How to resolve the C:\fakepath?

Question

<input type="file" id="file-id" name="file_name" onchange="theimage();">

This is my upload button.

<input type="text" name="file_path" id="file-path">

This is the text field where I have to show the full path of the file.

function theimage(){
 var filename = document.getElementById('file-id').value;
 document.getElementById('file-path').value = filename;
 alert(filename);
}

This is the JavaScript which solve my problem. But in the alert value gives me

C:\fakepath\test.csv 

and Mozilla gives me:

test.csv

But I want the local fully qualified file path. How to resolve this issue?

If this is due to browser security issue then what should be the alternate way to do this?

Answer 1

Some browsers have a security feature that prevents JavaScript from knowing your file's local full path. It makes sense - as a client, you don't want the server to know your local machine's filesystem. It would be nice if all browsers did this.

Answer 2

Use

document.getElementById("file-id").files[0].name; 

instead of

document.getElementById('file-id').value

Answer 3

I use the object FileReader on the input onchange event for your input file type! This example uses the readAsDataURL function and for that reason you should have an tag. The FileReader object also has readAsBinaryString to get the binary data, which can later be used to create the same file on your server

Example:

var input = document.getElementById("inputFile");
var fReader = new FileReader();
fReader.readAsDataURL(input.files[0]);
fReader.onloadend = function(event){
    var img = document.getElementById("yourImgTag");
    img.src = event.target.result;
}

Answer 4

If you go to Internet Explorer, Tools, Internet Option, Security, Custom, find the "Include local directory path When uploading files to a server" (it is quite a ways down) and click on "Enable" . This will work

Answer 5

I am happy that browsers care to save us from intrusive scripts and the like. I am not happy with IE putting something into the browser that makes a simple style-fix look like a hack-attack!

I've used a < span > to represent the file-input so that I could apply appropriate styling to the < div > instead of the < input > (once again, because of IE). Now due to this IE want's to show the User a path with a value that's just guaranteed to put them on guard and in the very least apprehensive (if not totally scare them off?!)... MORE IE-CRAP!

Anyhow, thanks to to those who posted the explanation here: IE Browser Security: Appending "fakepath" to file path in input[type="file"], I've put together a minor fixer-upper...

The code below does two things - it fixes a lte IE8 bug where the onChange event doesn't fire until the upload field's onBlur and it updates an element with a cleaned filepath that won't scare the User.

// self-calling lambda to for jQuery shorthand "$" namespace
(function($){
    // document onReady wrapper
    $().ready(function(){
        // check for the nefarious IE
        if($.browser.msie) {
            // capture the file input fields
            var fileInput = $('input[type="file"]');
            // add presentational <span> tags "underneath" all file input fields for styling
            fileInput.after(
                $(document.createElement('span')).addClass('file-underlay')
            );
            // bind onClick to get the file-path and update the style <div>
            fileInput.click(function(){
                // need to capture $(this) because setTimeout() is on the
                // Window keyword 'this' changes context in it
                var fileContext = $(this);
                // capture the timer as well as set setTimeout()
                // we use setTimeout() because IE pauses timers when a file dialog opens
                // in this manner we give ourselves a "pseudo-onChange" handler
                var ieBugTimeout = setTimeout(function(){
                    // set vars
                    var filePath     = fileContext.val(),
                        fileUnderlay = fileContext.siblings('.file-underlay');
                    // check for IE's lovely security speil
                    if(filePath.match(/fakepath/)) {
                        // update the file-path text using case-insensitive regex
                        filePath = filePath.replace(/C:\\fakepath\\/i, '');
                    }
                    // update the text in the file-underlay <span>
                    fileUnderlay.text(filePath);
                    // clear the timer var
                    clearTimeout(ieBugTimeout);
                }, 10);
            });
        }
    });
})(jQuery);

Answer 6

I came accross the same problem. In IE8 it could be worked-around by creating a hidden input after the file input control. The fill this with the value of it's previous sibling. In IE9 this has been fixed aswell.

My reason in wanting to get to know the full path was to create an javascript image preview before uploading. Now I have to upload the file to create a preview of the selected image.

Answer 7

If you really need to send the full path of the uploded file, then you'd probably have to use something like a signed java applet as there isn't any way to get this information if the browser doesn't send it.

Answer 8

On Chrome/Chromium based apps like electron you can just use the target.files:

(I'm using React JS on this example)

const onChange = (event) => {
  const value = event.target.value;

  // this will return C:\fakepath\somefile.ext
  console.log(value);

  const files = event.target.files;

  //this will return an ARRAY of File object
  console.log(files);
}

return (
 <input type="file" onChange={onChange} />
)

The File object I'm talking above looks like this:

{
  fullName: "C:\Users\myname\Downloads\somefile.ext"
  lastModified: 1593086858659
  lastModifiedDate: (the date)
  name: "somefile.ext"
  size: 10235546
  type: ""
  webkitRelativePath: ""
}

So then you can just get the fullName if you wanna get the path.

Note that this would only work on chrome/chromium browsers, so if you don't have to support other browsers (like if you're building an electron project) you can use this.

Answer 9

Use file readers:

$(document).ready(function() {
        $("#input-file").change(function() {
            var length = this.files.length;
            if (!length) {
                return false;
            }
            useImage(this);
        });
    });

    // Creating the function
    function useImage(img) {
        var file = img.files[0];
        var imagefile = file.type;
        var match = ["image/jpeg", "image/png", "image/jpg"];
        if (!((imagefile == match[0]) || (imagefile == match[1]) || (imagefile == match[2]))) {
            alert("Invalid File Extension");
        } else {
            var reader = new FileReader();
            reader.onload = imageIsLoaded;
            reader.readAsDataURL(img.files[0]);
        }

        function imageIsLoaded(e) {
            $('div.withBckImage').css({ 'background-image': "url(" + e.target.result + ")" });

        }
    }

Answer 10

seems you can't find the full path in you localhost by js, but you can hide the fakepath to just show the file name. Use jQuery to get the file input's selected filename without the path

Answer 11

You would be able to get at least temporary created copy of the file path on your machine. The only condition here is your input element should be within a form What you have to do else is putting in the form an attribute enctype, e.g.:

<form id="formid" enctype="multipart/form-data" method="post" action="{{url('/add_a_note' )}}">...</form>

you can find the path string at the bottom. It opens stream to file and then deletes it.