Automatic file upload using IE+ADO without user interaction

To upload specific file using VBS/ASP with client-side compression see Zlib class of ScriptUtilities library and its upload sample.

The previous article was about uploading files using VBA and IE. But what to do if you have only VBS (in WSH, IE or ASP)? VBS does not have functions which can work with binary data so you cannot read contents of a file from disk.
But you can use several objects which lets you work with binary data (one of them is also on this site, ScriptUtilities). ADODB, which is included in a free microsoft data access sofware (MDAC), enables the work with binary data also.

You can use ScriptUtils.ASPForm to accept uploaded files in ASP. ScriptUtils.ASPForm contains hi-performance, low resources consumption algorithm which can accept up to 2GB of data.

1. There are some steps to upload file using http and multipart/form-data document. First of all we have to read file from a disk. We can use Scripting.FileSystemObject to read text data, or ADODB.Stream to read any file. The GetFile function does the work using ADODB.Stream.

2. The second task we need to complette is a build of multipart/form-data document. The document contains from several fields separated by boundary. Each of the fields has its own header, which contains information about field name, file name and content-type of the source file. ADO Recordset object has a great method AppendChunk, which lets you join parts of multipart/form-data document (open boundary + headers + file contents + close boundary). You can see the code in BuildFormData function.

3. Last task is send the multipart/form-data document as a post request to server with multipart/form-data Content-Type header. We can use at least two object to send POST request - XMLHttp or InternetExplorer. This script uses Navigate method of InternetExplorer.Application object. You can see the code in IEPostBinaryRequest function

You can accept the uploaded file using ASP and Pure ASP file upload with progress :

<%
'Create upload form
'Using Huge-ASP file upload
'Dim Form: Set Form = CreateObject("ScriptUtils.ASPForm")
'or Using Pure-ASP file upload
Dim Form: Set Form = New ASPForm %>
<!--#INCLUDE FILE="_upload.asp"--><% 

Const fsCompletted  = 0

If Form.State = fsCompletted Then 'Completted
  'Get a destination folder
  DestFolder = Server.MapPath(".")

  'Save source files on server-side
  Form.Files.Save DestFolder
End If
%>

Next vbs code is complette vbs file which lets you upload any file from client computer to server using http protocol and multipart/form-data form (form with input type=file). You can copy the code to file named fupload.vbs. Then you can use:

use
[cscript|wscript] fupload.vbs file url [fieldname]
  file ... Local file to upload
  url ... URL which can accept uploaded data
  fieldname ... Name of the source form field.

UploadFile function can be also used in any other vbs envinronment, for example in ASP application, WSH, or in HTA application. I used Internet Explorer to send binary data (Function IEPostBinaryRequest), because Internet Explorer is installed on each computer with Windows. But remember, that using of the object is NOT ideal. See Post binary data to URL from WSH/ASP/VBA/VBS article. The article contains some better alternative objects, which lets you send binary data to remote script.

'Upload file using http protocol And multipart/form-data
'v1.01
'2001 Antonin Foller, PSTRUH Software
do_vbsUpload

Sub do_vbsUpload()
  'We need at least two arguments (File + URL)
  If WScript.Arguments.Count < 2 Then InfoEcho
  
  'Are some required objects missing?
  If InStr(CheckRequirements, "Error") > 0 Then InfoEcho
  
  Dim FileName, DestURL, FieldName
  FieldName = "FileField" 'Default field name
  
  Dim aCounter, Arg
  aCounter = 1 'Argument counter
  For Each Arg In WScript.Arguments
    Select Case aCounter
      Case 1: FileName = Arg
      Case 2: DestURL = Arg
      Case 3: FieldName = Arg
    End Select
    aCounter = aCounter + 1
  Next
  
  UploadFile DestURL, FileName, FieldName
End Sub



'******************* upload - begin
'Upload file using input type=file
Sub UploadFile(DestURL, FileName, FieldName)
  'Boundary of fields.
  'Be sure this string is Not In the source file
  Const Boundary = "---------------------------0123456789012"
  
  Dim FileContents, FormData
  'Get source file As a binary data.
  FileContents = GetFile(FileName)
  
  'Build multipart/form-data document
  FormData = BuildFormData(FileContents, Boundary, FileName, FieldName)
  
  'Post the data To the destination URL
  IEPostBinaryRequest DestURL, FormData, Boundary
End Sub

'Build multipart/form-data document with file contents And header info
Function BuildFormData(FileContents, Boundary, FileName, FieldName)
  Dim FormData, Pre, Po
  Const ContentType = "application/upload"
  
  'The two parts around file contents In the multipart-form data.
  Pre = "--" + Boundary + vbCrLf + mpFields(FieldName, FileName, ContentType)
  Po = vbCrLf + "--" + Boundary + "--" + vbCrLf
  
  'Build form data using recordset binary field
  Const adLongVarBinary = 205
  Dim RS: Set RS = CreateObject("ADODB.Recordset")
  RS.Fields.Append "b", adLongVarBinary, Len(Pre) + LenB(FileContents) + Len(Po)
  RS.Open
  RS.AddNew
    Dim LenData
    'Convert Pre string value To a binary data
    LenData = Len(Pre)
    RS("b").AppendChunk (StringToMB(Pre) & ChrB(0))
    Pre = RS("b").GetChunk(LenData)
    RS("b") = ""
    
    'Convert Po string value To a binary data
    LenData = Len(Po)
    RS("b").AppendChunk (StringToMB(Po) & ChrB(0))
    Po = RS("b").GetChunk(LenData)
    RS("b") = ""
    
    'Join Pre + FileContents + Po binary data
    RS("b").AppendChunk (Pre)
    RS("b").AppendChunk (FileContents)
    RS("b").AppendChunk (Po)
  RS.Update
  FormData = RS("b")
  RS.Close
  BuildFormData = FormData
End Function

'sends multipart/form-data To the URL using IE
Function IEPostBinaryRequest(URL, FormData, Boundary)
  'Create InternetExplorer
  Dim IE: Set IE = CreateObject("InternetExplorer.Application")
  
  'You can uncoment Next line To see form results
  'IE.Visible = True
   
  'Send the form data To URL As POST multipart/form-data request
  IE.Navigate URL, , , FormData, _
    "Content-Type: multipart/form-data; boundary=" + Boundary + vbCrLf

  Do While IE.Busy
    Wait 1, "Upload To " & URL
  Loop
  
  'Get a result of the script which has received upload
  On Error Resume Next
  IEPostBinaryRequest = IE.Document.body.innerHTML
  IE.Quit
End Function

'Infrormations In form field header.
Function mpFields(FieldName, FileName, ContentType)
  Dim MPTemplate 'template For multipart header
  MPTemplate = "Content-Disposition: form-data; name=""{field}"";" + _
   " filename=""{file}""" + vbCrLf + _
   "Content-Type: {ct}" + vbCrLf + vbCrLf
  Dim Out
  Out = Replace(MPTemplate, "{field}", FieldName)
  Out = Replace(Out, "{file}", FileName)
  mpFields = Replace(Out, "{ct}", ContentType)
End Function


Sub Wait(Seconds, Message)
  On Error Resume Next
  CreateObject("wscript.shell").Popup Message, Seconds, "", 64
End Sub


'Returns file contents As a binary data
Function GetFile(FileName)
  Dim Stream: Set Stream = CreateObject("ADODB.Stream")
  Stream.Type = 1 'Binary
  Stream.Open
  Stream.LoadFromFile FileName
  GetFile = Stream.Read
  Stream.Close
End Function

'Converts OLE string To multibyte string
Function StringToMB(S)
  Dim I, B
  For I = 1 To Len(S)
    B = B & ChrB(Asc(Mid(S, I, 1)))
  Next
  StringToMB = B
End Function
'******************* upload - end

'******************* Support
'Basic script info
Sub InfoEcho()
  Dim Msg
  Msg = Msg + "Upload file using http And multipart/form-data" & vbCrLf
  Msg = Msg + "Copyright (C) 2001 Antonin Foller, PSTRUH Software" & vbCrLf
  Msg = Msg + "use" & vbCrLf
  Msg = Msg + "[cscript|wscript] fupload.vbs file url [fieldname]" & vbCrLf
  Msg = Msg + "  file ... Local file To upload" & vbCrLf
  Msg = Msg + "  url ... URL which can accept uploaded data" & vbCrLf
  Msg = Msg + "  fieldname ... Name of the source form field." & vbCrLf
  Msg = Msg + vbCrLf + CheckRequirements
  WScript.Echo Msg
  WScript.Quit
End Sub

'Checks If all of required objects are installed
Function CheckRequirements()
  Dim Msg
  Msg = "This script requires some objects installed To run properly." & vbCrLf
  Msg = Msg & CheckOneObject("ADODB.Recordset")
  Msg = Msg & CheckOneObject("ADODB.Stream")
  Msg = Msg & CheckOneObject("InternetExplorer.Application")
  CheckRequirements = Msg
'  MsgBox Msg
End Function

'Checks If the one object is installed.
Function CheckOneObject(oClass)
  Dim Msg
  On Error Resume Next
  CreateObject oClass
  If Err = 0 Then Msg = "OK" Else Msg = "Error:" & Err.Description
  CheckOneObject = oClass & " - " & Msg & vbCrLf
End Function
'******************* Support - end

Automatic file upload using IE+ADO without user interaction - VBSscriptMOTOBIT.COM

See also

Copyright and use this code