Dmitry,
the spec lists a use case about a web app that needs to send file(s) to the
server programmatically. I happen to think lately about an E-mail app that
can send attachments. FileData and its splice() method are useful here. I
assume the XHR2 spec would get XHR.send(FileData) method. XHR2 provides
progress events.
Yes; I think in future, XHR2 will have an overloaded send method that
can send a FileData object.
- it'll need some way to save the File object to the Database field or a
localStore value, so it can be stored there till uploaded by the worker or
another page (I think this was discussed before, perhaps it's on the way
into corresponding specs?) Of course, we don't want to write the content of
the file into the Database, only opaquely roundtrip the 'file representing
token'.
Currently, the only "file representing token" that this specification
allows for is the filedata://[UUID] URL, which is spec'd to be
shortlived. Figuring out how to store file objects is a logical next
step. I'm keen for us all to agree on some set of requirements as a v1
(and then release a FPWD), since the amount of "new feature" suggestions
have been large (but very welcome ;-) ).
- it'd be good to have the ability to 'snapshot' files. During the
send/upload time the original files that user selected may 'disappear' from
the locations captured. For example, they were photos on a flash card that
got removed. It would be useful to (optionally) be able to make a copy of
the file to some temporary location. This can be an async operation that
comes back with a callback that gives a 'temp copy' File object
(File.makeTemporaryCopy(callback)). Some limit on disk space could be set.
They also will need to be removed at some point.
This is another interesting feature. It seems unlikely that we'd all
agree on a standardized disk space limitation, but there could be
another way to reason through this.
Again, I'm keen on shipping a v1 specification soon, and then iterating
on it, either as part of this endeavor, or the Device API WG's File API
(depending on how that shapes up).
-- A*
