CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascript
Greg Pettit
Greg Pettit

Reputation: 10830

Ajax form upload progress bar

Trying to make a progress bar for a form upload (old HTML4 form upload, not new HTML5 API). The progress actually tracks additional work being done after the file has moved. The way it has been designed is that the stream stays opened until after the additional work is done, and then the server-side method finally returns, which closes the stream.

I'm having some issues that may be specific to Chrome. I do also have a working implementation, but I'm hoping to get something "better".

For anybody who is likely to ask for code: it's intentionally not here. The scenario explains the problem; the code itself wasn't "at fault" and will just be more clutter.

Failed attempt #1 in a nutshell

  1. Initiate form upload
  2. Set interval on an Ajax call that grabs the progress in some JSON
  3. Render the data to a progress bar

Reason for failure: the upload stream blocks other activity on the page, and you cannot make additional Ajax calls during the transfer.

Failed attempt #2 in a nutshell

  1. Create an iFrame which contains the same Ajax calls
  2. Render the data to an element within the iFrame (everything needed is self-contained and does not reference the "top" document in the least)

Result:

GRR!

Successful Attempt

The iFrame does not request Ajax anymore. The iframe's src attribute is set to a URL that returns a pre-rendered progress bar. The document being loaded into the iframe is set to reload itself. So at the prescribed interval, it re-renders a new progress bar which has "moved along".

The result is a "working" progress bar, although sometimes the lag in the request causes the iframe to be blank for a split second, which isn't my preference.

Can anybody think of a better way to do this? Is it possible that I could have the form itself in the iFrame and the Ajax work in the "top" document instead?

I mainly want to divide the presentation layer from the data layer, but as long as I have to return a rendered progress bar, that isn't going to work. As a bonus, if I can find a way to update the progress bar via Ajax, I won't have those "blank" blips.

Upvotes: 2

Views: 9243

Answers (4)

Oleg Mikheev
Oleg Mikheev

Reputation: 17444

The last time I did it I just submitted the form with data to some invisible iframe, then I could just forget about it.

Next I started polling some URL/REST API for progress.

Once the submit is done - an event will fire, its handler will stop progress polling.

I don't see any problem with this approach, but for some reason neither of yours seem to match what I'm describing, so I'm putting it as an answer.

If you use jQuery the best approach would be to "ajaxify" your form using jQuery Form plugin. You can refer to this question for the example: File upload progress bar with jQuery.

Upvotes: 1

Brandon Buck
Brandon Buck

Reputation: 7181

To expand on my comment and offer guidance, to perform the "hidden iframe file upload" you need to have a hidden frame (so obvious isn't it?) with a name.

<html>
  <body>
    <iframe name="file-upload" src="" style="border: none; visibility: hidden; width: 0; height: 0; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0;"></iframe>
    The iframe shouldn't be visible, just pretend I didn't use inline styles though.
    <form id="uploadForm" action="anaction.php" enctype="whatever-you-need-here" method="post">
      File: <input type="file" /><br />
      <input type="submit" value="Upload" />
    </form>
  </body>
</html>

All pretty standard stuff so far. Next up comes the Javascript:

var form = document.getElementById("uploadForm");
form.onsubmit = function() { 
  console.log("The form has been submitted, start progress!"); 
}
form.target = "file-upload"; // the name of the iframe
// Go about your business, when "Upload" is pressed the file will be submitted
// to the iframe so you'd start your progress requests on form submit.

Ignore the poor practices, it's a simple example.

Upvotes: 3

Piotr Stapp
Piotr Stapp

Reputation: 19828

I decided to use: http://blueimp.github.io/jQuery-File-Upload/ because it is free and gives you nice progress bar.

Upvotes: 1

btm1
btm1

Reputation: 3856

honestly I do all the front end dev for an app and I was looking for the same thing. First i tried just using our socket.io to send back a number which i then turned into a percentage. I'd then apply that to the twitter bootstrap prog bar.

What i ended up doing and sticking with was using fine uploader http://fineuploader.com/ The documentation kinda sucks and you'll have to toy with it a little bit but it has a built in event that fires over and over while uploading something that will actually return you the progress.

Upvotes: 1

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