HTML 5 File API

Question

I hear that Firefox 3.6 adds support for the HTML local file API (Announcement here).

Does this mean that I can access local files from javascript?

Can anyone point me to examples for reading / writing local files?

I would love to be able to read / write simple text files.

Granthem

That's a mistake in the announcement, though. The File API has very little to do with HTML5. – Substantiate

Answer 1

The only files you can access are files dropped from the desktop or files that has been selected from an <input/> tag. See the demo I've written here: http://hacks.mozilla.org/2009/12/uploading-files-with-xmlhttprequest/

Assumed

Answer 2

It doesn't allow accessing arbitrary local files. It's more of a file upload improvement. For instance, you can have some Javascript accept a drag-and-drop file initiated by the user of the browser.

You can find the W3C spec on it here.

Dialectician

Answer 3

Take a look at the demo at hacks.mozilla.org.

Neanderthal

Answer 4

You can find a (mozilla-specific explanation of the API on the Mozilla Development Center.

Jab

Answer 5

It's possible to write to local file system, but the user must complete a 'save as...' action. For now, no direct access to client file system. Take a look here

Tingey