File uploading suggestion needed

gtzpower

Ok, I have become aware that one cannot get the path from an upload box in PHP, so I am looking for some suggestions. I have a registration page that requires uploading an image. This then submits all data to another PHP form where everything is checked, then written to the DB if the valuse are ok. If not, I set a cookie with the errors and registration data, then redirect the browser back to the registration page. The registration page reads the cookie for the errors and the values to repopulate all of the fields.

Question: How can I make the <input type=file> repopulate with the users selected image so they don't need to browse to it again? Any suggestions?

drew010

that cant be done with php since there is no way to get the actual file contents in the first place. maybe instead of a redirect back, you can print out the errors and use a javascript link to direct them back one page in history (javascript:history.go(-1) ) and everything they previously entered should still be there.

gtzpower

That was the way I initially had it setup (using an alert to give the error) The problem is that the errors sometimes need to contain a link so the user can fix the problem, so I had to avoid using the javascript alert, and set a cookie with the errors in HTML format. Now the page must be refreshed, or the cookie is not read and the errors not displayed.

Jasp182

You could move the file to a temporary location and display it to the user with the option to keep this image or upload a new one. If you put your registration errors into an $errors array and set a boolean if you successfully move the uploaded file to the temporary location, you can check for both conditions before trying to display the image and the checkbox saying whether they wish to keep it or not (which could also be used to clear/disable the file upload fields so the UI doesn't seem ambiguous to the user).

This might be more trouble than it's worth, but you'd be able to keep the image instead of having to make the user upload it a second time.

LoganK

Question: How can I make the <input type=file> repopulate with the users selected image so they don't need to browse to it again? Any suggestions?

That can't be done in any language. A long, long time ago in a galaxy far...j/k 😃

But seriously, a while ago ( >6-7 years) HTML supported a parameter for the <input type="file" which would fill that "box" with a value. However, no browsers nowadays support that parameter because it was deemed to be insecure around 5 years ago.

So there is no way! Sorry!