Multiple File Upload Input
More often than not, I find myself wanting to upload more than one file at a time. Having to use multiple "file" INPUT elements is annoying, slow, and inefficient. And if I hate them, I can't imagine how annoyed my users would be. Luckily Safari, Chrome, and Firefox have implemented a method by which users can upload multiple files within one INPUT element.
The HTML
<!-- IMPORTANT: FORM's enctype must be "multipart/form-data" --> <form method="post" action="upload-page.php" enctype="multipart/form-data"> <input name="filesToUpload[]" id="filesToUpload" type="file" multiple="" /> </form>
Simply adding the multiple attribute allows for multiple files to be uploaded via one INPUT element. If you're a stickler for validation, you'll want to assign the multiple attribute a value of multiple.
Listing Multiple Files with JavaScript
//get the input and UL list
var input = document.getElementById('filesToUpload');
var list = document.getElementById('fileList');
//empty list for now...
while (list.hasChildNodes()) {
list.removeChild(ul.firstChild);
}
//for every file...
for (var x = 0; x < input.files.length; x++) {
//add to list
var li = document.createElement('li');
li.innerHTML = 'File ' + (x + 1) + ': ' + input.files[x].name;
list.append(li);
}
The input.files property provides an array of files for which you can check the length; if there's a length, you can loop through each file and access the file paths and names.
Receiving and Handling Files with PHP
if(count($_FILES['uploads']['filesToUpload'])) {
foreach ($_FILES['uploads']['filesToUpload'] as $file) {
//do your upload stuff here
echo $file;
}
}
PHP creates an array of the files uploaded with the given INPUT's name. This variable will always be an array within PHP.
Of course, you could a Flash-based equivalent for Internet Explorer and Opera, but having to add and support another component can be taxing. Hopefully these browsers add support for multiple file uploads soon!
Comments
Be Heard!
Share your thoughts without being a jerk! And wrap your code in <code> tags, f00!
Great thanks! I am always running into this problem project after project. I have been using http://www.uploadify.com/demo/ for IE users (flash alternative), it’s very easy to implement and customise (event handlers etc).
hi alex crooks…but at the time you try to use session variable at your uploadify.php it’s can not …and finally i lucky to found this david walsh script becouse i like to build my own version multiple upload to my needed..shit i even try to create it’s should have uploadify interface i mean have file list after input type file change..hmm now i can continue again..thanks too david..
hi alex crooks…but at the time you try to use session variable at your uploadify.php it’s can not becouse at the time someone else know what file be your form action..and i think their can direct use that file from their own computer to upload somegood file ^,^oO(%$&!)…and finally i lucky to found this david walsh script becouse i like to build my own version multiple upload to my needed..shit i even try to create it’s should have uploadify interface i mean have file list after input type file change..hmm now i can continue again..thanks too david..
This is the only reason I ever use flash on a page. The lack of progress sadly still means it is needed, but I don’t see that being fixed anytime soon.
Awesome! Thanks for sharing this little gem! It would make a welcome addition to certain modules in our in-house CMS.
didn’t work in last opera
Doesn’t work in IE(8) or Opera. It would be helpful if you would add what browsers your tips work in, some Googler might find this page and later down the troubleshooting line get confused when it doesn’t work in a different browser.
fuck, nice! i dont know about this, because I use opera always! ;)
@Andy: Did you read the post? “Luckily Safari, Chrome, and Firefox have implemented a method by which users can upload multiple files within one INPUT element.”
Please read the post next time.
Hey. I’m not having any luck using this code. I’m constantly getting the ‘uploads’ index php error mentioned earlier in the comments. I tried looking at the source code of the example, but it’s different than what you posted here. It doesn’t call for a php script, the javascript is longer, there is an input, but no form and no submit button. Could you post a working example in a zipped archive?
Thanks David.
This problem with upload arises from project to project. In my last project I tried http://www.aurigma.com/Products/ImageUploaderFlash/, it worked good enough with all browsers.
The usual comments from people who don’t read a post (i.e. Dr Death and Andy).
Not only do you say “Luckily Safari, Chrome, and Firefox have implemented a method by which users can upload multiple files within one INPUT element” but at the end you also say “Of course, you could a Flash-based equivalent for Internet Explorer and Opera, but having to add and support another component can be taxing. Hopefully these browsers add support for multiple file uploads soon!”
I’m not sure how this at all confusing about the current state of browser support…
The usual comments from people who don’t know how to read a post (i.e. Dr Death and Andy).
Not only do you (David) say “Luckily Safari, Chrome, and Firefox have implemented a method by which users can upload multiple files within one INPUT element” but at the end you also say “Of course, you could a Flash-based equivalent for Internet Explorer and Opera, but having to add and support another component can be taxing. Hopefully these browsers add support for multiple file uploads soon!”
I’m not sure how this at all confusing about the current state of browser support…
Hey David, can you delete this one, and my first (or second) comment.., Something went wrong when posting (took ages) and I posted the comment again and they both ended up on this page. Thanks!
AWSUM!!
It would be nice to find out a way to implement an uploading bar, to show the progress. ;)
Way cool. Thanks David. Would be super excellent to combine this capability with the capabilities of this script (http://the-stickman.com/files/mootools/multiupload/) in terms of removing the files from the queue of files to upload…
This multiple upload thing should be a must-have-feature in modern browsers!
Pretty cool, I wonder how long until ‘The Other’ browser implements something like this. Being limited to a single file per INPUT is a pain in the arse, and while the Flash alternatives solve the problem, I do not like having to use Flash to resolve a problem that shouldn’t of existed in the first place..but oh well, it’s the standard.
Thanks for the heads up David!
Thanks David,
I’m going to add this feature to our web-apps it’s great. Next one is web-browser based drop-box’s straight from the desktop.
Great article!
Just wanted to mention: if you’re working with an XHTML doctype, then you’ll need to use multiple=”multiple”. Otherwise, multiple by itself will work. Same rule applies to all boolean attributes.
Hi nice article.
Thanks
Addy
cannot believe this is possible I tried everything, especiallly the Flash is awfull with loosing its session in everything but IE.
Thank you for sharing, If it works , I will take you out in Amsterdam till you drop, I mean it !
If you are an Opera user, you can use this
Opera has had it since Opera 6
Just need to check their user agent and display the right one. A pain, but still doable.
Ok…Lets try that again lol
Just put in the opening and closing html tags
input type=”file” name=”filesToUpload[]” id=”filesToUpload[]” min=”1″ max=”9999″ /
Google docs has added new upload feature. It uses multiple file input and also works in IE eventhough have disabled flash. How did they manage it to work in IE?
Please David, Can you share the complete code of this example? :D
Thanks
In $_FILES['uploads']['filesToUpload'] what is ‘uploads’? I don’t see it anywhere in your HTML and from what I can tell, it should just be the input element’s name, yet you have a multi-indexed format. Am I missing something? Thanks!
@pbink, $_FILES is the superglobal constant PHP uses to store items uploaded to the current script via POST.
http://php.net/manual/en/reserved.variables.files.php
pbink is asking about the ['uploads']… I’m having the same problem and am getting an error on my php page:
Notice: Undefined index: uploads in C:\…….
Thanks for any help you can give.
Mike — have you received any assistance on this issue? I’m having the same issue although I don’t get the undefined index msg but am getting a count=0 in the file count parameter within php.
Sir where can I download this all?? can i have the complete PHP and html script??? please..i want it..and can you do a combination of php and sql in multiple upload?? thanks! more power>..
Thanks for this! It was great and solved my problem, as I hate to have many input fields and click like crazy for many files! Thanks again!
Code for upload once (IE) or multiple (Fx, Chrome, Safari) in PHP
for ($i=0; $i<count($_FILES['f_img']['name']); $i++){
$ar = array();
foreach (array_keys($_FILES['f_img']) as $arr){
$ar[$arr] = $_FILES['f_img'][$arr][$i];
}
imager($ar);
}
I see a post asking about the reference to ‘uploads’ but no response. I added a submit button with the name ‘uploads’ to the form but I am not getting any results in php. There is not an error coming back but it is reporting a count of 0 files using the following
0)
{
echo “Error: ” . $_FILES["uploads"]["error"] . “”;
} else {
echo “# of files: “.count($_FILES['uploads']['filesToUpload']).”";
if(count($_FILES['uploads']['filesToUpload']))
{
foreach ($_FILES['uploads']['filesToUpload'] as $file)
{
//do your upload stuff here
echo $file;
}
}
}
?>
Any help would be appreciated or better yet a complete code set of the html and php.
Thanks
Some of the code didn’t make it to the post. The beginning looks like this:
0)
{
echo “Error: ” . $_FILES["uploads"]["error"] . “”;
well, the beginning still didn’t show up so you’ll have to trust I didn’t misscode it.
Has anyone found code that will correctly detect the browsers that support this feature?
You’ll have to exclude older versions of Firefox and safari, but I’m not clear on exactly which versions to detect, and I’m not keen on testing tons of different versions to figure this out.
So, I have a problem. Whenever I try to upload a bunch of pictures, only the first two gets uploaded.
Can anyone tell me why that might be? The images are only like 60 KB each, and there’s less than 15 of them. I would be extremely pleased if anyone had the slightest idea about what my problem might be.
Ur the best! Helped a LOT!
Regarding $_FILES['uploads']
The author, perhaps, missed out on the fact that PHP does quite a different structure for $_FILES when the above method is used.
To access the data from these multiple files, you should do this:
$_FILES['input_name_in_form']['name'][0] – gets you the original file name of the first image in the list while $_FILES['input_name_in_form']['name'][1] – gets you the name of the second file
etc.
you can see the whole contents of the $_FILES using print_r($_FILES)
I think what I will do is write a custom function which just processes the $_FILES and returns an array of easily processable files.
Hello
Thank you very much for this good code
your multiple file uploading function failed in internet explorer…
thanks! this is what i need, it’s a key. not a complete code doing stuff. thanks again! :)
Nice work mate! That’s makes me one step closer to the edge. Looking for this for a long time. Hope idiot ie will support multiple somehow.