Question

My asp.Net MVC app needs to store a byte array that represents a user-selected PDF file per record in the database. The SQL column is a Varbinary(max).

The approach I’m contemplating is to use Telerik’s (most awesome) KendoUI Upload control to asynchronously upload the selected PDF to the controller method. The controller method converts the PDF to bytes using classes in the System.IO namespace, and I return that byte array in a Json result. I have an event handler on the page that waits for this result, and then writes that byte array to a hidden input, which then gets saved with the rest of the record when the user clicks the save button, posting the Form back to the server.

My gut feel is that I have some nasty inefficiency here…

1. the pdf is sent to the server (probably already in some form of byte array created by the Upload control).

2. the result of the upload method returns a byte array back to the page.

3. the page then submits the form postback, containing the byte array that will be saved to the database.

My thinking is that step 3 is the only network traffic required here. Is there any way that conversion from a PDF document to a byte array can happen on the client instead? What clever JavaScript/jQuery would do this?

Answer 1

Here:

The controller method converts the PDF to bytes using classes in the
System.IO namespace, and I return that byte array in a Json result. I
have an event handler on the page that waits for this result, and then
writes that byte array to a hidden input, which then gets saved with
the rest of the record when the user clicks the save button, posting
the Form back to the server.

Change this logic to:

The controller method converts the PDF to bytes using classes in the
System.IO namespace, and saves it to the database and returns a Json result.
indicating the success or failure of this operation. No more hidden fields, no
more byte arrays. When the client submits the form, the file should no
longer be sent to the server because it was already sent and stored in
the database. So in the controller action that will process the form
submission I associate the other form fields with the file in the
database record.