Upload File Window + Browsers + Is It a System Window?
Read files in JavaScript
How to select files, read file metadata and content, and monitor read progress.
— Updated
Existence able to select and interact with files on the user's local device is 1 of the most commonly used features of the spider web. Information technology allows users to select files and upload them to a server, for case, uploading photos, or submitting tax documents, etc. But, it too allows sites to read and dispense them without ever having to transfer the data beyond the network.
The modern File System Access API #
The File System Access API provides an piece of cake manner to both read and write to files and directories on the user's local arrangement. It's currently available in about Chromium-derived browsers like Chrome or Edge. To learn more than about information technology, run into the File System Access API article.
Since the File System Access API is not uniform with all browsers nevertheless, bank check out browser-fs-access, a helper library that uses the new API wherever information technology is available, but falls back to legacy approaches when information technology is not.
Working with files, the classic way #
This guide shows you how to:
- Select files
- Using the HTML input element
- Using a drag-and-drib zone
- Read file metadata
- Read a file'south content
Select files #
HTML input element #
The easiest way to allow users to select files is using the <input type="file">
element, which is supported in every major browser. When clicked, it lets a user select a file, or multiple files if the multiple
attribute is included, using their operating organisation'southward built-in file selection UI. When the user finishes selecting a file or files, the element's change
event is fired. You can access the list of files from result.target.files
, which is a FileList
object. Each item in the FileList
is a File
object.
<!-- The `multiple` aspect lets users select multiple files. -->
<input type = "file" id = "file-selector" multiple >
<script >
const fileSelector = document. getElementById ( 'file-selector' ) ;
fileSelector. addEventListener ( 'change' , ( consequence ) => {
const fileList = outcome.target.files;
console. log (fileList) ;
} ) ;
</script >
This case lets a user select multiple files using their operating system's built-in file choice UI so logs each selected file to the console.
Limit the types of files user can select #
In some cases, you may want to limit the types of files users can select. For example, an image editing app should only accept images, not text files. To do that, yous tin add an accept
attribute to the input element to specify which files are accepted.
<input type = "file" id = "file-selector" accept = ".jpg, .jpeg, .png" >
Custom drag-and-drop #
In some browsers, the <input type="file">
element is also a drop target, allowing users to drag-and-drop files into your app. But, the drop target is pocket-size, and can exist hard to use. Instead, once you lot've provided the core functionality using an <input type="file">
element, you can provide a big, custom drag-and-drop surface.
Choose your drop zone #
Your drop surface will depend on the blueprint of your application. You lot may just desire part of the window to exist a drop surface, or potentially the unabridged window.

Squoosh allows the user to elevate-and-drop an paradigm anywhere into the window, and clicking select an image invokes the <input type="file">
element. Whatever you choose as your drop zone, make sure it's clear to the user that they tin elevate-and-drib files onto that surface.
Ascertain the driblet zone #
To enable an element to be a drag-and-drop zone, you'll demand to listen for ii events, dragover
and drop
. The dragover
event updates the browser UI to visually indicate that the drag-and-driblet activity is creating a copy of the file. The driblet
consequence is fired after the user has dropped the files onto the surface. Similar to the input element, you lot can access the list of files from event.dataTransfer.files
, which is a FileList
object. Each item in the FileList
is a File
object.
const dropArea = document. getElementById ( 'drop-area' ) ; dropArea. addEventListener ( 'dragover' , ( upshot ) => {
issue. stopPropagation ( ) ;
event. preventDefault ( ) ;
// Fashion the drag-and-drib as a "copy file" performance.
consequence.dataTransfer.dropEffect = 'copy' ;
} ) ;
dropArea. addEventListener ( 'drop' , ( effect ) => {
upshot. stopPropagation ( ) ;
event. preventDefault ( ) ;
const fileList = effect.dataTransfer.files;
console. log (fileList) ;
} ) ;
event.stopPropagation()
and event.preventDefault()
stop the browser'due south default behavior from happening, and allow your code to run instead. Without them, the browser would otherwise navigate away from your page and open the files the user dropped into the browser window.
Check out Custom elevate-and-drop for a alive sit-in.
What almost directories? #
Unfortunately, today there isn't a good mode to get access to a directory.
The webkitdirectory
attribute on the <input type="file">
chemical element allows the user to choose a directory or directories. It is supported in some Chromium-based browsers, and possibly desktop Safari, just has alien reports of browser compatibility.
If drag-and-driblet is enabled, a user may try to drag a directory into the drib zone. When the drib event is fired, it volition include a File
object for the directory, but will be unable to access any of the files within the directory.
The File
object contains a number of metadata properties about the file. Well-nigh browsers provide the file proper name, the size of the file, and the MIME type, though depending on the platform, different browsers may provide different, or additional information.
function getMetadataForFileList ( fileList ) {
for ( const file of fileList) {
// Not supported in Safari for iOS.
const name = file.name ? file.proper noun : 'NOT SUPPORTED' ;
// Non supported in Firefox for Android or Opera for Android.
const type = file.type ? file.type : 'NOT SUPPORTED' ;
// Unknown cantankerous-browser support.
const size = file.size ? file.size : 'Non SUPPORTED' ;
panel. log ( {file, proper noun, type, size} ) ;
}
}
Yous tin can run into this in activity in the input-blazon-file
Glitch demo.
Read a file's content #
To read a file, apply FileReader
, which enables y'all to read the content of a File
object into memory. You tin instruct FileReader
to read a file as an assortment buffer, a information URL, or text.
function readImage ( file ) {
// Cheque if the file is an prototype.
if (file.type && !file.blazon. startsWith ( 'image/' ) ) {
console. log ( 'File is not an paradigm.' , file.type, file) ;
render ;
} const reader = new FileReader ( ) ;
reader. addEventListener ( 'load' , ( event ) => {
img.src = upshot.target.result;
} ) ;
reader. readAsDataURL (file) ;
}
The case above reads a File
provided by the user, and so converts it to a information URL, and uses that information URL to display the prototype in an img
element. Check out the read-epitome-file
Glitch to run across how to verify that the user has selected an image file.
Monitor the progress of a file read #
When reading large files, it may be helpful to provide some UX to bespeak how far the read has progressed. For that, use the progress
issue provided by FileReader
. The progress
event provides two properties, loaded
, the amount read, and total
, the total amount to read.
function readFile ( file ) {
const reader = new FileReader ( ) ;
reader. addEventListener ( 'load' , ( event ) => {
const consequence = result.target.event;
// Do something with effect
} ) ;
reader. addEventListener ( 'progress' , ( upshot ) => {
if (upshot.loaded && event.total) {
const percent = (event.loaded / issue.full) * 100 ;
panel. log ( ` Progress: ${Math. round (percent) } ` ) ;
}
} ) ;
reader. readAsDataURL (file) ;
}
Hero image by Vincent Botta from Unsplash
Last updated: — Improve article
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Source: https://web.dev/read-files/
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