5.7. File Uploads

So far we've discussed users entering text data that they type (or paste) into forms. But there's another way to submit data: with a type=file form element, which allows users to select a file on their local systems to upload when the form is submitted.

Currently, three things have to happen for a user to upload a file via a form. First, the program that will be processing the form has to be expecting a file to be uploaded (you can't just alter the HTML for any form and stick a type=file field into it). Second, the form has to have an <input type=file name=whatever> element. And third, the form element has to have its attributes set like so: