CODEWITHSUNDEEP
htmlformsenctype
sneeu
sneeu

Reputation: 2652

Why not always use enctype="multipart/form-data"?

When building HTML forms why do we not always use enctype="multipart/form-data"?

Upvotes: 38

Views: 7469

Answers (4)

fabjoa
fabjoa

Reputation: 1615

Mulipart implicits that we are going to use different mime-types. For example, sending a binary file, you will have one part with the x-www-form-urlencoded part and the other with the octet-stream. Most of the times what you send is from the same mime type.

Upvotes: 0

Bruno Cassol
Bruno Cassol

Reputation: 162

With PHP it doesn't matter what kind o enctype the form had. You always get key/value pairs.

So if harder coding is the only reason not to and you are using PHP, just use enctype="multipart/form-data".

Is there any other reason?

Upvotes: 1

C. K. Young
C. K. Young

Reputation: 222973

multipart/form-data is a lot bulkier than application/x-www-form-urlencoded; the latter is just a bunch of keys and values (and can be parsed the same way whether for GET or POST), whereas the former requires full MIME support, and is thus more useful when you have data that can't simply be represented as key/value pairs.

Upvotes: 32

Hank Gay
Hank Gay

Reputation: 71929

Because it's a pain to handle, both on the server and in custom clients. Simple is better than complicated, unless simple just doesn't work.

Upvotes: 7

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