[whatwg] input type=upload (not just files) proposal

[Rob Evans]

> If you are uploading by reference to URL (which presumably the server
> would fetch to save bandwidth) then progress information is probably
> not something that can easily be exposed by the HTML interface.  You
> might want to use an out-of-band ajax-style channel with javascript to
> show progress instead.

Indeed, when referencing a URL I don't think progress bars are much of an issue, but when dealing with a local file upload it would be great to have those values exposed to scripts! I hate having to poll the server for a progress update... it's so 1990. Or has this already been exposed to scripts... am I behind the times? So much to keep up with!

> That's been in there since HTML 3.2, I believe, and was implemented by
> some browsers (IE 5-8?).  User interface concerns almost always end up
> preferring dynamic form behaviors, with variable numbers of input
> type=file elements added and removed on an as-needed basis before the
> form is submitted.

I guess it's a matter of preference, but if you're uploading a load of images for instance, it gets tiresome having to keep clicking select file on every new input element. I wasn't aware that IE had implemented multiple file selection inside a single element however I would never have noticed anyway as I shun IE and avoid it like the plague.

-----Original Message-----
From: James Salsman [mailto:jsalsman at gmail.com] 
Sent: 09 June 2010 13:47
To: Rob Evans; whatwg at lists.whatwg.org
Subject: Re: [whatwg] input type=upload (not just files) proposal

On Wed, Jun 9, 2010 at 5:22 AM, Rob Evans <rob at mtn-i.com> wrote:
>
> I think an interesting addition to the input type=upload would be a script-accessible progress value.
> Either as a percentage, or probably more useful two values, one being the size of the upload and
> the other being current bytes sent.

If you are uploading by reference to URL (which presumably the server
would fetch to save bandwidth) then progress information is probably
not something that can easily be exposed by the HTML interface.  You
might want to use an out-of-band ajax-style channel with javascript to
show progress instead.

> Also whilst we're on the subject, how about allowing multiple files to be selected from a single input element?

That's been in there since HTML 3.2, I believe, and was implemented by
some browsers (IE 5-8?).  User interface concerns almost always end up
preferring dynamic form behaviors, with variable numbers of input
type=file elements added and removed on an as-needed basis before the
form is submitted.