Amazon S3 Uploads with Iptanus File Upload Plugin

Since version 4.16.0, the Iptanus File Upload plugin can send uploads to Amazon S3. Files that your visitors upload are transferred to an S3 account of your choosing.

Linking an Amazon S3 account

Open the plugin’s Settings in the Dashboard:

The Amazon S3 Uploads area shows as not activated, with a Press here button. Pressing it reveals two boxes, for a Key ID and a Secret:

Both come from the Amazon S3 account you want to link. A separate article explains how to obtain them.

Press Finish. After a couple of seconds the page reloads and the setting reads “Activated”, which means the plugin and the account are linked:

Sending a form’s uploads to S3

Add the attribute amazons3=”true” to the plugin’s shortcode. If you prefer the Shortcode Composer, open the Interoperability tab and switch on Upload to Amazon S3:

The six further options

• The bucket — the amazons3bucket attribute, or Amazon S3 Bucket in the composer. This one is required, since S3 stores everything in buckets, and the bucket needs permissions that let the plugin write to it. The configuration article covers how to set them.
• The destination folder inside the bucket — the amazons3path attribute, or Amazon S3 Path in the composer. A folder that does not exist yet is created when the first file arrives. With no path set, files go to the root of the bucket.
• Access permissions — the amazons3access attribute, set to “private” or “public”, or Amazon S3 File Access in the composer. A private file (the default) is reachable only by the account owner; a public one by anyone holding its link.
• The user data — the amazons3userdata attribute set to “true”, or Include Userdata in the composer. If your upload form collects user data, it is stored in the file’s S3 metadata:

• The local copy — the amazons3local attribute, set to “delete” or “keep”, or Local File Action in the composer. It decides whether the file stays on your own server once it has been transferred.
• Sharing the file — the amazons3share attribute set to “true”, or Share/List Amazon S3 File in the composer. With it on, the plugin shows a link to the S3 file on the Uploaded Files page in the Dashboard. File Access must be “public” for that link to work.

Once Amazon S3 uploads are switched on, every file uploaded through the plugin is transferred to the bucket you named.

If you have questions, problems or suggestions, please contact us.

The Iptanus team