Table of Contents
Uploading files from a browser
How to upload files from your local desktop to FotoWeb through the web browser.
02. June 2025
Table of Contents
Uploading assets to FotoWeb
- Select Upload in the top banner to display the Upload window.
- Now, drag one or more files from your desktop into the upload area (the dotted blue box) or click 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.
- Choose the archive to upload the assets from the dropdown list just above the upload area. This will list all the places you have upload access to and, depending on how the system has been configured, you may also be able to select a subfolder.
- 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.
The yellow metadata fields are required, so you cannot start uploading until you have filled them in. - 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 locate the archive by going to the Archives tab.
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. 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, to apply metadata. The web uploader cannot automatically detect an .XMP file is present on your local disk, so if you want to keep any metadata stored in a sidecar file, you must 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 FotoWeb through a web browser, keep in mind that FotoWeb cannot tell which fields have been filled in or not. This is a limitation of using an HTML uploader.
TIP: You can configure FotoWeb to preserve an asset's original metadata when leaving fields blank in the web uploader.
Thus, if the files you upload already have descriptive metadata, one of the following methods may better suit your way of working:
- You can use FotoWeb Desktop to upload files to the archive. FotoWeb Desktop correctly identifies fields that already have metadata in them.
- You can use FotoStation to caption the files and upload them to the FotoWeb server through an action.
- 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 would 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. Should this happen, see this troubleshooting article for information on how to remedy the situation.