so basically I have a multistep form with X steps.
In the first step, I offer a file upload form to the user.
This just behaves like a normal HTML file uploader:
User selects file
File Box, shows pathname
If the user clicks on "next" the file should not be uploaded.
If the user reaches the last step of the form, the files he/she has choosen in step-1 should be uploaded now.
I have no idea if this is actually possible. There are also a couple of problems
The value from input type="file" gives something like C:\fakepath\filename.ext
Saving the above in a session for later upload does not make sense.
How can I get the uploader to work in the last step?
Yes, this is actually possible, and saving data between pages make sense, otherwise, how could you remember what he sets in the file input?
If it is a simple HTML page, I assume your are using PHP. Register files in a temporary variable or session, put it in a hidden input in the HTML code if you don't use session.
At the last step, set your files and upload it.
Good luck.
Related
I'm Just working on a simple form in PHP but i have a problem, i have many fields in my form and one of these is a file input type, if there are no issues with the file uploaded but an error occurred on another field, How can I ( in the refreshed page) maintain the file previously uploaded?
Edit: We understood what you want, but this is not possible, filling the file-input again automatically after validation. The user has to select his files again, this is how browsers works, for security matters.
Well, since you know what you're doing, you dont really need a script, you really need some help/ideas on how to approach what you want. What I would do is:
- Save the path of the uploaded file in session user data variable, like $_SESSION['uploaded_file'], and retrieve it after error.
- Use AJAX, different form, to upload the file before user hit submit.
Obs: If the user gives up on completing the form even though he uploaded a file, his files will be on your server, 'stealing' some useful space. So I don't know if this is a really good approach, but a good one, would be using different forms, disassembling the upload action from the form's informations.
Real example: If user is filling out a form to be a member of your website/forum/whatever, just let him upload the profile picture later, only when his account is really active. You could be saving some trouble.
Another one: If the user just wants to change profile picture, also make the uploading action to have no influence (and vice-versa) with his profile informations and etc. This is a trouble-saver, and a better approaching solution.
But, if you're like uploading a photo to a gallery and setting description and etc for the picture, then you could be using of a more elaborated validation, using javascript/ajax to check if fields are being filled correctly before submiting data.
On your upload code first save the values into SESSION like:
$_SESSION[name] = $_POST[name];
then print it into your INPUTS like:
<input type="text" name="name" value="<?=$_SESSION[name]?>">
Don't forget to use session_start().
Or look for javascript alternatives
I'm creating a php form that works in this way:
1) The user fills the form and add a file to upload;
2) The submitted information is shown to the user for confirmation;
3) Upon confirmation, a email is sent with all the data, including the file.
My problem is that I get access to the uploaded file on the second step, but not on the third step. Due to security reasons, it's not possible to resend the file on the second step by creating a input file field with a default value (the uploaded file).
It's possible to achieve what I'm trying to do, without having to copy the uploaded file to another folder?
The solution to my question was to place the actual file upload only on confirmation page. There was no way to "carry" the file upload from a page to another in the way I wanted to.
Thanks for the replies.
My client wants to have a 3 page form. The first page allows the user to enter data including a uploaded file. the second page confirms this data. and the third page submits the data to the database and directories.
Via post, I can keep saving the data to a hidden input fields, thats no problem. My problem is the uploaded file. how do I hold that document from page to page ? I am using Cakephp but any advice would help, thanks
You can always just create the illustion that the form is utilising three different pages. Use AJAX to accept and validate/request the user confirm their submitted data. If in this view they accept it initiate a POST to submit all that data.
You really don't need three physically different files to achieve this but you can still let it appear in three stages to keep your client happy.
You just upload the file to temp directory and keep the value in hidden variables just like other form data . If form successfully submitted then the image copy to desired location other wise delete the image
You can easily fake these 3 pages using CSS. Or even 2, as "third page" is actually a server script which has nothing to do with pages in the browser.
Just make your form, then put an event on the submit button which changes divs to whatever "confirmation page" he wants. and then actually send the form using a button on this page.
that's all
An uploaded file is always held temporarily. The server env var should tell you where it is. In Ruby's rack it is stored in the params var. So I guess there is a similar params var in php which has a hash with all the necessary information.
Since the file would be uploaded on the first step, one option is to put the file's location in a hidden input field along with the rest of the data (either there, or put it in the session). With CakePHP, if your file field looks somewhat like that:
<input type="file" name="data[User][image]" id="UserImage" />
Then you will be able to capture the location through
$location = $this->data['User']['image']['tmp_name'];
Which will correspond to something like /var/tmp/xxxxxx
On the last page, if the user confirms all the data, you just use move_uploaded_file() to put the file wherever you want on the server.
move_uploaded_file($location, '/new/location');
Not really sure where to start on this one and a day of google searches hasn't helped much.
I am working on a submission form where my logged in users can submit data in form fields and attach a number of files. These files should be available to the users across many submissions so as not to clog up my database with duplicate files and for user convenience not having to reupload files many times. The files will be mostly PDFs and word docs.
My question is, what is the most elegant solution to letting my user select a previously submitted file for their current submission and to "attach" or associate that file with multiple submissions? Some drop down box that shows previous uploads seems best and if you agree any code snippets would be super helpful.
I've decided to store the document files as blobs in their own table. I'm running php and MySQL on Linux with godaddy.
Thanks for advice on where to look for code samples in advance. Just haven't been able to find what I'm looking for. Is JavaScript necessary here?
A better way to handle file uploads is to simply store the file-name (which should be generated as unique) in the database and store the actual file in a directory. That way, you won't have this issue of storing it in a BLOB. Is there any reason you are doing that over this method?
Now, if you output a SELECT form element with a list of filenames stored in the database, a user can simply select one and all you need to do is store that filename in the new row. Then, all rows that point to that file name will point to the same file, with no need to upload it.
If you want to allow multiple file uploads or "attachments" in this case, then you are going to need to create a one-to-many relationship in the database. Each submission row will have many rows in another table that point to it, all referencing the corresponding files uploaded. Such that any submission can have zero, 1, 2, or more files attached. If they select files that already exist, great, just copy the username as stated above. IF its a new file, then you should upload that file and add its name to the database.
Javascript isn't required but it would be nice - to add interactivity to your form. If you want to allow for a user to click say, "Add New File", and have a new file upload form element appear.
Start with a a form. Add a select with the list of files associated with that user. Add another form element that allows for file upload. Have all of your other stuff as normal.
On page view, populate the select with the filenames and put the row IDs for that file in the <option value="file_id_xxx">....
In your server script, detect if a file was uploaded; if so, complete the process of storing the file and set the file reference as the associated file for the submission; if not, check that a file was selected from the dropdown and if so, save the reference from the select with previous uploaded files with the submission instead.
Javascript may help in disabling the select or file upload input, depending. But it's not necessary.
Ok so I have a HTML form, 10 files get uploaded. 6 images and 4 pdf. some of theses files are required others not.
My problem is when my script verifys the data and retuns to the user that he/she has errors all the file inputs are come back as blank... and if the user re-submits... the files are not saved.
This form has other fields other than the files as well.
I tried putting $_POST in the value of my inputs but that does not repopulate with the local file names.
I would like it so my users dont need to re enter all the files they want to upload if they made 1 or a few mistakes.
edited:
SO is this normal that the post isnt giving me the file name?
is the file still saved as temp on the server?
The value attribute of the file input type doesn't exist as this is a security risk. You can't read it or set the value of it (client or server side) so even if you had the local path on the user's computer you couldn't fill it in.
I would try to do some sort of client side (even through ajax) form validation before they submit the form. If they do submit the form, the files will upload and should still be in the temp directory (at least until garbage collection kicks in). Maybe on error write the information in $_FILES to session and instead of showing the file upload dialog, show an icon for the file to try to let them know you got the file, but they need to fix the form for everything to finish. Then after they submit the corrections you can get the data from the session and try to continue.
Make sure to specify proper settings for:
file_uploads
upload_max_filesize
memory_limit
max_execution_time
post_max_size
See:
How to optimize your PHP installation to handle large file uploads
Also make sure that:
You have specified the enctype="multipart" in the form
Check the files array with print_r($_FILES);
Instead of redirecting them back to form use a bit of JavaScript and make client browser to go one page back. Then he should file that were selected before.
You could use something like:
<body onLoad="javascript:history.go(-1)">...</body>