Query explained:

Can I use the following jQuery code to perform file upload using POST method of an ajax request ?

$.ajax({
    type: "POST",
    timeout: 50000,
    url: url,
    data: dataString,
    success: function (data) {
        alert('success');
        return false;
    }
});

If it is possible, do I need to fill data part? Is it the correct way? I only POST the file to the server side.

I have been googling around, but what I found was a plugin while in my plan I do not want to use it. At least for the moment.

jQuery Ajax file upload – Answer #1:

File upload is not possible through AJAX.
You can upload file, without refreshing page by using IFrame.
You can check further details here.

---

UPDATE

With XHR2, File upload through AJAX is supported. E.g. through FormData object, but unfortunately it is not supported by all/old browsers.

FormData support starts from following desktop browsers versions.

• IE 10+
• Firefox 4.0+
• Chrome 7+
• Safari 5+
• Opera 12+

For more detail, see MDN link.

Answer #2:

Iframes are no longer needed for uploading files through ajax. I’ve recently done it by myself. Check out this:

http://dev.w3.org/2006/webapi/FileAPI/#FileReader-interface

Updated the answer and cleaned it up. Use the getSize function to check size or use getType function to check types. Added progressbar html and css code.

var Upload = function (file) {
    this.file = file;
};

Upload.prototype.getType = function() {
    return this.file.type;
};
Upload.prototype.getSize = function() {
    return this.file.size;
};
Upload.prototype.getName = function() {
    return this.file.name;
};
Upload.prototype.doUpload = function () {
    var that = this;
    var formData = new FormData();

    // add assoc key values, this will be posts values
    formData.append("file", this.file, this.getName());
    formData.append("upload_file", true);

    $.ajax({
        type: "POST",
        url: "script",
        xhr: function () {
            var myXhr = $.ajaxSettings.xhr();
            if (myXhr.upload) {
                myXhr.upload.addEventListener('progress', that.progressHandling, false);
            }
            return myXhr;
        },
        success: function (data) {
            // your callback here
        },
        error: function (error) {
            // handle error
        },
        async: true,
        data: formData,
        cache: false,
        contentType: false,
        processData: false,
        timeout: 60000
    });
};

Upload.prototype.progressHandling = function (event) {
    var percent = 0;
    var position = event.loaded || event.position;
    var total = event.total;
    var progress_bar_id = "#progress-wrp";
    if (event.lengthComputable) {
        percent = Math.ceil(position / total * 100);
    }
    // update progressbars classes so it fits your code
    $(progress_bar_id + " .progress-bar").css("width", +percent + "%");
    $(progress_bar_id + " .status").text(percent + "%");
};

How to use the Upload class

//Change id to your id
$("#ingredient_file").on("change", function (e) {
    var file = $(this)[0].files[0];
    var upload = new Upload(file);

    // maby check size or type here with upload.getSize() and upload.getType()

    // execute upload
    upload.doUpload();
});

Progressbar html code

<div id="progress-wrp">
    <div class="progress-bar"></div>
    <div class="status">0%</div>
</div>

Progressbar css code

#progress-wrp {
  border: 1px solid #0099CC;
  padding: 1px;
  position: relative;
  height: 30px;
  border-radius: 3px;
  margin: 10px;
  text-align: left;
  background: #fff;
  box-shadow: inset 1px 3px 6px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.12);
}

#progress-wrp .progress-bar {
  height: 100%;
  border-radius: 3px;
  background-color: #f39ac7;
  width: 0;
  box-shadow: inset 1px 1px 10px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.11);
}

#progress-wrp .status {
  top: 3px;
  left: 50%;
  position: absolute;
  display: inline-block;
  color: #000000;
}

Answer #3:

Ajax post and upload file is possible. I’m using jQuery $.ajax function to load my files. I tried to use the XHR object but could not get results on the server side with PHP.

var formData = new FormData();
formData.append('file', $('#file')[0].files[0]);

$.ajax({
       url : 'upload.php',
       type : 'POST',
       data : formData,
       processData: false,  // tell jQuery not to process the data
       contentType: false,  // tell jQuery not to set contentType
       success : function(data) {
           console.log(data);
           alert(data);
       }
});

As you can see, you must create a FormData object, empty or from (serialized? – $('#yourForm').serialize()) existing form, and then attach the input file.

For the PHP process you can use something like this:

//print_r($_FILES);
$fileName = $_FILES['file']['name'];
$fileType = $_FILES['file']['type'];
$fileError = $_FILES['file']['error'];
$fileContent = file_get_contents($_FILES['file']['tmp_name']);

if($fileError == UPLOAD_ERR_OK){
   //Processes your file here
}else{
   switch($fileError){
     case UPLOAD_ERR_INI_SIZE:   
          $message = 'Error al intentar subir un archivo que excede el tamaño permitido.';
          break;
     case UPLOAD_ERR_FORM_SIZE:  
          $message = 'Error al intentar subir un archivo que excede el tamaño permitido.';
          break;
     case UPLOAD_ERR_PARTIAL:    
          $message = 'Error: no terminó la acción de subir el archivo.';
          break;
     case UPLOAD_ERR_NO_FILE:    
          $message = 'Error: ningún archivo fue subido.';
          break;
     case UPLOAD_ERR_NO_TMP_DIR: 
          $message = 'Error: servidor no configurado para carga de archivos.';
          break;
     case UPLOAD_ERR_CANT_WRITE: 
          $message= 'Error: posible falla al grabar el archivo.';
          break;
     case  UPLOAD_ERR_EXTENSION: 
          $message = 'Error: carga de archivo no completada.';
          break;
     default: $message = 'Error: carga de archivo no completada.';
              break;
    }
      echo json_encode(array(
               'error' => true,
               'message' => $message
            ));
}

Answer #4:

Simple Upload Form

 <script>
   //form Submit
   $("form").submit(function(evt){	 
      evt.preventDefault();
      var formData = new FormData($(this)[0]);
   $.ajax({
       url: 'fileUpload',
       type: 'POST',
       data: formData,
       async: false,
       cache: false,
       contentType: false,
       enctype: 'multipart/form-data',
       processData: false,
       success: function (response) {
         alert(response);
       }
   });
   return false;
 });
</script>

<!--Upload Form-->
<form>
  <table>
    <tr>
      <td colspan="2">File Upload</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <th>Select File </th>
      <td><input id="csv" name="csv" type="file" /></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td colspan="2">
        <input type="submit" value="submit"/> 
      </td>
    </tr>
  </table>
</form>

Answer #5:

I’m pretty late for this but I was looking for an ajax based image uploading solution and the answer I was looking for was kinda scattered throughout this post. The solution I settled on involved the FormData object. I assembled a basic form of the code I put together. You can see it demonstrates how to add a custom field to the form with fd.append() as well as how to handle response data when the ajax request is done.

Upload HTML:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>Image Upload Form</title>
    <script src="//code.jquery.com/jquery-1.9.1.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript">
        function submitForm() {
            console.log("submit event");
            var fd = new FormData(document.getElementById("fileinfo"));
            fd.append("label", "WEBUPLOAD");
            $.ajax({
              url: "upload.php",
              type: "POST",
              data: fd,
              processData: false,  // tell jQuery not to process the data
              contentType: false   // tell jQuery not to set contentType
            }).done(function( data ) {
                console.log("PHP Output:");
                console.log( data );
            });
            return false;
        }
    </script>
</head>

<body>
    <form method="post" id="fileinfo" name="fileinfo" onsubmit="return submitForm();">
        <label>Select a file:</label><br>
        <input type="file" name="file" required />
        <input type="submit" value="Upload" />
    </form>
    <div id="output"></div>
</body>
</html>

In case you are working with php here’s a way to handle the upload that includes making use of both of the custom fields demonstrated in the above html.

Upload.php

<?php
if ($_POST["label"]) {
    $label = $_POST["label"];
}
$allowedExts = array("gif", "jpeg", "jpg", "png");
$temp = explode(".", $_FILES["file"]["name"]);
$extension = end($temp);
if ((($_FILES["file"]["type"] == "image/gif")
|| ($_FILES["file"]["type"] == "image/jpeg")
|| ($_FILES["file"]["type"] == "image/jpg")
|| ($_FILES["file"]["type"] == "image/pjpeg")
|| ($_FILES["file"]["type"] == "image/x-png")
|| ($_FILES["file"]["type"] == "image/png"))
&& ($_FILES["file"]["size"] < 200000)
&& in_array($extension, $allowedExts)) {
    if ($_FILES["file"]["error"] > 0) {
        echo "Return Code: " . $_FILES["file"]["error"] . "<br>";
    } else {
        $filename = $label.$_FILES["file"]["name"];
        echo "Upload: " . $_FILES["file"]["name"] . "<br>";
        echo "Type: " . $_FILES["file"]["type"] . "<br>";
        echo "Size: " . ($_FILES["file"]["size"] / 1024) . " kB<br>";
        echo "Temp file: " . $_FILES["file"]["tmp_name"] . "<br>";

        if (file_exists("uploads/" . $filename)) {
            echo $filename . " already exists. ";
        } else {
            move_uploaded_file($_FILES["file"]["tmp_name"],
            "uploads/" . $filename);
            echo "Stored in: " . "uploads/" . $filename;
        }
    }
} else {
    echo "Invalid file";
}
?>

jQuery Ajax File Upload- Answer #6:

Here’s how I got this working:

HTML

<input type="file" id="file">
<button id='process-file-button'>Process</button>

JS

$('#process-file-button').on('click', function (e) {
    let files = new FormData(), // you can consider this as 'data bag'
        url = 'yourUrl';

    files.append('fileName', $('#file')[0].files[0]); // append selected file to the bag named 'file'

    $.ajax({
        type: 'post',
        url: url,
        processData: false,
        contentType: false,
        data: files,
        success: function (response) {
            console.log(response);
        },
        error: function (err) {
            console.log(err);
        }
    });
});

PHP

if (isset($_FILES) && !empty($_FILES)) {
    $file = $_FILES['fileName'];
    $name = $file['name'];
    $path = $file['tmp_name'];


    // process your file

}

Answer #7:

Using pure js it is easier

async function saveFile(inp) 
{
    let formData = new FormData();           
    formData.append("file", inp.files[0]);
    await fetch('/upload/somedata', {method: "POST", body: formData});    
    alert('success');
}

<input type="file" onchange="saveFile(this)" >

• In server side you can read original file name (and other info) which is automatically included to request.
• You do NOT need to set header “Content-Type” to “multipart/form-data” browser will set it automatically
• This solutions should work on all major browsers.

Here is more developed snippet with error handling, timeout and additional json sending

async function saveFile(inp) 
{
    let user = { name:'john', age:34 };
    let formData = new FormData();
    let photo = inp.files[0];      
         
    formData.append("photo", photo);
    formData.append("user", JSON.stringify(user));  
    
    const ctrl = new AbortController() // timeout
    setTimeout(() => ctrl.abort(), 50000);

    try {
       let r = await fetch('/upload/image', 
         {method: "POST", body: formData, signal: ctrl.signal}); 
       console.log('HTTP response code:',r.status); 
       alert('success');
    } catch(e) {
       console.log('Huston we have problem...:', e);
    }
    
}

<input type="file" onchange="saveFile(this)" >
<br><br>
Before selecting the file Open chrome console > network tab to see the request details.
<br><br>
<small>Because in this example we send request to  the response code will be 404 ofcourse...</small>

Hope you learned something from this post.

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