Skip to main content
Documentation & User Guides | Fotoware

Uploading files from a browser

How to upload files from your local desktop to Fotoware using the web browser.

Uploading assets to Fotoware

Note:  The maximum file size you can upload is 25 GB.

  1. Select Upload in the top banner to display the Upload window.
  2. Drag one or more files from your desktop into the upload area (the dotted blue box) or click on the Browse link to locate the files on your computer. Previews are loaded for files (.png, .jpg, .jpeg, and .gif) under 200 MB in size; otherwise, a placeholder is displayed.
  3. Choose the archive to upload the assets from the dropdown list just above the upload area. This will list all the areas you have upload access to.
  4. Now you may need to fill in certain metadata fields, depending on the metadata set that has been applied to the archive. This metadata will be written to all the files in the upload queue.
    Yellow metadata fields are required, meaning you will not be able to start uploading unless you have filled the fields in.
  5. When you've added all files to the upload queue and added metadata, click on Upload to start uploading the files to the server.

When the upload completes the files will be available in the archive you uploaded them to. You can go to the Archives tab and locate the archive there.

Tip: It is also possible to upload files with metadata stored in a separate XMP sidecar file, as long as the asset file is uploaded together with the .XMP file. Simply add both files to the upload dialog (using either drag & drop or the “Browse” button). Note that you cannot upload the XMP file and asset file separately. You also cannot upload an .XMP file later, after the asset file has already been uploaded, in order to apply metadata. The web uploader cannot automatically detect an .XMP file that is present on your local disk, so if you want to keep any metadata stored in a sidecar file, you have to manually add the sidecar file to the upload dialog.

What if the files I upload already have metadata?

If you caption files before uploading them to Fotoware through a web browser, remember that Fotoware cannot tell which fields have been filled in or not. This is a limitation of using an HTML uploader.

TIP: You can configure Fotoware to preserve an asset's original metadata when leaving fields blank in the web uploader.

Therefore, if the files you upload already have descriptive metadata, one of the following methods may better suit your way of working:

  1. You can use Fotoware Desktop to upload files to the archive. Fotoware Desktop correctly identifies fields that already have metadata in them.

  2. You can use FotoStation to caption the files and upload them to the Fotoware server through an action.

  3. You can create a special archive for users who have metadata-compliant software on their computers and who caption assets before uploading. This archive would allow uploads from these users only and not have any metadata requirements. Using the Ingestion setting on the archive, the uploaded files can be routed through Color Factory to verify that all necessary metadata fields have been filled out before the files are stored in the archive.

What if the uploader freezes and fails to load?

If the metadata configuration is changed so that a metadata set refers to a Field ID that no longer exists in the master metadata configuration, the upload utility in the web interface will refuse to load. If this happens, refer to this troubleshooting article to remedy the situation.

  • Was this article helpful?