Using HTML5 file uploads with AJAX and jQuery
It's not too hard. Firstly, take a look at FileReader Interface.
So, when the form is submitted, catch the submission process and
var file = document.getElementById('fileBox').files[0]; //Files[0] = 1st filevar reader = new FileReader();reader.readAsText(file, 'UTF-8');reader.onload = shipOff;//reader.onloadstart = ...//reader.onprogress = ... <-- Allows you to update a progress bar.//reader.onabort = ...//reader.onerror = ...//reader.onloadend = ...function shipOff(event) { var result = event.target.result; var fileName = document.getElementById('fileBox').files[0].name; //Should be 'picture.jpg' $.post('/myscript.php', { data: result, name: fileName }, continueSubmission);}
Then, on the server side (i.e. myscript.php):
$data = $_POST['data'];$fileName = $_POST['name'];$serverFile = time().$fileName;$fp = fopen('/uploads/'.$serverFile,'w'); //Prepends timestamp to prevent overwritingfwrite($fp, $data);fclose($fp);$returnData = array( "serverFile" => $serverFile );echo json_encode($returnData);
Or something like it. I may be mistaken (and if I am, please, correct me), but this should store the file as something like 1287916771myPicture.jpg
in /uploads/
on your server, and respond with a JSON variable (to a continueSubmission()
function) containing the fileName on the server.
Check out fwrite()
and jQuery.post()
.
On the above page it details how to use readAsBinaryString()
, readAsDataUrl()
, and readAsArrayBuffer()
for your other needs (e.g. images, videos, etc).
With jQuery (and without FormData API) you can use something like this:
function readFile(file){ var loader = new FileReader(); var def = $.Deferred(), promise = def.promise(); //--- provide classic deferred interface loader.onload = function (e) { def.resolve(e.target.result); }; loader.onprogress = loader.onloadstart = function (e) { def.notify(e); }; loader.onerror = loader.onabort = function (e) { def.reject(e); }; promise.abort = function () { return loader.abort.apply(loader, arguments); }; loader.readAsBinaryString(file); return promise;}function upload(url, data){ var def = $.Deferred(), promise = def.promise(); var mul = buildMultipart(data); var req = $.ajax({ url: url, data: mul.data, processData: false, type: "post", async: true, contentType: "multipart/form-data; boundary="+mul.bound, xhr: function() { var xhr = jQuery.ajaxSettings.xhr(); if (xhr.upload) { xhr.upload.addEventListener('progress', function(event) { var percent = 0; var position = event.loaded || event.position; /*event.position is deprecated*/ var total = event.total; if (event.lengthComputable) { percent = Math.ceil(position / total * 100); def.notify(percent); } }, false); } return xhr; } }); req.done(function(){ def.resolve.apply(def, arguments); }) .fail(function(){ def.reject.apply(def, arguments); }); promise.abort = function(){ return req.abort.apply(req, arguments); } return promise;}var buildMultipart = function(data){ var key, crunks = [], bound = false; while (!bound) { bound = $.md5 ? $.md5(new Date().valueOf()) : (new Date().valueOf()); for (key in data) if (~data[key].indexOf(bound)) { bound = false; continue; } } for (var key = 0, l = data.length; key < l; key++){ if (typeof(data[key].value) !== "string") { crunks.push("--"+bound+"\r\n"+ "Content-Disposition: form-data; name=\""+data[key].name+"\"; filename=\""+data[key].value[1]+"\"\r\n"+ "Content-Type: application/octet-stream\r\n"+ "Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary\r\n\r\n"+ data[key].value[0]); }else{ crunks.push("--"+bound+"\r\n"+ "Content-Disposition: form-data; name=\""+data[key].name+"\"\r\n\r\n"+ data[key].value); } } return { bound: bound, data: crunks.join("\r\n")+"\r\n--"+bound+"--" };};//----------//---------- On submit form:var form = $("form");var $file = form.find("#file");readFile($file[0].files[0]).done(function(fileData){ var formData = form.find(":input:not('#file')").serializeArray(); formData.file = [fileData, $file[0].files[0].name]; upload(form.attr("action"), formData).done(function(){ alert("successfully uploaded!"); });});
With FormData API you just have to add all fields of your form to FormData object and send it via $.ajax({ url: url, data: formData, processData: false, contentType: false, type:"POST"})