Comments for Better File-Upload Plugin

Does Paul know about this project ?

There is already a lot better way of doing file uploads, Flash. It does everything you’d want and is degradable if you use some good JavaScript.

Flash, Java, Silverlight, etc. all rely on proprietary software. They’re heavy, os-specific, crash all the time, need signing, etc..

The HTML input type=”file” has never once crashed for me ever. Nor has it ever been ill-formatted or misrepresented on my screen. It is universally used and thus universally understood. This is the purpose of standards and standards have made the web what it is today.

Both Box.net’s Java AND Flash implementations have crashed on me more times than they’ve worked. An open source UploadSW looked awesome but crashed at the final stage every time.

The biggest problem we face is no way for multiple files to be selected (IMO). If all the first version did was to fix this I would be happy. In other words, provide a file input dialog with the ability to select multiple files. Then either allow JS to access them as objects and pass them on using AJAX or spawn multiple inputs from the selection to pass on to the server.

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Furthermore, if the plugin/addon is enabled, the user gets the abilities. If it doesn’t exist, they see a normal input. The installation of the plugin is as easy as clicking a link (for at least Firefox and IE? and I’m sure Opera as well).

In other words, Upload multiple files at once.

Graceful degradation would be essential for such a plugin/extension/script. It should require very little (preferrably none at all) effort of the script integrator to include a fallback mechanism.

Do you know about SWFUpload? It’s Flash-based, lets you select multiple files and is skinnable with CSS. Best of all - it’s free! (donationware). swfupload.mammon.se/