An Introduction to the File API

HTML has long had the ability to upload files to a server, at least since as far back as HTML 3.0 published in 1995, but it is only relatively recently that web pages have been given the ability to read files selected by the user directly in the page, without having to send them to the server first. The availability of the File API across the major browsers is steadily increasing, with Internet Explorer 10 implementing the API most recently.

In this session, Cameron will introduce the File API and demonstrate how it can be used in conjunction with HTML 5 <input> elements to create a client-side Web application that can access a user’s local files.