Transferring Files with MTWeb

Before transferring files with MTWeb, you need to configure the following components:

When you complete the requirements stated above, you are ready to transfer files using MTWeb. The information below is designed to inform the users on the server side of the connection how to transfer files to/from their Web client and/or Ad hoc contacts.

Only the MassTransit plug-in can use the advanced communication protocols of MassTransit - TCP/IP, TCP/IP Secure, and UDT. They provide the ability to modify the transfer packets and buffer sizes in order to increase the transfer speed. In addition, the MassTransit Assistant plug-in allows transferring huge file volumes. In HTTP mode on the other hand, users can transmit only up to 2GB of files in a single transfer but your MTWeb users will be able to send and receive files without installing anything on the machine they are connected from.

Ad hoc delivery works in both transfer modes plug-in and HTTP. They also provide secure files transfers when configured.

Below you can find detailed information about the differences between the two transfer methods.

MassTransit Web Assistant Plug-in supports the following features:

HTTP supports the following features:

Note: Please note that Web client and Ad hoc contacts can transfer only up to 2 GB in a single file transfer in HTTP mode. The MassTransit Assistant plug-in does not have such a limitation.

In this section

Transferring Files with MassTransit Web Assistant Plug-in

Transferring Files with HTTP

MassTransit Unicode Support

Transferring Files with MassTransit Web Assistant Plug-in

The MassTransit Web Assistant plug-in needs to be downloaded and installed by the Web client or the Ad hoc contact the first time they log into the MassTransit web site. After that, they will not be prompted to install it again unless the MassTransit server is upgraded.

If the installed plug-in version is not compatible with the MassTransit server version, the user will be prompted to download and install the newer version. Otherwise, the user will be able to transfer files only with HTTP.

Note: If you are using a plug-in version 6.1.1 or higher, you will be able to transfer files with MassTransit 7 without performing an upgrade. If you want to use the latest features of MassTransit 7, upgrade to the most recent plug-in.

Sending Files with Plug-in

As mentioned above, sending files with the MassTransit Web Assistant plug-in can be performed only by Web client and Ad hoc contacts that have installed it on their machine and are logged into the web site of your MassTransit HP server.

MassTransit 7.1 allows multiple addresses to be entered as file recipients. In order for the Web client or Ad hoc contacts to be able to use this feature, they need to upgrade their MassTransit plug-in to 7.1.x or later.

The contacts can observe the file transfers in the Status tab of the plug-in. They can also see a log of the transfers in the Log tab of the plug-in. For more information about using the plug-in, see the Web Client User Guide.

Receiving Files Sent with Plug-in

When you receive files sent with the MassTransit Assistant plug-in, you can observe the file transfer(s) in the Status window and you can see summary information about the transfers in the Log window of the MassTransit Administrator application. In addition, you can designate services and/or actions that you have configured on the server, to be performed on the received files in the Files window of the MassTransit Administrator application.

The transfer speed obtained with the plug-in is a few times higher than the HTTP(HTTPS) transfer speed since the plug-in uses the specially designed for MassTransit communication protocols - TCP/IP, TCP/IP Secure, and UDT.

Please note that using a secured connection may slow down the transmission speed. When you encrypt the files with methods that use a higher level of encryption, the file transfers are more secure but that increases the time for the transmission.

The transferred files are being received in the Received folder of the contact's mailbox.

Transferring Files with HTTP

In order to enable your Web client and/or Ad hoc contacts to transfer files via HTTP, you need to configure the feature on the server first. See instructions how to enable HTTP transfers below.

Note: In MassTransit 7.1, the HTTP transfer mode is enabled by default.

After that, the contacts can easily switch to use HTTP (and back to plug-in) when they are logged into the MassTransit web site.

If you want to, you can secure your entire traffic of the web server by configuring it to use secure sockets (SSL). Instead of communicating on the default web port (80), your web server will use the default secure port (443). In this case, when the Web client and/or Ad hoc contacts use HTTP to transfer files, they will be actually using HTTPS. Find detailed information about how to secure your web traffic on the Secure MTWeb Configuration page.

Enable HTTP

In order to configure HTTP transfers, follow these steps:

  1. Open the mtweb.ini file in an application suitable for plain text edit. By default, the file is located inside the MTWeb folder:

    Note: All lines beginning with ";" in the mtweb.ini file are considered commented and therefore ignored. You must uncomment all lines mentioned in the steps below.

  2. Under the "FILE TRANSFER" area of the mtweb.ini file, change the line beginning with "HTTP_TRANSFER_ALLOWED =" as shown below:
             HTTP_TRANSFER_ALLOWED = "true"
  3. Verify the line beginning with "HTTP_STAGING_FOLDER =" is set to the path of your php\tmp folder:
             HTTP_STAGING_FOLDER = "C:\php\tmp\"
  4. Set the desired file transfer option to be the default one. Choose between "plugin" and "http":
             a. if you want to use the plug-in by default, set the "DEFAULT_FILE_TRANSFER_TRANSPORT =" setting to:
                DEFAULT_FILE_TRANSFER_TRANSPORT = "plugin"
             b. if you want to use HTTP by default, set the "DEFAULT_FILE_TRANSFER_TRANSPORT =" setting to:
                DEFAULT_FILE_TRANSFER_TRANSPORT = "http"
  5. Save and close the mtweb.ini file.
Sending Files with HTTP

When you have enabled HTTP transfers on the MassTransit server, the Web client and Ad hoc contacts can use it to send files to the server and other contacts and to download files from the server.

MassTransit 7.1.x and later allows multiple addresses to be entered as file recipients.

Web client and Ad hoc contacts can find detailed information about how to transfer files in the Web Client User Guide.