From: "Hal E. Fulton" <hal9000@...>
Date: 2002-09-19T07:29:01+09:00
Subject: Semi-OT: Web issues

There's a disturbing absence of Ruby code
in this post, but it's somewhat on-topic
as I intend to write a Ruby app for this.

I've been playing with CafePress.com lately.
This is an "on-demand" printing place that
lets people upload their images and put
them on mugs, frisbees, clocks, shirts, and
so on.

If you want to look at my problem in any
detail, you'll have to spend five minutes
signing up for a free store. The relevant
portions of the site require a login.

And no, I don't blame you if you don't
bother.

The process is all web-based and a little
clunky. I've thought about writing a tool
to assist.

They have a page where all your graphics
are stored, called the "image basket."
To add a graphic, you browse to it on
your hard drive and it's uploaded.

Difficulties:

1. First of all, it won't work if your
login times out. I'm not even certain
how it knows you're logged in. With any
luck, it's some kind of timestamped
token on the server end. If it's a cookie
on my end, that would complicate my code.

2. I started by taking the image-upload
HTML and stripping it to its bare minimum.
However: This "bare minimum" doesn't work.
(Even when I've just logged in via the
browser.) I tried using Javascript to
fiddle with the referrer, thinking it
might be checking that. No luck so far.
HTML shown below.

Of course, what I'd really like is just
a little Ruby method that will take a
local filename and upload it programmatically.
(I hate that word. But you know what I mean.)

Cheers,
Hal

<html>
<body>

<!-- stripped-down HTML... doesn't work!! -->

<form method="post" name="upload" enctype="multipart/form-data"
 action="http://crunch.cafepress.com/uploadimage.aspx">

<input type=checkbox name="copyright_check" checked>I agree to the
statements made above.

<div align="center">
Image File <input type=file name="txtUpload">
<!--value="\my documents\my pictures\myfile.jpg"> -->

<br>

<input type="submit" value="Upload">

</Form>

</body>
</html>