Comments on: Upload from local file via AJAX?

By: l.m.orchard

l.m.orchard — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 17:24:25 +0000

Nope, the iframe approach won’t work for Amazon S3 - which is what this post is really looking for. I’m looking for a 100% client-side solution that uses Amazon’s S3 api. So, no form post uploads, no server-side PHP helpers, just browser-to-S3 HTTP PUT. I don’t think it’s presently possible.

By: Ajax file upload

Ajax file upload — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 16:21:00 +0000

The invisible IFrame works great. I have a script that has suited me fine. You can see it at http://www.seemysites.net/projFolder/uploader - it’s completely free, too.

By: Reg Braithwaite

Reg Braithwaite — Sun, 30 Jul 2006 12:26:21 +0000

ellinas:

Most AJAX file upload solutions work almost exactly as you describe, however they use an invisible iFrame instead of a brand new window.

For example, the upload_progress plug-in for Ruby on Rails uses this method to provide upload progress in real time.

By: ellinas

ellinas — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 18:36:02 +0000

I just hit the wall with the same problem.
My current idea is the following:
- Open a popunder (not to make it annoyingly visible)
- set this window as receiver to the form
- trigger a submit by javascript parallel to the Ajax request
- after upload the popunder can call a jS function in the opener page that talks to the server and receives the uploaded pic for example
- then the popunder closes itself

Could this be a solution?

By: Fred

Fred — Fri, 26 May 2006 15:23:34 +0000

Gmail does not use ajax to upload files. This link shows how we can upload files the way gmail does:
http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-qCsFWG45eqF9lZ05AZldsUC.?p=58

By: Pat Osterday

Pat Osterday — Mon, 10 Apr 2006 12:45:54 +0000

No way to do it in a browser using the current technologies - without changing security restrictions, etc. I did implement an “AJAX style” uploader using ActiveX to browse for a file, base64 encode it and then post it to the server using the XHR object - this was before “AJAX”, but not brain surgery, of course you did have to let IE trust the site to allow the ActiveX stuff access to your hard drive - could’ve signed it I guess, but too much trouble for an Intranet app. GMail is just use an auto submit when you choose a file; in IE they are using a little bit of JS to auto popup the dialog box so you don’t have to have a browse button visable. The AFLAX stuff looks interesting, though.

By: ayssar

ayssar — Sat, 08 Apr 2006 09:38:11 +0000

i’m not sure gmail is ajaxing attachments, i think they’re using a clever combination of iframes and dom manipulation of the input boxes, with perhaps a javascript timer auto-triggered onsubmit().

just guessing there, but i think you can see it if you have a “view rendered source” plugin for your browser…

By: Jes5199 (Jesse Wolfe)

Jes5199 (Jesse Wolfe) — Fri, 07 Apr 2006 23:01:40 +0000

gmail is AJAXing up attachments already. I don’t really know how they’re pulling it off.

By: Martin Atkins

Martin Atkins — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 17:29:42 +0000

I don’t think that you can do that right now, but read-only access to the file pointed to by a file upload element sounds like a good thing to propose to the WHATWG people for inclusion in their Web Applications spec, if it isn’t already there.

As long as it’s read-only and you can’t actually put a filename into that box from script I don’t really see any security flaw to that.

By: Brent Ashley

Brent Ashley — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 15:05:02 +0000

I’ve yet to find a way to automate an http file upload within the browser. You can’t write to the builtin file upload input element’s filename. Possibly a Flash helper would be of use - see http://www.aflax.org for instance.

btw - I’ve sent some emails to your pobox addr lately with no ack. Either I’m a bit stinky or you’re not getting them or a bit of both.