How to upload and read text/csv file without submitting? - php

Question

I have this form and I would like to read the uploaded file and then fill out the form using this read information without refreshing the page.
For example the first word might be "Bob" and so I would want that to go in my input text "First_name." I've been trying to searching online for a way to do this using JQuery or Ajax but I can't seem to find a solution.
Can this be done using the two methods previously mentioned? If so and if not can someone point me to a link or to where I can learn how to do this? The instances I have found include where one uses JQuery to upload the file and display the size without refresh (which is not exactly what I want).
I have also found how one can use an iFrame but this again is not what I want. I suppose I could always just submit the part of the page containing the textfile related information and show the same form but with the filled out information. But I feel as if this is kind of sloppy and I want to know if there is a better way.
Thanks.

Answer 1

Firefox has a method to do this, the File and FileList API provide a way to get at the files selected by a file input element and have a text retrieval method.
A very basic example:
NB. Not all browsers support this code.
[I think Chrome, Firefox and Opera do at time of writing.]
HTML:
<form>
<input type="file" name="thefile" id="thefile" />
</form>
<div id="text"></div>
JS (using jQuery):
$(document).ready(function() {
$('#thefile').change(function(e) {
if (e.target.files != undefined) {
var reader = new FileReader();
reader.onload = function(e) {
$('#text').text(e.target.result);
};
reader.readAsText(e.target.files.item(0));
}
return false;
});
});
Demo: http://jsfiddle.net/FSc8y/2/
If the selected file was a CSV file, you could then process it directly in javascript.
.split() will be useful in that case to split lines and then fields.

Answer 2

the only way I know would be to submit the form to a hidden iframe. this will upload teh file without refreshing the page. you can then use any returned info using javascript. this is what they use for fake ajax style image uploads that let you preview an image before uploading. the truth is it already has been uploaded via a hidden iframe. unfortunately however iframes are not xhtml 1.0 compliant.
something like this article may help:
http://djpate.com/2009/05/24/form-submit-via-hidden-iframe-aka-fake-ajax/
The question you might ask is :
why should I use this method instead of real ajax ?
Well they’re is numereous answer to that but one good reason it that
is doesnt require any type of ajax libs and you can start using it
even if you never used ajax before.
So here it goes.
<form method=”post” action=”formProcess.php” target=”hiddenIFrame”>
<input type=”text” name=”test” /> </form>
<iframe style=”width:0px;height:0px;border:0px;” name=hiddenIFrame />
This is just a normal form but you’ll notice the target in the form
tag, this tells the form to submit in the iframe instead of the
current page.
It’s works exactly as the target attribut on the A tag.
Also the iframe is hidden from the user using
style=”width:0px;height:0px;border:0px;”
now the file formProcess.php is not different from your normal form
processing file but if you want do something on the main page you have
to use JS like that :
window.parent.whatEverYouWannaDoInParentForm();
You can also upload file with this method !
Please checkout the formphp for full example.
Cheers !
Nb : You will see the status bar acts like the page is reloading but
it’s really not.