[whatwg] What should the value attribute be for multi-file upload controls in WF2?

[Michael A. Puls II]

On 6/20/08, João Eiras <joao.eiras at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi
>
>
>  > There's a small problem with that too, because we would need a way to handle file names
>  > that contained quote marks, which is possible on Mac and Linux, but not on Windows.
>
>
> Not only that, but in unix flavours, paths are separated with : while
>  in windows they're separated with ;
>  In *nix special char are escaped with \ while in windows \ separates
>  directories in paths.
>  So IMO, it won't be possible to com up with a solution that is cross
>  platform without making up something completly new.
>  I'd suggest for HTMLInputElement to have a .files or .paths property
>  which would be an array of all the files choosen, names only.
>

I like the idea of .files returning an array of just filenames. Great idea!

But, if .files is implemented, what should .value return then? Always
just the first filename? A separated list of platform-dependent
filenames with a separator that makes sense for separating filenames
on that platform? Nothing?

On a side, I'd like .paths to return a list of file URIs (when I allow
it, like for local pages or specific sites).  Be nice for building a
playlist for scripting media player type plugins or even Audio and
Video. That way, you could choose a bunch of files in a different
directory than the page and have the paths load in a playlist. (Or,
even use a script to convert the file URI to a platform path if the
plugin doesn't understand file URIs). Of course, I guess that'd have
to be a browser-specific thing and .vendor_paths.

Anyway, .files returning an array would be a lot better than trying to
parse some platform-specific separated list string that .value might
return.

-- 
Michael