Firefox – Retrieving the full path (server-side) of a file uploaded using Firefox

file uploadfirefox

When I am using a form containing <input id="myFile" type="file" runat="server" /> to upload a file, my server-side code only sees the filename without the full path when using Firefox, while it works just fine in IE.

Is it possible to retrieve the full file path server-side in this case?

Best Answer

You cannot. Actually, only IE gives this information which isn't important for the server in most cases. Neither FF nor Opera, at least, provide this info.
[UPDATE] Also tried with Safari, still no path... Somebody reported that Chrome might provide the info, although being a beta, that might change...

Perhaps you might need them in some intranet cases. In such case, you might ask the user to paste the path in a secondary input field... Not very friendly, but at least they will know they provide the info.

Actually, I know some people needed this info for some reasons, so they used JavaScript to pick up the path from the file input field and put it in an hidden field. FF developers found it was insecure (you can learn a lot from a simple path... like the login name of the user!) so prohibited such usage in FF3, making some people angry against this release...

References: Firefox 3's file upload box mentioned in Firefox 3 annoyance: Keying-in disabled in file upload control ...; also File input box disabled leads to great usability problem, among many other ones.

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Html – How to get the file path from HTML input form in Firefox 3

For preview in Firefox works this - attachment is object of attachment element in first example:

           if (attachment.files)
             previewImage.src = attachment.files.item(0).getAsDataURL();
           else
             previewImage.src = attachment.value;

Get full path of a file with FileUpload Control

It's currently true that "when you upload a file the browser will only send the source filename and not the full path" - it makes perfect sense that the server has no business knowing whether the file was in "C:\WINDOWS\" or "F:\SOMEDIR\OTHERDIR\PERSONALINFO\". The filename is always sent, and is useful both to help the user 'recognise' the content and possibly to interrogate the file extension to help determine the file type.

However I know from experience that Internet Explorer definitely used to (in older versions) send the entire path. It's difficult to find an authoritative confirmation (except this apache fileupload control doco)

Internet Explorer provides the entire path to the uploaded file and not just the base file name

Regardless, you should not use nor expect the full path to be sent by any 'modern' browser.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Html – How to get the file path from HTML input form in Firefox 3

Get full path of a file with FileUpload Control

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