Accessing contents of a file in a web-application without uploading.
- by UniCoder
As far as I can tell, it is impossible to access the content of files on the user's computer in a web application without first uploading to the server, then re-downloading to user, unless some sort of plug-in is used. (Flash, etc.) Ideally, the user would upload the file directly to localstorage and then scripts would have a chance to process/display/validate/filter without the user having to wait on an upload.
Are there any features in upcoming web standards such as html5 that will allow this? If not, why has there been no effort to make this possible, and how can I work around it without getting stuck with plugins?