How to select multiple files for upload?

Question

How to select multiple files for upload :

Answer 1

This depends on the browser. Newer versions of firefox and chrome support this because they started to implement HTML5 specification. This is the syntax:

<input type="file" multiple=""/>

Firefox >= 3.6, Chrome >= 2, Safari >= 4 support multiple file input.

For older browsers the only good solutions are flash or javascript plugins. Here is a good resource for jquery uploaders ( some support multiple files ): http://creativefan.com/10-ajax-jquery-file-uploaders/

Answer 2

I would definately at this point go with new HTML5 "multiple" attribute:

<input type="file" name="upload[]" multiple="multiple" />

The only viable alternative is FLASH plugins like swfupload.

However - there are multiple prublems with using FLASH for uploads, the main one foor me would be cookie bug:

FLASH plugins don't send cookies correctly. Each browser has it's own cookie storage.FLASH always sends cookies from IE even if you use Google Chrome for example. - result is that you loose cookies and sessions. there is a workaround - but it requires you to send session ID as GET or POST parameters which in turn makes your site vulnerable for session fixation.

Answer 3

Use the file input form element more than once, give it a different name and you have multiple upload fields on one page. No need to learn anything else.

Answer 4

As others have said, you have to use Flash to get multiple uploads. An alternative to uploadify is SWFUpload.

Answer 5

There is no html/javascript workaround. You would have to look to flash or java to be able to do this.

Answer 6

In HTML5 you can set the multiple attribute on <input type="file">. This works in browsers supporting HTML5.

<input type="file" name="upload" multiple="multiple" />

In HTML4 your best bet is Flash or Java Applet. There are 3rd party libs available like Uploadify, SWFupload, JUpload and JumpLoader.