form reset->POST value to file input type FAILS

[kristo5747]

Greetings!

 

I'm coding a page form and to prevent its fields to be reset, I have to echo the POST values back into their respective form fields.

 

It is working well for text inputs but I am having problem with an file input type. Echo-ing the POST value back does not work: the respective form field resets, is blanked out...no matter what!!

 

This is my code...

 

... <input tabindex="23" type="file" name="myfile" value="<?php echo $_FILES['myfile']['name'];?>" /><br>...

 

What I am doing wrong??  Can someone please tell me?!

[DavidAM]

I'm not sure if you are going to be able to do that with an INPUT of type FILE.  The value shown when the user selects a file is the full pathname to the file ON THEIR COMPUTER.  The data you get when it posts as the 'name' is just the filename (you do not get the drive and path).  If you do echo the name back to the form, it will not necessarily represent the same file since it will not contain a path.  I have not tried this, but I suspect that some (if not all) browsers will ignore whatever you provide since it could be ambiguous (at best).

 

After you get the page loaded, look at the page source and see if the value is there in the INPUT element.  If it is, then you know you are sending it and the browser is ignoring it.  If it is not there, it could mean that the browser is ignoring it completely (and not even including it in the page source).

 

All in all, I don't think you can accomplish what you are trying to do for this type of field.  On the other hand, I have never tried it, so I can't say for sure.

[kristo5747]

Mmm....your explanation makes sense... Thanks for your input.

 

 

[the182guy]

No can't be done. Why? Security - because if it was possible then you could easily create malicious PHP or Javascript code to steal files from a users computer.