After a month in the making, I’m happy to announce the first release of the Desktop Media Uploader package for Umbraco.

Having released a number of sites in Umbraco, I always love the feedback I get from clients on how simple it is to use. But the one area I do get some negative comments on, is the amount of steps it takes to upload files to the media section. I have had some success with existing packages such as Tim Geyssen’s Zip Upload and Keller’s Multi File Upload, but I was sure there could be an even easier way.

Being a big fan of Dropbox, I started to think, how could I make uploading files to an Umbraco site as simple as dragging and dropping? And with that, Desktop Media Uploader was born.

Once you install the Desktop Media Uploader package, you’ll find a new dashboard added to the Media section of your site, with a link to install the Desktop Media Uploader app. Simply click the link, and the install process will start automatically.

Once the app is installed, launching the app is as simple as double clicking the icon installed on your desktop.

When you first launch the app, you will be presented with the sign in screen. Simply enter the URL of your website, and your username and password and click Sign in (optionally, you can set whether the app should remember your details, and whether it should sign in automatically).

Once you are signed in, you will now see the main screen for the Desktop Media Uploader. From here you can launch the folder picker to select a media folder to upload files to (by double clicking on a folder), and then simply drag and drop files in to the upload area.

Once you have everything queued up, just click the Upload button to upload everything to your website.

It’s as simple as that.

For a complete run through, checkout the video below.

(You can view a higher res version on screenr.com)

So what’s next?

There are still loads of features that I will be implementing in Desktop Media Uploader in the future, including:

  • Multiple Accounts
  • Folder support
  • Chunked uploads
  • And many more

The ultimate aim is to make Desktop Media Uploader the simplest, and best way to upload media to Umbraco.

If you like what you’ve seen, then please do download Desktop Media Uploader and try it out for yourself, and if you find it useful, then please do vote it up. If you find any issues, or there is something you’d like to see in the next version, then why not drop a thread in the support forums.

Happy uploading.

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