Uploading Files to a Database in ASP.NET and C# ~ ASP.Net Examples

Database Design : Create a sample ‘ExampleDB’ in VS 2010, which holds the table for storing files.

Open VS 2010 -> View -> Server Explorer
Right Click ‘Data Connections’ node -> Add new SQL Server Database
Select a Server (from DropDownList) -> Prefer Windows Authentication -> Give a Name to the new database, here we use ‘ExampleDB’.

The database has been created, now we create a table.

Expand ‘ExampleDB’ in the Server Explorer -> Right Click ‘Tables’ folder -> Select ‘Add New Table’.

Give the details of the table fields as shown below –

Save (press CTRL + SHFT + S) the table, it asks to give a table name; in this case we use ‘FilesData’.

Save the Database – This completes the Database design. Now lets write some code to save files into the database. First we get started by creating a StoredProcedure to save files into a table.

Stored Procedure : Create a Stored Proc – ‘SaveFilesProc’– which is used to save files into the DB.

To create a Stored Proc –

Expand ExampleDB in the Server Explorer -> Right Click -> Stored Procedures Folder -> Select -> Add new Stored Procedure

Remove complete code from the Stored Procedure and place the below code –

ALTER PROCEDURE dbo.SaveFilesProc
    (
    @Data Varbinary(MAX),
    @FileName Varchar(50),
    @FileExtension Varchar(50)
    )
AS
BEGIN

insert into FilesData(Data,FileName,FileExtension) values (@Data,@FileName,@FileExtension)

END

And then save the Stored Procedure. This creates a Stored Proc with name –‘SaveFilesProc’ with a simple insert statement which inserts data into the table ‘FilesData’.

With this we complete the preparation on the Database side. The Database structure would be –

As the Database is ready, now we can start writing code to save our files into the DB from a Webform. Before we code a Webform, lets create a class – which will hold the code for Database activity. So lets get started with this task by creating a website.

Creat Sample Website : Create a sample ‘SaveToDB’ website in VS 2010.

Open Vs 2010 –> File –> New –> Website.
select –> C#
Select ‘Asp.Net Empty Website’ –> name – ‘SaveToDB’.

Code Behind ( SaveFile.cs) : This class holds the code to access the stored proc (we created above)

and store the file from the FileUpload control to DB.

Right Click ‘SaveToDB’ folder in Solution explorer of VS 2010.
Select ‘Add Asp.Net Folder…’ –> App_code.
Add SaveFile.cs (Right Click App_Code folder in Solution Explorer –> Add New Item –> Class).

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using System.Data;
using System.Data.SqlClient;

public class SaveFile
{
    public string fileName { set;  get; }
    public string fileExtension { set;  get; }
    public byte[] data { set;  get; }

    public string SaveFileToDB()
    {
        using (SqlConnection conn = new SqlConnection("Data Source=RAMILU-PC\\SQLEXPRESS;" +
             "Initial Catalog=ExampleDB;Integrated Security=True;Pooling=False"))
        {
            SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand();
            cmd.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure;
            cmd.CommandText = "SaveFilesProc";
            cmd.Connection = conn;

            cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("@Data", data);
            cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("@FileName", fileName);
            cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("@FileExtension", fileExtension);

            try
            {
                conn.Open();
                cmd.ExecuteNonQuery();
                return "File stored Successfully!!!";
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                return ex.Message;
            }
            finally
            {
                conn.Close();
                cmd.Dispose();
                conn.Dispose();
            }
        }
    }
}

Default.aspx : This is the page which holds the UI for selecting a file, also it uses SaveFile.cs and

stores the file to the DB.

Right Click ‘SaveToDB’ folder in Solution explorer of VS 2010.
Select ‘Add New Item’ –> Webform
Give name Default.aspx

<%@ Page Language="C#" %>
<%@ Import Namespace="System.IO" %>

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

<script runat="server">
    protected void Button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        SaveFile sf = new SaveFile();

        if (FileUpload1.HasFile)
        {
            sf.fileName = FileUpload1.PostedFile.FileName;
            sf.fileExtension = Path.GetExtension(FileUpload1.PostedFile.FileName);
            sf.data = FileUpload1.FileBytes;

            Label1.Text = sf.SaveFileToDB();
        }
    }
</script>

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head runat="server">
    <title></title>
</head>
<body>
    <form id="form1" runat="server">
    <div>

        Select a File to upload the same to DB - <br />

        <asp:FileUpload
            ID="FileUpload1"
            runat="server" />

        <asp:RequiredFieldValidator
            ID="RequiredFieldValidator1"
            runat="server"
            ControlToValidate="FileUpload1"
            ErrorMessage="RequiredFieldValidator">
        </asp:RequiredFieldValidator><br />

        <asp:Button
            ID="Button1"
            runat="server"
            Text="Save to DB" OnClick="Button1_Click" /><br />

        <asp:Label
            ID="Label1"
            runat="server">
        </asp:Label>

    </div>
    </form>
</body>
</html>