the server and a pointer to that file is stored in the database.

I put in the debugging statements and tried again. I immediately got a 500 - Internal server error. I commented out the debug statement and tried again... yet another 500. Not sure what I have done. Here is the code fragment after I commented out the debug statement.

<cftry>

<cffile action = "upload"

fileField = "requiredFILENAME"

destination = #newDest#

accept = "application/pdf">

<CFLOCATION url="upload378.cfm?F378_ID=#FORM.F378_ID#&ERROR=We were unable to upload your file. Please try again..&FMBIC_DT=#FORM.FMBIC_DT#&IE_PMO_DT=#FORM.IE_PMO_DT#

&IE_PMOMILCON_DT=#form.IE_PMOMILCON_DT#">

<!--- <cfdump var="#cfcatch#">

</cfcatch>

</cftry>

Report · Mar 17, 2016

LouieWarren wrote:

The file is stored in a directory elsewhere on the server and a pointer to that file is stored in the database.

If this is the process of uploading a file then surely there won't yet be a record in the database. Right?

Cheers

Eddie

Report · Mar 17, 2016

I am assuming. The error is on the Production machine and it is in control of the government DBAs... I have a bunch of hoops to jump through to get a query run. Sucks to be me, huh? I'll have to submit the request. Thank you.

Report · Mar 17, 2016

LouieWarren wrote:

The file is stored in a directory elsewhere on the server and a pointer to that file is stored in the database.

I put in the debugging statements and tried again. I immediately got a 500 - Internal server error. I commented out the debug statement and tried again... yet another 500.   Not sure what I have done.   Here is the code fragment after I commented out the debug statement.

<cftry>

<cffile action = "upload"

            fileField = "requiredFILENAME"

            destination = #newDest#

            accept = "application/pdf">

<cfcatch>

<CFLOCATION url="upload378.cfm?F378_ID=#FORM.F378_ID#&ERROR=We were unable to upload your file. Please try again..&FMBIC_DT=#FORM.FMBIC_DT#&IE_PMO_DT=#FORM.IE_PMO_DT#

                                &IE_PMOMILCON_DT=#form.IE_PMOMILCON_DT#">



</cfcatch>

</cftry>

What happens when you comment out the entire code, like this?

<!---

<cftry>

<cffile action = "upload"

fileField = "requiredFILENAME"

destination = #newDest#

accept = "application/pdf">

<CFLOCATION url="upload378.cfm?F378_ID=#FORM.F378_ID#&ERROR=We
were unable to upload your file. Please try
again..&FMBIC_DT=#FORM.FMBIC_DT#&IE_PMO_DT=#FORM.IE_PMO_DT#

&IE_PMOMILCON_DT=#form.IE_PMOMILCON_DT#">

</cfcatch>

</cftry>

--->

Do you get the form fields? If so, which?

Report · Mar 18, 2016

500 Internal server error

Report · Mar 18, 2016

Then something went wrong with the form submission. Could you share the form page with the forum?

Report · Mar 21, 2016

I am a CF novice. I hope I've included the right part of the code. Here's the entire calling .cfm file:

<HTML>

<HEAD>

<TITLE>Upload 378</TITLE>

</HEAD>

<BODY>

</CFOUTPUT>

select FileLink from FM_FORM378_TRAN

where F378_ID=#FORM.F378_ID#

</CFQUERY>

</cfoutput>

<cftry>

</cfcatch>

</cftry>

</cfif>

</CFIF>

<!--- <cftry>

<cffile action = "upload"

fileField = "requiredFILENAME"

destination = #newDest#

accept = "application/pdf">

<CFLOCATION url="upload378.cfm?F378_ID=#FORM.F378_ID#&ERROR=We were unable to upload your file. Please try again..&FMBIC_DT=#FORM.FMBIC_DT#&IE_PMO_DT=#FORM.IE_PMO_DT#

&IE_PMOMILCON_DT=#form.IE_PMOMILCON_DT#">

</cfcatch>

</cftry> --->

<cftry>

<CFFILE ACTION="Rename"

SOURCE=#oldName#

DESTINATION=#newName#>

</cfcatch>

</cftry>

update FM_FORM378_TRAN

set IE_PMO_DT=to_date('#FORM.IE_PMO_DT#','mm/dd/yyyy') ,

FMBIC_DT=to_date('#FORM.FMBIC_DT#','mm/dd/yyyy'),

IE_PMOMILCON_DT=to_date('#FORM.IE_PMOMILCON_DT#','mm/dd/yyyy'),

FileLink=#FORM.F378_ID# ||'_'|| '#CFFILE.ServerFile#'

where F378_ID=#FORM.F378_ID#

</CFQUERY>

//opener.window.location=opener.window.location;

opener.window.location.reload();

self.close();

//return false;

</SCRIPT>

How did you get here!!!

self.close();

</SCRIPT>

</CFIF>

</BODY>

</HTML>

Hopefully that shows what you need. Sorry to be dense.

Report · Mar 21, 2016

That was the action page. I requested the form page.

In any case, you could do with fewer <cfoutput> tags and fewer # symbols:

<HTML>

<HEAD>

<TITLE>Upload 378</TITLE>

</HEAD>

<BODY>

select FileLink from FM_FORM378_TRAN

where F378_ID=#FORM.F378_ID#

</CFQUERY>

<cftry>

</cfcatch>

</cftry>

</cfif>

</CFIF>

<cftry>

<cffile action = "upload"

fileField = "requiredFILENAME"

destination = "#newDest#"

accept = "application/pdf">

<CFLOCATION url="upload378.cfm?F378_ID=#FORM.F378_ID#&ERROR=We were unable to upload your file. Please try again..&FMBIC_DT=#FORM.FMBIC_DT#&IE_PMO_DT=#FORM.IE_PMO_DT#

&IE_PMOMILCON_DT=#form.IE_PMOMILCON_DT#">

</cfcatch>

</cftry>

<cftry>

<CFFILE ACTION="Rename"

SOURCE="#oldName#"

DESTINATION="#newName#">

</cfcatch>

</cftry>

update FM_FORM378_TRAN

set IE_PMO_DT=to_date('#FORM.IE_PMO_DT#','mm/dd/yyyy') ,

FMBIC_DT=to_date('#FORM.FMBIC_DT#','mm/dd/yyyy'),

IE_PMOMILCON_DT=to_date('#FORM.IE_PMOMILCON_DT#','mm/dd/yyyy'),

FileLink=#FORM.F378_ID# ||'_'|| '#CFFILE.ServerFile#'

where F378_ID=#FORM.F378_ID#

</CFQUERY>

//opener.window.location=opener.window.location;

opener.window.location.reload();

self.close();

//return false;

</SCRIPT>

How did you get here!!!

self.close();

</SCRIPT>

</CFIF>

</BODY>

</HTML>

Report · Mar 22, 2016

As I said earlier, I'm a novice with very little CF experience. I'm normally an Oracle DBA and was thrown into this because the customer thought that is what they needed. In actuality, they needed a CF developer with a little Oracle experience as opposed to the opposite. That said, you are talking about the pop-up form to select the file to upload? What tag would that have? Once again, sorry to be dense.

Report · Apr 13, 2016

This?

<FORM method="post" action="upload378Act.cfm?Action=Upload" onSubmit="return checkform(this)" enctype="multipart/form-data">
<TABLE width="100%">
    <tr>
        <td align=center valign="top" colspan="3">
            <FONT style="FONT: bold 12pt Arial; color: darkblue;">
                Upload 378
            </FONT>
            <BR>
            <CFIF IsDefined("URL.ERROR")>
                <FONT style="FONT: bold 8pt Arial; color: red;">
                <CFOUTPUT>#URL.ERROR#</CFOUTPUT>
                </FONT>
            </CFIF>
            <INPUT type="hidden" name="F378_ID" value="<CFOUTPUT>#URL.F378_ID#</CFOUTPUT>">
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>
        <cfif #getdata.budgetprogramID# is 120 or #getdata.budgetprogramID# is 110>
            <b>SAF/IEI PMO MILCON Date</b>
        </cfif>
        </td>
        <td><b>SAF/IEI PMO Appr Date</b></td>
        <td><b>SAF/FM Coord Date</b></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <CFOUTPUT>
        <td>
        <cfif #getdata.budgetprogramID# is 120 or #getdata.budgetprogramID# is 110>
        <INPUT type="text" name="IE_PMOMILCON_DT" size="15" <CFIF IsDefined("URL.IE_PMOMILCON_DT")> value="#URL.IE_PMOMILCON_DT#"</CFIF> readonly>
        <A HREF="2"
           onClick="cal.select(document.forms[0].IE_PMOMILCON_DT,'anchor2','MM/dd/yyyy'); return false;"
         NAME="anchor2" ID="anchor2">
        <img alt="Select a date" height=16 width=21 src="../../Images/pdate.gif" border=0>
        </A>
        <cfelse>
            <INPUT name="IE_PMOMILCON_DT" type="hidden" <CFIF IsDefined("URL.IE_PMOMILCON_DT")> value="#URL.IE_PMOMILCON_DT#"</CFIF>>
        </cfif>
        </td>
        <td><INPUT type="text" name="IE_PMO_DT" size="15" <CFIF IsDefined("URL.IE_PMO_DT")> value="#URL.IE_PMO_DT#"</CFIF> readonly>
        <A HREF="1"
           onClick="cal.select(document.forms[0].IE_PMO_DT,'anchor1','MM/dd/yyyy'); return false;"
         NAME="anchor1" ID="anchor1">
        <img alt="Select a date" height=16 width=21 src="../../Images/pdate.gif" border=0>
        </A>
        </td>
       
        <td><INPUT type="text" name="FMBIC_DT" size="15" <CFIF IsDefined("URL.FMBIC_DT")> value="#URL.FMBIC_DT#"</CFIF> readonly>
        <A HREF="3"
           onClick="cal.select(document.forms[0].FMBIC_DT,'anchor3','MM/dd/yyyy'); return false;"
         NAME="anchor3" ID="anchor3">
        <img alt="Select a date" height=16 width=21 src="../../Images/pdate.gif" border=0>
        </A>
        </td>
        </CFOUTPUT>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td colspan="3">
            <b>Select File and Upload</b><BR>
            <input type="file" name="requiredFILENAME" size="50"><BR>
            *Only file type accepted: *.pdf
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td colspan="3" align="right">
            <input type="submit" value="Save" style="BACKGROUND-COLOR:#ffffcc;FONT: bold 8pt Arial;COLOR: #000080;BORDER-LEFT: 0px; BORDER-TOP:0px; width:100px; height:18px">
        </td>
    </tr>
</TABLE>
</FORM>

Report · May 16, 2016

I've been sidetracked with that other issue we worked through. Did I give the code snippet you needed?

The customer sent an e-mail this morning stating that she remembered this issue happening before and that the solution or workaround was the filename could not contain special characters. I don't think that is it, but at this point, since I don't really know what I'm doing, I'm willing to try anything.

Report · May 16, 2016

Yes, you provided the relevant snippets.

Can you reproduce the problem yourself or are you relying on the customer to do the testing?

Cheers

Eddie

Report · May 17, 2016

I do all the testing. The customer, being impatient, constantly tries to upload, I am assuming, thinking that time will solve the issue, or that I fixed it and didn't tell her. She just recently sent the e-mail that said, previously, the filename was including the entire path of where the file resided, which caused problems. That was in 2012, and the programmer at the time, fixed it. The customer has no clue. I liken their knowledge of the app and how it works to the old custom of bleeding the patient to get out the bad blood.

All that aside, in my testing, it still fails to upload.

Report · May 17, 2016

Okay, since you can reproduce the problem we may have something to work with.

Look at my first response to your original post. I removed the redirect you are using to handle errors and added code to display the exception details. Please use that code and post the text of the exception for us to have a look at.

Cheers

Eddie

Report · May 17, 2016

I think I put it in the right place:

<CFIF IsDefined("URL.Action") AND URL.Action is "Upload">

<CFSET F378_ID = #FORM.F378_ID#/>

<CFSET IE_PMO_DT = #FORM.IE_PMO_DT#/>

<CFSET FMBIC_DT = #FORM.FMBIC_DT#/>

<CFSET FILENAME = #FORM.requiredFILENAME#/>

<CFSET IE_PMOMILCON_DT = #FORM.IE_PMOMILCON_DT#/>

<cftry>

<cffile action = "upload"

fileField = "requiredFILENAME"

destination = #newDest#

accept = "application/pdf">

<cfcatch>

<!--- <CFIF variables.FILENAME is "">

<CFLOCATION url="upload378.cfm?F378_ID=#FORM.F378_ID#&ERROR=You must select a file.&FMBIC_DT=#FORM.FMBIC_DT#&IE_PMO_DT=#FORM.IE_PMO_DT#&IE_PMOMILCON_DT=#form.IE_PMOMILCON_DT#">

</CFIF> --->

<cfdump var="#cfcatch#">

<cfabort showError="debugging">

</cfcatch>

</cftry> <cfdump var="#form#">

The error message now tells me the path, where the uploaded file is stored, isn't valid. It exists.

The value of the attribute destination, which is currently \xxxxxx\secure\Authorization\378Docs\, is invalid.

Do you need to see the whole error page?

Sorry for the crappy formatting. I still haven't figured out how to format the code with the line numbers. I did once, but can't seem to do it again.

Thank you.

Report · May 17, 2016

To format code, click on the "Use advanced editor" link at the top, right of the input box, highlight the text to format, then click the >> button in the toolbar.

Does the value of newDest contain a drive letter or is it a UNC path?

Cheers

Eddie

Report · May 17, 2016

UNC - \xxxxxx\secure\Authorization\378Docs\

The \xxxxxx is the root where the code resides and the directory to store the uploaded file.

Report · May 17, 2016

Remember that when the server reports that it cannot access a location, it is the user account that the CF process is using that might have problems accessing an existing location.

As a debugging step, try adding the following code to verify that the server can see a file that you know exists:

<cfif fileExists(newDest & 'filename.ext')>
  The file is visible to the server.
<cfelse>
  The file is not visible to the server.
</cfif>

Cheers

Eddie

Report · May 17, 2016

I plugged it in before and after the debug code and no change. I'm sure I didn't do it correctly.

Report · May 17, 2016

When you say "no change" do you mean you are not seeing either of the "The file is..." messages displayed on the Web page?

Create a new, temporary page with the test code I recently posted.

Cheers

Eddie

Report · May 17, 2016

I deleted everything but the test code and got the message The file is not visible to the server. I put the original file back and the same message came up. I missed it in the original error page. The variable newDest is assigned earlier in the page:

	<CFOUTPUT>
	<CFSET newDest = #authfileroot#&"378Docs\"/>

</CFOUTPUT>

Which gives the correct location displayed in the error message. What am I not understanding?

Error uploading a file

1 Correct answer