Is it possible to read the contents of an uploaded file (through <form><input type="file">) from inside javascript with no backend? I suppose it's possible with HTML5, but what about HTML4?
You can read (not upload - well, you can upload too, but that's like sending fan-mail to Edgar Allen Poe; nothing stops you but he won't be able to read it) from files if your script runs in a very trusted context.
If anyone on your network is browsing the web in a browser set to give that much trust, disconnect their machine from the network first, make their settings tighter second.
I don't know if I understand correctly. How about using something like uploadify together with jQuery. I guess you'll have to grant the webserver the privilege to write in the specified folders.
The security model will not let you unless you change the security to allow this.
http://www.mozilla.org/projects/security/components/signed-scripts.html
Can you elaborate on what you want to do?
I read the question as "How do I grab the contents from a file chosen using a file upload field and process it on the client without involving a backend/webserver".
I am thinking UniversalBrowserRead access for FF and HTA filesystem for IE for example
Related
Is it possible for a web application to read local files, and display them without having to upload them?
I know that when I upload something, web browser can show me the file picker and let me choose the file. Can someone enlighten me on this?
No. Modern browsers do not allow you to access local file or local file structure. It is a security vulnerability. Browser security is pretty tight, and getting tighter. Local file:// access is usually permitted if you run the browser App from the local file system, and not through an HTTP server.
It is possible. However, the user may be viewing the page from any OS or browser, making this almost impossible. The user would have to have the file you want to display in one directory as a specific filename and filetype. You would even have to have a specific user account name. It would only work in one OS - windows, in my example.
<embed src="file:///C:/users/user/filename.exe">
<img src="file:///C:/Users/User/photos/picture.jpg">
I don't know if you could add in variables in php like $path and $filetype set in a form using
echo("embed src='$path/$filename') I didn't add the html code blocks becuase It would't show up. Also, in php make sure html code blocks have ' instead of " because it will read as the end of code.
(I don't know much about php - if I made a mistake, sorry.)
I am wondering if there is any method of reading file on the client side with javascript given the file name and path. I am aware of the method of reading through: input type="file".
What I mean is without opening up a file browser and selecting the file, just reading it with filename, like fopen.
If not an other method, how to instantiate a File object in javascript from filename and path?
Seeing the answers I thought of briefing a bit more on my purpose.
I am not really making a webpage. I am using browser just as a software that is available on any system. The html pages will all be local. I am doing this way be so that I have the advantage of the power of js. Given this situation is there any way to set permission flags that will let it read files?
Thank you.
There's the Drag 'n Drop API which would be the other option in reading files using JS
There will always be hurdles so that your code will not directly read from the client's filesystem. This is designed for privacy and security purposes.
Extensions/Plugins - sandboxing will be your enemy, limiting file system access
Java Applet - Needs a signed certificate to read the filesystem. A self-signed certificate will generate the "Will You Trust This Applet" prompt which would act as the security prompt.
Input type=file - gives the user the option to select the files or not
drag and drop - gives the user the option to drag in files or not
XHR - Same Origin Policy will block you, especially if you are executing the page locally and not on a server.
JSONP - Since this bypasses the SOP, however, your file should be in JSONP format.
I found solution to my problem, here it is...
It is true that we have restriction with javascript that whenever the user or the page requests for a file it has to go through that extra window that pops up,
but if all the files that you may request are inside a known folder then you can rather ask the user to point the zipped folder instead.
One can use tools like zip.js for opening a file that one needs in the zipped folder.
Thank you :)
I am trying to do a simple thing:
Let the user choose a txt file, and save its context to be used on the client side only.
no server side needed.
Is it possible ?
Thanks.
It is possible to do so with HTML5 Files API as explained in these resources:
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Using_files_from_web_applications
http://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/file/dndfiles/
I guess you mean "save its content" and conclude you want to do anything with this content on the client side, e.g. extract some parts to fill a form. Anyway saving the whole file unchanged, on the same machine where it comes from, does not make sense.
So the problem is not how to upload, but how to open/read a file. You can do this with a Java Applet, Flash, Silverlight, ActiveX ... just to name a few.
JavaScript is not an option. It cannot access the file system.
If the html page, that is hosting your javascript, is from a remote server. This script is not trusted to do actions on your local filesystem.
<Obscure solution mode level = 1>
You can give more trust to a page, but this is something your user has to do. If this is an app/web only for use within an enterprise, you can probably do this centrally. And every browser handles this differently. So it is not something you can rely on, when you do not have a limited userbase.
<Obscure solution mode level = high>
If your (enterprise) users are using Internet Explorer, you could also create a HTML Application (simply give your html page an hta extension). These pages have full trust, but can only be started from a trusted location, or require confirmation from the user.
The only way you can acheive this successfully is to build an ActiveX type plugin/component (or java applet) you will have much more control of the client machine.
No. JavaScript cannot access the local filesystem.
However, you could install a webserver on your machine and e.g. run PHP on that one. Then you could do it without ever sending your data over a network connection. That would require you to do your data processing in PHP though.. probably not what you want. Or you could simply send back the data to your javascript.. but that'd be pretty awful to run an upload just to make the data available to JavaScript.
I have a Firefox component for PDF signing that I invoke via Javascript. The problem is that this component outputs the signed PDF as a file on the user's filesystem - there is no way to get a byte[], stream or similar.
I need to post this signed PDF file back to the server. Is it possible to do this in plain Javascript, without additional Firefox components?
You can't do this without under intervention, this would he a huge security hole. Think about visiting a webpage and it being able to grab and upload any of your files without you doing a thing...you can see how this would be abused really fast.
You might be able to do this with a Firefox extension, I'm not sure of the security limitations it imposes (though I wouldn't be surprised if it disallowed this as well), but JavaScript would not be an option here.
There's no direct way to access data on a user's file system within a browser unless you're doing it through an extension. This would be a huge security risk.
If the file can be put into an <input type="file" /> element in Firefox, you can use JavaScript to automatically upload the data to the server without user intervention, but you would need something to initially get the file into the page's memory, not the file system.
Hell no - And for very good reason. You wouldn't want every Tom, Dick and Harry automatically grabbing all your files.
I believe it's the file input that needs user interaction. You can post the form automatically but you can't fill it in.
IMO your best bet is replacing the whole Firefox component with a single Java applet - I'd all but guarantee there's a Java project for PDF signing. Perhaps even Flash or Silverlight as long as you can do what you need with your PDF.
I want to list the names of HTML files in a particular folder using JavaScript (in the browser)...
Can anybody help me in this?
Thank You
If you're using Javascript that's running in the browser, there's no way to "open a folder". You have to obtain data about the folder contents through some data structure or by doing something like parsing a server generated folder index in HTML.
If you're using Javascript that's running on a non-browser engine (such as jscript, rhino, etc.) then you have to be more specific in the question as the answer will obviously depend on whether the engine where your script is running provides objects to access the filesystem or not.
This is what you are asking for:
http://www.irt.org/articles/js014/index.htm
Also read on FSO
But yes, if you can't use FSO if ActiveX is disabled on client system.
Javascript can't interact with the OS while running inside a browser, due to security concerns.
It can get a list from the server and display that to the client on the browser, but, to get a directory structure from the client computer to the browser would require some other application reading the directory structure and sending it to the server, and the server sending it to the browser.
Now, if you are using Actionscript it is possible to read the hard drive, and I expect that Silverlight would allow you to do this also, but I don't know.