Rails Javascript on Button Click Open File Uploader
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I can't seem to reach the end of the fun stuff y'all tin practice with web technologies. Today, I'm going to bear witness yous how to upload files via AJAX.
Starting time, we'll run into how to upload files using vanilla JavaScript. And afterwards on, I'll show how you could utilise the DropzoneJS library to implement drag-and-drop file uploads.
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How to Upload a File With Vanilla JavaScript
There are iii chief components to our project:
- the
multiple
attribute on the fileinput
element - the
FileReader
object from the new File API - the
FormData
object fromXMLHttpRequest
We use themultiple
aspect to allow the user to select multiple files for upload (multiple file upload will work normally even ifFormData
isn't available). As you'll see,FileReader
allows us to show the user thumbnails of the files they're uploading (nosotros'll be expecting images).
For older browsers that don't back upFormData
orFileReader
, the upload behavior will fall back to a normal, non-AJAX file upload.
With that out of the mode, let'south get coding!
Step 1: The Markup and Styling
Let's kickoff with some basic markup and styling. Of course, this isn't the chief part of this tutorial—I won't care for you like a newbie.
The HTML
<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en"> <head> <meta charset="UTF-8" /> <title>HTML5 File API</championship> <link rel="stylesheet" href="way.css" /> </head> <body> <div id="main"> <h1>Upload Your Images</h1> <class method="post" enctype="multipart/course-data" action="upload.php"> <input type="file" proper name="images" id="images" multiple /> <push type="submit" id="btn">Upload Files!</button> </form> <div id="response"></div> <ul id="prototype-list"> </ul> </div> <script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.6.2/jquery.min.js"></script> <script src="upload.js"></script> </torso> </html>
Pretty basic, eh? We've got a class that posts toupload.php, which we'll look at in a second, and a single input element, of typefile
. Notice that it has the booleanmultiple
aspect, which allows the user to select multiple files at once.
That's really all there is to see hither. Permit's motion on.
The CSS
body { font: 14px/one.five helvetica-neue, helvetica, arial, san-serif; padding:10px; } h1 { margin-top:0; } #master { width: 300px; margin:auto; background: #ececec; padding: 20px; border: 1px solid #ccc; } #image-list { list-fashion:none; margin:0; padding:0; } #image-listing li { groundwork: #fff; border: 1px solid #ccc; text-align:center; padding:20px; margin-bottom:19px; } #image-list li img { width: 258px; vertical-align: middle; edge:1px solid #474747; }
No shockers here—we're but creating some basic styling for our upload grade.
Step 2: The PHP
We need to exist able to handle the file uploads on the back stop besides, so let'south encompass that next.
upload.php
<?php foreach ($_FILES["images"]["fault"] as $primal => $error) { if ($fault == UPLOAD_ERR_OK) { $name = $_FILES["images"]["proper name"][$primal]; move_uploaded_file( $_FILES["images"]["tmp_name"][$key], "uploads/" . $_FILES['images']['name'][$key]); } } echo "<h2>Successfully Uploaded Images</h2>";
Bear in mind that these were the kickoff lines of PHP I'd written in easily a yr. You should probably be doing a flake more for security; still, we're simply making sure that in that location are no upload errors. If that's the case, we use the built-inmove_uploaded_file
to movement it to anuploads
folder. Don't forget to make sure that the binder is writable.
So, right at present, we should have a working upload grade. You choose an prototype (multiple, if you want to and your browser lets yous), click theUpload Files! button, and you go the messageSuccessfully Uploaded Images .
Here's what our mini-projection looks like and then far:



Merely, come on, it's 2020: we want more than that. You'll notice that we've linked up jQuery and anupload.js file. Let's crack that open now.
Step 3: The JavaScript
Permit'south swoop right into the JavaScript code for file uploading!
(office () { var input = document.getElementById("images"), formdata = false; if (window.FormData) { formdata = new FormData(); document.getElementById("btn").style.display = "none"; } }();
Hither's what we offset with. Nosotros create two variables:input
is our file input element, and formdata
will be used to ship the images to the server if the browser supports that. We initialize it tofalse
and so bank check to come across if the browser supportsFormData
. If information technology does, nosotros create a newFormData
object. Also, if we can submit the images with AJAX, we don't demand theUpload Images! push button, and so nosotros can hide it. Why don't we need it? Well, we're going to auto-magically upload the images immediately later the user selects them.
The rest of the JavaScript will go within your anonymous self-invoking function. We next create a little helper function that will testify the images once the browser has them:
office showUploadedItem (source) { var list = document.getElementById("paradigm-list"), li = document.createElement("li"), img = certificate.createElement("img"); img.src = source; li.appendChild(img); list.appendChild(li); }
The function takes 1 parameter: the image source (we'll see how we get that presently). Then, nosotros simply observe the list in our markup and create a list item and image. Nosotros set the paradigm source to the source we received, put the prototype in the list item, and put the list item in the listing. Voila!
Next, we have to really have the images, display them, and upload them. As we've said, nosotros'll exercise this when theonchange
event is fired on the input element.
if (input.addEventListener) { input.addEventListener("change", function (evt) { var i = 0, len = this.files.length, img, reader, file; certificate.getElementById("response").innerHTML = "Uploading . . ." for ( ; i < len; i++ ) { file = this.files[i]; if (!!file.blazon.match(/image.*/)) { } } }, false); }
So, what practise nosotros want to do when the user has selected files? First, nosotros create a few variables. The just important one correct at present islen = this.files.length
. The files that the user has selected will be accessible from the objectthis.files
. Right at present, nosotros're only concerned with thelength
property, and then we can loop over the files... and that is exactly what we're doing next. Inside our loop, we fix the current file tofile
for ease of access. The next matter we do is confirm that the file is an image. We tin can do this by comparison the blazon
property with a regular expression. We're looking for a type that starts with "image" and is followed by anything. (The double-bang in front merely converts the result to a boolean.)
Then, what do nosotros do if nosotros have an epitome on our hands?
if ( window.FileReader ) { reader = new FileReader(); reader.onloadend = office (e) { showUploadedItem(e.target.effect); }; reader.readAsDataURL(file); } if (formdata) { formdata.append("images[]", file); }
We cheque to run into if the browser supports creatingFileReader
objects. If it does, we'll create 1.
Hither's how we use aFileReader
object: We're going to laissez passer ourfile
object to thereader.readAsDataURL
method. This creates a data URL for the uploaded prototype. It doesn't work the way you might wait, though. The data URL isn't passed back from the function. Instead, it will exist part of an event object.
With that in mind, we'll demand to register a function on thereader.onloadend
event. This function takes an event object, by which we get the data URL: information technology's ate.target.result
. We're just going to pass this information URL to our showUploadedItem
function (which we wrote above).
Side by side, we check for theformdata
object. Recollect, if the browser supportsFormData
,formdata
will be aFormData
object; otherwise, information technology volition befalse
. So, if we have aFormData
object, nosotros're going to call theappend
method. The purpose of aFormData
object is to hold values that you're submitting via a class, so the suspend
method but takes a cardinal and a value. In our case, our fundamental isimages[]
. By adding the foursquare-brackets to the cease, we make sure that each time we append
another value, we're actually appending information technology to that assortment, instead of overwriting theparadigm
property.
We're almost done. In our for loop, we've displayed each of the images for the user and added them to theformdata
object. At present, we just need to upload the images. Exterior thefor
loop, here's the final piece of our puzzle:
if (formdata) { $.ajax({ url: "upload.php", type: "Mail", information: formdata, processData: false, contentType: false, success: part (res) { document.getElementById("response").innerHTML = res; } }); }
Again, we have to make sure we haveFormData
support; if nosotros don't, theUpload Files! button will be visible, and that'south how the user will upload the photos. However, if we haveFormData
support, we'll have care of uploading via AJAX. Nosotros're using jQuery to handle all the oddities of AJAX across browsers.
Y'all're probably familiar with jQuery's$.ajax
method: you pass it an options object. Theurl
,blazon
, andsuccess
properties should be obvious. Thedata
property is ourformdata
object. Find thoseprocessData
andcontentType
backdrop. According to jQuery's documentation,processData
istrue
by default, and will process and transform the information into a query string. We don't want to practice that, so we gear up this tofaux
. We're likewise settingcontentType
tofalse
to brand sure that data gets to the server equally nosotros expect information technology to.
And that's it. At present, when the user loads the page, they meet this:



And later on they select the images, they'll meet this:



And the images have been uploaded:

So that'south how y'all can upload files using the vanilla JavaScript. In the next department, we'll meet how to implement file upload with the DropzoneJS library.
How to Use the DropzoneJS Library
The DropzoneJS library is a pop complimentary library which allows you lot to implement file uploads in the blink of an heart. It also supports drag-and-drop file uploads along with a beautiful preview feature.
Let'due south accept a look at the following code, which implements the file upload functionality with DropzoneJS.
<!DOCTYPE html> <html> <caput> <script src="./dropzone.js"></script> <link rel="stylesheet" href="./dropzone.css"> </head> <trunk> <form action="/upload.php" class="dropzone"> <div class="fallback"> <input proper name="images" type="file" multiple /> </div> </form> </torso>
You'll take to download thedropzone.js anddropzone.css files locally kickoff.
Apart from that, you just demand to employ thedropzone
class in the form tag, and the DropzoneJS library will handle the rest!
Let's see what it looks like when y'all load information technology in your browser.



Equally you can meet, there's a department which allows you to drop files on information technology. Alternatively, you could too select files from your computer by using the default file selection dialog box. Go alee and driblet a few image files on it, and it should nowadays y'all with a squeamish preview, as shown in the following screenshot.



Doesn't that look astonishing, with merely a few lines of lawmaking? In fact, the DropzoneJS library also allows you to customize the UI and other stuff. I would encourage you to bank check the configuration options provided by this library.
Autonomously from this, there's the filepond library, which is also a popular file upload library you could use. It provides features like drag and driblet, progress bar, previews, and reordering.
That'south a Wrap!
Uploading files via AJAX is pretty absurd, and it'southward peachy that these new technologies back up that without the need for lengthy hacks.
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This post has been updated with contributions from Sajal Soni. Sajal belongs to Bharat and he loves to spend time creating websites based on open source frameworks.
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Source: https://code.tutsplus.com/tutorials/uploading-files-with-ajax--net-21077
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