Uploading a document to a SharePoint Document Library
After some hours browsing the web I found several techniques to upload a document to a SharePoint Document Library.
- Using a Network share
This option is really simple but mapping a network share on every client PC is perhaps not an option. However, no meta information can be set using this option. - Using the Object Model explained here or via a web service wrapper like here or here.
The object Model requires development on the server and thus doesn't provide remote development scenario's. That's why some add a WS wrapper, however this ain't a good approach when working with huge files. - You can also use the AddAttachement method of the Lists Web Service of SharePoint, described here.
A standard way to add files using the SharePoint Web Services. Again, not recommended for large files. - WebDAV is another way to upload a document this is used by the bulk upload utility from spsdev.com. (This is also used by Windows Explorer and the explorer view of a document library)
This offer better performance and support for larger files, however it doesn't support the versioning aspects of SharePoint. - FrontPage RPC is the hardest but imo best way to upload documents. Read a post and get the code here.
This approach is good for large files and it supports all the SharePoint features, in fact Office Client apps itself uses this. They combine FPRPC together with the SharePoint Web Services (for the SharePoint Task Panel).
if you want to read a good overview of these technologies, check out the powerpoint presentation from Patrick here.