I'm attempting to provide a script-only solution for reading the contents of a file on a client machine through a browser.
I have a solution that works with Firefox and Internet Explorer. It's not pretty, but I'm only trying things at the moment:
function getFileContents() {
var fileForUpload = document.forms[0].fileForUpload;
var fileName = fileForUpload.value;
if (fileForUpload.files) {
var fileContents = fileForUpload.files.item(0).getAsBinary();
document.forms[0].fileContents.innerHTML = fileContents;
} else {
// try the IE method
var fileContents = ieReadFile(fileName);
document.forms[0].fileContents.innerHTML = fileContents;
}
}
function ieReadFile(filename)
{
try
{
var fso = new ActiveXObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject");
var fh = fso.OpenTextFile(filename, 1);
var contents = fh.ReadAll();
fh.Close();
return contents;
}
catch (Exception)
{
return "Cannot open file :(";
}
}
I can call getFileContents() and it will write the contents into the fileContents text area.
Is there a way to do this in other browsers?
I'm most concerned with Safari and Chrome at the moment, but I'm open to suggestions for any other browser.
Edit: In response to the question, "Why do you want to do this?":
Basically, I want to hash the file contents together with a one-time-password on the client side so I can send this information back as a verification.
Edited to add information about the File API
Since I originally wrote this answer, the File API has been proposed as a standard and implemented in most browsers (as of IE 10, which added support for FileReader API described here, though not yet the File API). The API is a bit more complicated than the older Mozilla API, as it is designed to support asynchronous reading of files, better support for binary files and decoding of different text encodings. There is some documentation available on the Mozilla Developer Network as well as various examples online. You would use it as follows:
var file = document.getElementById("fileForUpload").files[0];
if (file) {
var reader = new FileReader();
reader.readAsText(file, "UTF-8");
reader.onload = function (evt) {
document.getElementById("fileContents").innerHTML = evt.target.result;
}
reader.onerror = function (evt) {
document.getElementById("fileContents").innerHTML = "error reading file";
}
}
Original answer
There does not appear to be a way to do this in WebKit (thus, Safari and Chrome). The only keys that a File object has are fileName and fileSize. According to the commit message for the File and FileList support, these are inspired by Mozilla's File object, but they appear to support only a subset of the features.
If you would like to change this, you could always send a patch to the WebKit project. Another possibility would be to propose the Mozilla API for inclusion in HTML 5; the WHATWG mailing list is probably the best place to do that. If you do that, then it is much more likely that there will be a cross-browser way to do this, at least in a couple years time. Of course, submitting either a patch or a proposal for inclusion to HTML 5 does mean some work defending the idea, but the fact that Firefox already implements it gives you something to start with.
In order to read a file chosen by the user, using a file open dialog, you can use the <input type="file"> tag. You can find information on it from MSDN. When the file is chosen you can use the FileReader API to read the contents.
function onFileLoad(elementId, event) {
document.getElementById(elementId).innerText = event.target.result;
}
function onChooseFile(event, onLoadFileHandler) {
if (typeof window.FileReader !== 'function')
throw ("The file API isn't supported on this browser.");
let input = event.target;
if (!input)
throw ("The browser does not properly implement the event object");
if (!input.files)
throw ("This browser does not support the `files` property of the file input.");
if (!input.files[0])
return undefined;
let file = input.files[0];
let fr = new FileReader();
fr.onload = onLoadFileHandler;
fr.readAsText(file);
}
<input type='file' onchange='onChooseFile(event, onFileLoad.bind(this, "contents"))' />
<p id="contents"></p>
There's a modern native alternative: File implements Blob, so we can call Blob.text().
async function readText(event) {
const file = event.target.files.item(0)
const text = await file.text();
document.getElementById("output").innerText = text
}
<input type="file" onchange="readText(event)" />
<pre id="output"></pre>
Currently (September 2020) this is supported in Chrome and Firefox, for other Browser you need to load a polyfill, e.g. blob-polyfill.
Happy coding!
If you get an error on Internet Explorer, Change the security settings to allow ActiveX
var CallBackFunction = function(content) {
alert(content);
}
ReadFileAllBrowsers(document.getElementById("file_upload"), CallBackFunction);
//Tested in Mozilla Firefox browser, Chrome
function ReadFileAllBrowsers(FileElement, CallBackFunction) {
try {
var file = FileElement.files[0];
var contents_ = "";
if (file) {
var reader = new FileReader();
reader.readAsText(file, "UTF-8");
reader.onload = function(evt) {
CallBackFunction(evt.target.result);
}
reader.onerror = function(evt) {
alert("Error reading file");
}
}
} catch (Exception) {
var fall_back = ieReadFile(FileElement.value);
if (fall_back != false) {
CallBackFunction(fall_back);
}
}
}
///Reading files with Internet Explorer
function ieReadFile(filename) {
try {
var fso = new ActiveXObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject");
var fh = fso.OpenTextFile(filename, 1);
var contents = fh.ReadAll();
fh.Close();
return contents;
} catch (Exception) {
alert(Exception);
return false;
}
}
This works fine
function onClick(event) {
filecontent = "";
var myFile = event.files[0];
var reader = new FileReader();
reader.addEventListener('load', function (e) {
filecontent = e.target.result;
});
reader.readAsBinaryString(myFile);
}
Related
I'm attempting to provide a script-only solution for reading the contents of a file on a client machine through a browser.
I have a solution that works with Firefox and Internet Explorer. It's not pretty, but I'm only trying things at the moment:
function getFileContents() {
var fileForUpload = document.forms[0].fileForUpload;
var fileName = fileForUpload.value;
if (fileForUpload.files) {
var fileContents = fileForUpload.files.item(0).getAsBinary();
document.forms[0].fileContents.innerHTML = fileContents;
} else {
// try the IE method
var fileContents = ieReadFile(fileName);
document.forms[0].fileContents.innerHTML = fileContents;
}
}
function ieReadFile(filename)
{
try
{
var fso = new ActiveXObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject");
var fh = fso.OpenTextFile(filename, 1);
var contents = fh.ReadAll();
fh.Close();
return contents;
}
catch (Exception)
{
return "Cannot open file :(";
}
}
I can call getFileContents() and it will write the contents into the fileContents text area.
Is there a way to do this in other browsers?
I'm most concerned with Safari and Chrome at the moment, but I'm open to suggestions for any other browser.
Edit: In response to the question, "Why do you want to do this?":
Basically, I want to hash the file contents together with a one-time-password on the client side so I can send this information back as a verification.
Edited to add information about the File API
Since I originally wrote this answer, the File API has been proposed as a standard and implemented in most browsers (as of IE 10, which added support for FileReader API described here, though not yet the File API). The API is a bit more complicated than the older Mozilla API, as it is designed to support asynchronous reading of files, better support for binary files and decoding of different text encodings. There is some documentation available on the Mozilla Developer Network as well as various examples online. You would use it as follows:
var file = document.getElementById("fileForUpload").files[0];
if (file) {
var reader = new FileReader();
reader.readAsText(file, "UTF-8");
reader.onload = function (evt) {
document.getElementById("fileContents").innerHTML = evt.target.result;
}
reader.onerror = function (evt) {
document.getElementById("fileContents").innerHTML = "error reading file";
}
}
Original answer
There does not appear to be a way to do this in WebKit (thus, Safari and Chrome). The only keys that a File object has are fileName and fileSize. According to the commit message for the File and FileList support, these are inspired by Mozilla's File object, but they appear to support only a subset of the features.
If you would like to change this, you could always send a patch to the WebKit project. Another possibility would be to propose the Mozilla API for inclusion in HTML 5; the WHATWG mailing list is probably the best place to do that. If you do that, then it is much more likely that there will be a cross-browser way to do this, at least in a couple years time. Of course, submitting either a patch or a proposal for inclusion to HTML 5 does mean some work defending the idea, but the fact that Firefox already implements it gives you something to start with.
In order to read a file chosen by the user, using a file open dialog, you can use the <input type="file"> tag. You can find information on it from MSDN. When the file is chosen you can use the FileReader API to read the contents.
function onFileLoad(elementId, event) {
document.getElementById(elementId).innerText = event.target.result;
}
function onChooseFile(event, onLoadFileHandler) {
if (typeof window.FileReader !== 'function')
throw ("The file API isn't supported on this browser.");
let input = event.target;
if (!input)
throw ("The browser does not properly implement the event object");
if (!input.files)
throw ("This browser does not support the `files` property of the file input.");
if (!input.files[0])
return undefined;
let file = input.files[0];
let fr = new FileReader();
fr.onload = onLoadFileHandler;
fr.readAsText(file);
}
<input type='file' onchange='onChooseFile(event, onFileLoad.bind(this, "contents"))' />
<p id="contents"></p>
There's a modern native alternative: File implements Blob, so we can call Blob.text().
async function readText(event) {
const file = event.target.files.item(0)
const text = await file.text();
document.getElementById("output").innerText = text
}
<input type="file" onchange="readText(event)" />
<pre id="output"></pre>
Currently (September 2020) this is supported in Chrome and Firefox, for other Browser you need to load a polyfill, e.g. blob-polyfill.
Happy coding!
If you get an error on Internet Explorer, Change the security settings to allow ActiveX
var CallBackFunction = function(content) {
alert(content);
}
ReadFileAllBrowsers(document.getElementById("file_upload"), CallBackFunction);
//Tested in Mozilla Firefox browser, Chrome
function ReadFileAllBrowsers(FileElement, CallBackFunction) {
try {
var file = FileElement.files[0];
var contents_ = "";
if (file) {
var reader = new FileReader();
reader.readAsText(file, "UTF-8");
reader.onload = function(evt) {
CallBackFunction(evt.target.result);
}
reader.onerror = function(evt) {
alert("Error reading file");
}
}
} catch (Exception) {
var fall_back = ieReadFile(FileElement.value);
if (fall_back != false) {
CallBackFunction(fall_back);
}
}
}
///Reading files with Internet Explorer
function ieReadFile(filename) {
try {
var fso = new ActiveXObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject");
var fh = fso.OpenTextFile(filename, 1);
var contents = fh.ReadAll();
fh.Close();
return contents;
} catch (Exception) {
alert(Exception);
return false;
}
}
This works fine
function onClick(event) {
filecontent = "";
var myFile = event.files[0];
var reader = new FileReader();
reader.addEventListener('load', function (e) {
filecontent = e.target.result;
});
reader.readAsBinaryString(myFile);
}
I'm attempting to provide a script-only solution for reading the contents of a file on a client machine through a browser.
I have a solution that works with Firefox and Internet Explorer. It's not pretty, but I'm only trying things at the moment:
function getFileContents() {
var fileForUpload = document.forms[0].fileForUpload;
var fileName = fileForUpload.value;
if (fileForUpload.files) {
var fileContents = fileForUpload.files.item(0).getAsBinary();
document.forms[0].fileContents.innerHTML = fileContents;
} else {
// try the IE method
var fileContents = ieReadFile(fileName);
document.forms[0].fileContents.innerHTML = fileContents;
}
}
function ieReadFile(filename)
{
try
{
var fso = new ActiveXObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject");
var fh = fso.OpenTextFile(filename, 1);
var contents = fh.ReadAll();
fh.Close();
return contents;
}
catch (Exception)
{
return "Cannot open file :(";
}
}
I can call getFileContents() and it will write the contents into the fileContents text area.
Is there a way to do this in other browsers?
I'm most concerned with Safari and Chrome at the moment, but I'm open to suggestions for any other browser.
Edit: In response to the question, "Why do you want to do this?":
Basically, I want to hash the file contents together with a one-time-password on the client side so I can send this information back as a verification.
Edited to add information about the File API
Since I originally wrote this answer, the File API has been proposed as a standard and implemented in most browsers (as of IE 10, which added support for FileReader API described here, though not yet the File API). The API is a bit more complicated than the older Mozilla API, as it is designed to support asynchronous reading of files, better support for binary files and decoding of different text encodings. There is some documentation available on the Mozilla Developer Network as well as various examples online. You would use it as follows:
var file = document.getElementById("fileForUpload").files[0];
if (file) {
var reader = new FileReader();
reader.readAsText(file, "UTF-8");
reader.onload = function (evt) {
document.getElementById("fileContents").innerHTML = evt.target.result;
}
reader.onerror = function (evt) {
document.getElementById("fileContents").innerHTML = "error reading file";
}
}
Original answer
There does not appear to be a way to do this in WebKit (thus, Safari and Chrome). The only keys that a File object has are fileName and fileSize. According to the commit message for the File and FileList support, these are inspired by Mozilla's File object, but they appear to support only a subset of the features.
If you would like to change this, you could always send a patch to the WebKit project. Another possibility would be to propose the Mozilla API for inclusion in HTML 5; the WHATWG mailing list is probably the best place to do that. If you do that, then it is much more likely that there will be a cross-browser way to do this, at least in a couple years time. Of course, submitting either a patch or a proposal for inclusion to HTML 5 does mean some work defending the idea, but the fact that Firefox already implements it gives you something to start with.
In order to read a file chosen by the user, using a file open dialog, you can use the <input type="file"> tag. You can find information on it from MSDN. When the file is chosen you can use the FileReader API to read the contents.
function onFileLoad(elementId, event) {
document.getElementById(elementId).innerText = event.target.result;
}
function onChooseFile(event, onLoadFileHandler) {
if (typeof window.FileReader !== 'function')
throw ("The file API isn't supported on this browser.");
let input = event.target;
if (!input)
throw ("The browser does not properly implement the event object");
if (!input.files)
throw ("This browser does not support the `files` property of the file input.");
if (!input.files[0])
return undefined;
let file = input.files[0];
let fr = new FileReader();
fr.onload = onLoadFileHandler;
fr.readAsText(file);
}
<input type='file' onchange='onChooseFile(event, onFileLoad.bind(this, "contents"))' />
<p id="contents"></p>
There's a modern native alternative: File implements Blob, so we can call Blob.text().
async function readText(event) {
const file = event.target.files.item(0)
const text = await file.text();
document.getElementById("output").innerText = text
}
<input type="file" onchange="readText(event)" />
<pre id="output"></pre>
Currently (September 2020) this is supported in Chrome and Firefox, for other Browser you need to load a polyfill, e.g. blob-polyfill.
Happy coding!
If you get an error on Internet Explorer, Change the security settings to allow ActiveX
var CallBackFunction = function(content) {
alert(content);
}
ReadFileAllBrowsers(document.getElementById("file_upload"), CallBackFunction);
//Tested in Mozilla Firefox browser, Chrome
function ReadFileAllBrowsers(FileElement, CallBackFunction) {
try {
var file = FileElement.files[0];
var contents_ = "";
if (file) {
var reader = new FileReader();
reader.readAsText(file, "UTF-8");
reader.onload = function(evt) {
CallBackFunction(evt.target.result);
}
reader.onerror = function(evt) {
alert("Error reading file");
}
}
} catch (Exception) {
var fall_back = ieReadFile(FileElement.value);
if (fall_back != false) {
CallBackFunction(fall_back);
}
}
}
///Reading files with Internet Explorer
function ieReadFile(filename) {
try {
var fso = new ActiveXObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject");
var fh = fso.OpenTextFile(filename, 1);
var contents = fh.ReadAll();
fh.Close();
return contents;
} catch (Exception) {
alert(Exception);
return false;
}
}
This works fine
function onClick(event) {
filecontent = "";
var myFile = event.files[0];
var reader = new FileReader();
reader.addEventListener('load', function (e) {
filecontent = e.target.result;
});
reader.readAsBinaryString(myFile);
}
Im trying to run in-browser encryption application which uses jQuery 1.10.2 and CryptoJS 3.2.1
the problem that I face starts at around 2mb files. File can be encrypted just fine, but when a data URI is created for the file it crashes the browser.
I would like a way around this to make it possible to encrypt files up-to 50mb's without browser crashing.
Here is the current snippt responsible for file saving via FileReader API
var reader = new FileReader();
if(body.hasClass('encrypt')){
// Encrypt the file!
reader.onload = function(e){
// Use the CryptoJS library and the AES cypher to encrypt the
// contents of the file, held in e.target.result, with the password
var encrypted = CryptoJS.AES.encrypt(e.target.result, password);
// The download attribute will cause the contents of the href
// attribute to be downloaded when clicked. The download attribute
// also holds the name of the file that is offered for download.
a.attr('href', 'data:application/octet-stream,' + encrypted);
a.attr('download', file.name + '.encrypted');
step(4);
};
// This will encode the contents of the file into a data-uri.
// It will trigger the onload handler above, with the result
reader.readAsDataURL(file);
}
else {
// Decrypt it!
reader.onload = function(e){
var decrypted = CryptoJS.AES.decrypt(e.target.result, password)
.toString(CryptoJS.enc.Latin1);
if(!/^data:/.test(decrypted)){
alert("Invalid pass phrase or file! Please try again.");
return false;
}
a.attr('href', decrypted);
a.attr('download', file.name.replace('.encrypted',''));
step(4);
};
reader.readAsText(file);
}
What can I change in above code to allow for larger files to be encrypted and decrypted?
Live site: droplet.so (currently capped at 1.5mb otherwise browser crash is guaranteed)
Kindly thanks in advance.
With a little research I found out that 1.99MB is the maximum the can be saved in the data url in chrome.
Your problem can be done by converting your data url to blob
You can find more information here:
Blob from DataURL?
Chrome crashes when URI is too long is here a similar post ( see second answer ).
EDIT:
Possible solution
function dataURItoBlob(dataURI) {
var byteString = atob(dataURI.split(',')[1]);
var mimeString = dataURI.split(',')[0].split(':')[1].split(';')[0]
var ab = new ArrayBuffer(byteString.length);
var ia = new Uint8Array(ab);
for (var i = 0; i < byteString.length; i++) {
ia[i] = byteString.charCodeAt(i);
}
var bb = new BlobBuilder();
bb.append(ab);
return bb.getBlob(mimeString);
}
function download(dataURI) {
var blob = dataURItoBlob(dataURI);
var url = window.URL.createObjectURL(blob);
window.location.assign(url);
}
And you can use this code by calling download(dataURI).
I need to read a file from the browser and I CANNOT use ajax.. it is necessary to be read locally..
this is not a duplicate from Reading a file using javascript
how can I do that?
ps: I also CANNOT use an engine like V8 http://code.google.com/p/v8/ I need to read it with the current native API from javascript!.. is there any way to do that?
ps2: it must run only with chrome, or firefox! IE and others doesnt matter
Here is the sample: DEMO
function readMultipleFiles(evt) {
//Retrieve all the files from the FileList object
var files = evt.target.files;
if (files) {
for (var i = 0, f; f = files[i]; i++) {
var r = new FileReader();
r.onload = (function (f) {
return function (e) {
var contents = e.target.result;
alert(contents);
};
})(f);
r.readAsText(f);
}
} else {
alert("Failed to load files");
}
}
document.getElementById('fileinput').addEventListener('change', readMultipleFiles, false);
I am trying to read in a file and update XML. Right now I am trying to implement this using the HTML5 API and the DOMParser, but I'm having some trouble.
<script>
function handleFileSelect(evt) {
var files = evt.target.files; // FileList object
// Loop through the FileList
for (var i = 0, f; f = files[i]; i++) {
var reader = new FileReader();
parser=new DOMParser();
// Closure to capture the file information.
reader.onload = (function(theFile) {
return function(e) {
// Print the contents of the file
// var span = document.createElement('span');
xmlDoc=parser.parseFromString(e.target.result,"text/xml");
try{
DistributomeXML_Objects=xmlDoc.documentElement.childNodes;
}catch(error){
DistributomeXML_Objects=xmlDoc.childNodes;
}
// document.getElementById('list').insertBefore(span, null);
};
})(f);
// Read in the file
//reader.readAsDataText(f,UTF-8);
reader.readAsText(f);
}
//xmlDoc.getElementsByTagName("distributome").item(0).appendChild(node);
traverseXML(false, null, DistributomeXML_Objects, distributome.nodes, distributome.edges, distributome.references, distributomeNodes, referenceNodes);
}
document.getElementById('files').addEventListener('change', handleFileSelect, false);
</script>
I took some leads from
HTML5 File api, reading in an xml/text file and displaying it on the page?
and my own earlier question
Dynamically populating webpage with uploaded file using PHP/JS
I think there's an error in my code that's leading to the XML Document not being created and I'm not quite able to spot it and would be grateful for any help.
Thanks in advance