One of my least favorite things about web development is the need to upload images before being allowed access to them on the client side. In the era of Rich Internet Applications, where client-side file manipulation is becoming more commonplace, the step of transferring an image to the server just to immediately bring it back to the client seems like a waste of time, bandwidth, and server resources, not to mention being horrible for the user experience.
Of course, it is also necessary unless you want to use a java applet (and who does?). Or is it? Apparently Microsoft has decided that this is one security vulnerability that they can deal with and have announced client side access to files. That’s right, with Silverlight you can now access files before uploading them to the server! Read about it on Scott Guthrie’s blog (check out the slides) and here.
The only limitations are that you must allow the user to browse to the file with a browse file dialog (as they do now), and you get access only to that file. Pretty simple.
Of course, I don’t want to use Silverlight. I want the features and reach of Flash. So until Adobe decides it is worth it to provide this feature (I’m hoping to hear word on this from an Adobe blog by Lucas Adamski), I’ll just add one to the “Silverlight is the best” column (it’s still rather lopsided in favor of Adobe) and put up with a poor experience in the file upload department.
~Shaun
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October 5th, 2007 at 8:08 pm
Thank you for sharing!
April 27th, 2008 at 7:26 am
Hello,
if I have access it from client side why should I use .net, I need it in pure flex, not in any other language…. I am working with ruby and flex, so when a user upload his image, he will able to see his image, if he found its perfect then he will upload it on the server. thats what I want.
have any solutions for that….
thanks in advance.
Abhijit Mukherjee
April 28th, 2008 at 6:58 am
Abhijit,
Unfortunately, there is no way to do that with the Flash Player (and therefore flex). If you ever want to make changes to the image, you will have to first upload it to the server (or load it from a domain with a security policy in place that allows you your domain).
Shaun