HTML 4 equivalent of HTML 5's FileReader?

Question

I've got a web page which needs to be able to load files into the DOM from the local machine on which the browser is running. I've found that this is very easy to do using the HTML 5 File API.

I can just do:

var reader = new FileReader();  
reader.onload = function (fileContents) { ... load contents to a div ... }
reader.readAsText(f) //where f is an HTML5 File object

Annoyingly, I need this to work in IE7, and also some earlier versions of Firefox which don't support the API. Is there any easy way to load a local file into the DOM in older browsers?

Many thanks!

The File API - http://www.w3.org/TR/FileAPI/ - is not part of HTML5 (just for the record) — Šime Vidas, Mar 22 '11 at 21:30

score 6 · Answer 1 · edited Dec 10 '14 at 07:50

6

No, you cannot do that in older browsers. FileReader (any file system access really) is a new HTML5 feature which is not supported in older browsers.

Your best option in an older browser is either:

A Silverlight, Flash or Java app (or similar) that runs on the client-side and has local file system access.
Having the user upload files using the <input type="file"> element, and do your processing server-side.

edited Dec 10 '14 at 07:50

Playmaker

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answered Mar 22 '11 at 21:27

driis

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This is true, however there is an IFrame approach that will work too without any use of browser plugins or extra server side processing, albeit a bit of a hack... see my answer below or check this out.... http://www.alfajango.com/blog/ajax-file-uploads-with-the-iframe-method/ – Be Free Studios Nov 15 '13 at 05:37

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 23 '11 at 11:47

5

Further to the other answers here, it does appear that there's no consistent way of doing this client-side (other than Flash) for older browsers.

For IE7/8 however, I've managed to hack something together using ActiveX.

var filePath = f:\oo.txt;
var fso = new ActiveXObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject");
var textStream = fso.OpenTextFile(filePath);
var fileData = file.ReadAll();

I can then pass this to the same function as reader.onload in the question above. Obviously this is a bad, hacky solution, and liable to be blocked by some security policies - it does at least work for IE7 though!

answered Mar 23 '11 at 11:47

Jon Artus

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Hey Jon, i was looking at this example you had here, but i was getting an error: Automation Server cannot create object. i thoughts? – Fallenreaper Jun 25 '12 at 20:05
You need to go to internet options -> security -> custom level then enable 'Initialize and script ActiveX controls not marked as safe for scripting' – danwellman Aug 07 '12 at 21:32

score 3 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 10:28

3

Looks like you can do that through Flash. Flash alternative for FileReader HTML 5 API

edited May 23 '17 at 10:28

Community

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answered Mar 22 '11 at 21:28

HChen

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HTML 4 equivalent of HTML 5's FileReader?

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