Summary: HTML5 drag n' drop and click-to-select multi-file uploading library with “zero interface”.
ZeroUpload is a small (~2.2K gzipped and minified) HTML5 / JavaScript library for uploading files. It has an easy API to integrate with your web app, providing both drag & drop and click-to-select functionality. You can also limit the file types, total size and number of files you allow. The library handles all the details behind the scenes, emitting progress and completion events to your code, but it has no user interface at all. The UI of your app is yours to design -- we just provide the hooks.
The library works by attaching to a DIV to provide a “drop zone” for drag n' drop upload, but you can also explicitly call ZeroUpload.chooseFiles() to pop up the standard OS file selection dialog. You can then register event listeners for things such as upload progress, upload complete, etc.
In your server-side code, the file(s) will arrive as standard HTTP POST file uploads with names file1, file2, ... fileN. For example, here is how to save the uploaded files to your server using PHP:
foreach ($_FILES as $key => &$file) {
if (!move_uploaded_file($file['tmp_name'], basename($file['name']))) {
die("Failed to save uploaded file '".$file['name']."'. Please check permissions.");
}
}
ZeroUpload relies on jQuery. You can get it for free from jQuery.com. Any modern version should work fine, v1.6 or later.
If you are already using another library that conflicts with jQuery (i.e. one that reserves the global $ variable), you may call jQuery.noConflict() and ZeroUpload will still work fine.
The first thing you'll want to do is set the target URL for your uploads. Note that you can customize this per drop zone or per click, which is described below. But if all your uploads will go to one common URL, you can set it once by calling ZeroUpload.setURL(). Example:
ZeroUpload.setURL( "/path/to/myscript.php" );
If you are uploading to a URL on a different domain than the current page, make sure your server script sends back a proper Access-Control-Allow-Origin HTTP header.
By default ZeroUpload will allow any number of files to be uploaded at one time. To enforce a limit, call the ZeroUpload.setMaxFiles() function, and pass in an integer. Example:
ZeroUpload.setMaxFiles( 1 );
If a limit is set and the user drops too many files, an error is generated (see Error Event below). If chooseFiles() is called (see Manually Choosing Files below), the selection is limited in the OS file select dialog box itself.
By default ZeroUpload allows files of any size to be uploaded. To enforce a size limit, call the ZeroUpload.setMaxBytes() function, and pass in an integer representing the maximum number of bytes to allow. Note that this is measured as all files together, and is not a per-file limit. Example:
Note: Do not rely on a client-side max file size limitation to protect your server from attacks. Such limits can easily be overridden via JavaScript bookmarklets, etc. Please make sure to always enforce file upload size limits in your server-side code.
By default ZeroClipboard allows any file types to be selected for upload. To limit which types of files you want to accept, or which categories (such as images only), call the ZeroUpload.setFileTypes() function and pass in one or more MIME Type specifiers. Wildcards are accepted too. Example:
This would allow all image formats, and MPEG / MP3 audio files to be uploaded. If the user drops a file which doesn't meet your accepted types, an error is generated (see Error Event below). If chooseFiles() is called (see Manually Choosing Files below), the selection is limited to the desired types in the OS file select dialog box itself.
After setting your options (see above), you should initialize the ZeroUpload library by calling ZeroUpload.init(). This should be done after the DOM is ready. Example:
To use ZeroUpload for drag n' drop style file uploads, you have to declare one or more drop targets. These are areas of your page that accept user file drops. You can activate drops on any block element such as a DIV, or your entire body element. Either way, the function to call is ZeroUpload.addDropTarget(). Pass in any CSS selector or DOM element (anything jQuery can grok). Example:
ZeroUpload.addDropTarget( "#mydroparea" );
This would activate file drops on the DOM element with ID #mydroparea. To enable a CSS effect as the user is hovering over the element with files in hand, see the Styling the Drag Hover section below.
Each drop target may have a customized target URL, query params, and/or a “user data” element for passing arbitrary data to your callback functions. For more details, see the URL Params and User Data section below.
To detach ZeroUpload from a previously added drop target, i.e. restoring it to its original condition, you should call ZeroUpload.removeDropTarget(). Pass in any CSS selector or DOM element (anything jQuery can grok). Example:
In addition to drag n' drop, you can also manually pop up the OS file selection dialog for users to choose files for upload, such as in response to a click event. To do this, call the ZeroUpload.chooseFiles() function. Example:
ZeroUpload.chooseFiles();
A typical use of this is to attach it to a click event on a DOM element, so you can style your “Upload” button however you like. Example:
The selected files are uploaded immediately, and your maximum file limit and file type restrictions are enforced.
Each time you call chooseFiles(), you may specify a customized target URL, query params, and/or a “user data” element for passing arbitrary data to your callback functions. For more details, see the next section.
ZeroUpload is implemented as a singleton, meaning there can only be one instance per web page. However, you can customize the target URL, query params, and/or include user data for each drop target, and each call to chooseFiles().
For customizing via drop targets, the addDropTarget() function accepts two additional arguments after the CSS selector. The first one can be a string, which overrides the target URL for uploads, or a hash, which gets serialized into query params on the existing URL set via setURL(). Here are examples of these:
// first, set a default target URL
ZeroUpload.setURL( "/path/to/default.php" );
// drop target has no additional args, so just use the default URL
ZeroUpload.addDropTarget( "#droparea1" );
// target specifies a hash, which gets serialized and appended to the URL, e.g.
// /path/to/default.php?mykey=My%20Value
ZeroUpload.addDropTarget( "#droparea2", { mykey: "My Value" } );
// target specifies a string, which completely replaces the target URL
ZeroUpload.addDropTarget( "#droparea3", "/path/to/different.php" );
The URL may also be modified in the same way when calling chooseFiles(). Examples:
In addition to mucking with the URL, these functions also accept an additional, optional argument which is defined as “user data”. It can be any data type you want (number, string, object, etc.), which is then passed to all your callback functions (see Events below). Example:
This way you can provide your callback functions with information as to how the files were uploaded (which drop area was used, which click event, etc.). The two empty strings in the example denote that we aren't modifying the URL, and only specifying user data (but you can do both of course).
You can provide visual feedback when the user is hovering files over your drop zones, via CSS. ZeroUpload will add a dragover class to any drop zone DOM elements where the mouse is hovering with files in tow. To take advantage of this, simply define a dragover CSS class which contains the effects you want. Here is an example:
.dragover {
box-shadow: #00f 0px 0px 8px 2px;
}
This will make all drop zones glow blue when files are hovered over them. This is the same effect used in the demo test page.
ZeroUpload fires a number of events in response to various actions taking place. You can catch these events and execute custom code, such as displaying an upload progress indicator, a completion notice, and/or an error dialog. To hook events, use the ZeroUpload.on() function, and pass in an event name, and a callback function. Here are all the events you can listen in on:
The start event is fired when an upload is started, either from a drag n' drop operation, or from a click event. You could use this to display an upload progress dialog, letting the user know what is happening. Example:
ZeroUpload.on( 'start', function(files, userData) {
// Upload has started!
// `files` is an array of files queued for upload
// `userData` is your user data value, if applicable
} );
The files argument is a pseudo-array (technically a FileList but can be iterated over like a real array), which contains metadata about each file queued for upload: A name property with the file's name (no path), a size with the file's size in bytes, a type with the file's MIME type, and a lastModifiedDate with the file's mod date.
The start event is the one event where you can abort the upload process by returning false from your callback function. This cancels the upload operation before it actually starts. This can be used, for example, if you wanted to enforce a per-file size limit, or more granular / exact file type requirements. You could implement the checks inside your start callback, and if the user's files don't match your specifications, simply return false (and display your own error message).
Once the upload starts, ZeroUpload will emit progress events repeatedly (many times per second), which you can catch and update a progress indicator, for example. An object is passed to your callback function which contains a plethora of properties for you to use, which detail the upload operation currently in progress. Here is an example:
ZeroUpload.on( 'progress', function(progress, userData) {
// Upload is in progress.
// `progress.amount` is the upload progress from 0.0 to 1.0
// `progress.percent` is the textual percentage, e.g. "50%"
// 'userData' is your user data value, if applicable.
} );
Here is a list of all the properties available in the progress object:
Property
Type
Notes
amount
Number
A floating-point decimal representing the total upload progress, from 0.0 to 1.0.
percent
String
A string representing the upload progress, e.g. "45%".
elapsedRaw
Number
The elapsed time for the upload, in high-res seconds.
elapsedHuman
String
The elapsed time for the upload, as a human-readable string, e.g. "48 seconds" or "2 minutes".
dataSentRaw
Number
The number of bytes sent so far, e.g. 4718592.
dataSentHuman
String
The amount of data sent so far, as a human-readable string, e.g. "4.5 MB".
dataTotalRaw
Number
The total number of bytes in the upload, e.g. 10485760.
dataTotalHuman
String
The total amount of data in the upload, as a human-readable string, e.g. "10 MB".
dataRateRaw
Number
The average data rate in bytes sent per second.
dataRateHuman
String
The average data rate as a human-readable string, e.g. "150 K/sec".
remainingTimeRaw
Number
Estimated time remaining, represented as a number of seconds.
remainingTimeHuman
String
Estimated time remaining, as a human-readable string, e.g. "4 minutes".
originalEvent
Object
A reference to the original AJAX progress event, generated by the browser.
Hopefully the table is self-explanatory. Here is a more complete progress example, using more of the properties. This assumes your page has a DOM element with ID #progress.
A common use for the amount property (which will be a number from 0.0 to 1.0) is to render a graphical progress bar, updating the width each time the progress event is fired. You can do this with CSS. For example, let's say you have a container element that is 200px wide, and an inner element (with a different background color) that you want to “grow” from left to right. Here is one way you can implement this:
Note that you can only register one event listener for each event (the latter prevails), so make sure that you handle all your progress related updates in one call to ZeroUpload.on().
When the upload is complete, and we receive a successful HTTP code from the server, a completion event is fired. Your callback function is passed an object containing the actual HTTP response code (e.g. 200), the actual raw data from the server (e.g. JSON), and some other properties which are described below. Here is an example:
ZeroUpload.on( 'complete', function(response, userData) {
// Upload is complete!
// `response.code` is the HTTP response code, e.g. 200
// `response.data` is the raw data from the server
// 'userData' is your user data value, if applicable.
} );
If your server-side code sends back a JSON response, for example, you'll have to parse it yourself like this:
ZeroUpload.on( 'complete', function(response, userData) {
// Upload is complete!
var obj = JSON.parse( response.data );
} );
Here is a list of all the properties available in the response object passed to your completion handler:
Property
Type
Notes
code
Number
The HTTP response code from the server, e.g. 200.
data
String
The raw data sent back from the server.
statusLine
String
The HTTP status string, e.g. "OK".
xhr
Object
A reference to the original XHR (AJAX) object.
Note that ZeroUpload decides if the upload operation was “successful” based on the HTTP code sent back from the server. Successful HTTP response codes are between 200 and 399 inclusive. Any other number is considered an error, in which case the completion handler is not called. Instead, the error event is fired (see next section).
When an error occurs, which can happen before, during or after upload, ZeroUpload throws an error event. Your callback function is passed a unique error identifier string (see below), and a description of the error. It is highly recommended you include a listener for this event, because the default behavior is to show a JavaScript alert dialog. Example:
ZeroUpload.on( 'error', function(type, message, userData) {
// An error occurred!
// 'type' will be one of the error IDs shown below.
// 'message' is the error description string.
// 'userData' is your user data value, if applicable.
alert("Upload Error: " + message);
} );
An error type is provided so you can identify the unique error and provide your own description string, if you want (perhaps in other languages). Here is a table showing all the possible error types, with example English descriptions:
Error Type
Example Description
unsupported
Your browser is unsupported.
maxfiles
Too many files were selected. Please only select N.
maxbytes
File size too large: N bytes
filetype
File type not accepted: FILENAME (TYPE)
http
Error uploading files: HTTP 403 Forbidden
ajax
Error uploading files: Internal Error
The http error type is thrown when a non-successful HTTP response code is sent back from the server, such as 404 (File Not Found), 500 (Internal Server Error), etc. The ajax error type is a internal AJAX error, which is probably either a DNS lookup failure on your target URL, or a cross-domain error.
Here's an advanced tip. If your user data is a plain object with one or more keys & values, they become HTTP POST parameters sent to your server script. Meaning, along with the file upload data in file1, file2, ... fileN parameters, all your user data keys and values are included as well. So for example, if the user drops a file onto a target initialized thusly...
...your server-side script would be passed a myuploadtype HTTP POST parameter set to drop, along with the binary file upload data. These values can be accessed using code such as the following (PHP shown here):
$myuploadtype = $_POST['myuploadtype']; // "drop"
This can be useful to store things such as Session IDs or other sensitive data that you don't want visible on the URL query string.
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