I don't understand. I think in a "Choose File" Dialog you can pick multiple items. And as far as I know folders are mixed with files on the list (that's how you navigate between folders on this dialog).
Why not choose multiple files/folders? Security doesn't seem to be a concern. I can make a mess with only one folder. On Tue, 2010-04-06 at 14:28 -0700, John Gregg wrote: > The most relevant issue is that in Windows/Mac/Linux, there are no > system dialogs that let the user select either a folder or a file. > They each have separate "choose a file" and "choose a folder" > dialogs. I think the logical reason for that is that when selecting a > file, clicking a directory means to enter that directory and select > from its files, not to choose that directory as the result of > selection. > > > Thus we would force UAs to reinvent file-picker interfaces in order to > deal with an input element that allows both folders and files. > > > -John > > On Tue, Apr 6, 2010 at 2:18 PM, Ojan Vafai <o...@chromium.org> wrote: > It's unfortunate that users need to distinguish between single > and multiple file inputs. That's not something we can change > at this point. The web started with single file inputs. We can > avoid adding a third type of file input they need to > understand though. > > > Also, what should happen if you drag files and folders onto a > "multiple" or "directory" input? Just drop the ones that are > of the wrong type? I cannot imagine users making sense of > that. > > > It's not clear to me from your original email what issues you > encountered during implementation that led to this proposal. > Is it just the leaf name conflict issue? I agree that's a > problem, but maybe there's a different solution to that? > > > Ojan > > > > On Tue, Apr 6, 2010 at 12:53 PM, John Gregg > <john...@google.com> wrote: > That's a fair question, but how is it clear today > whether an input can accept multiple files vs. a > single file using drag-and-drop? Currently if I drag > multiple files onto an input that doesn't have > 'multiple', I get only the first one. (In Chrome.) > > > Some good default text from the UA, like "Choose > folder..." instead of "Choose file...", would go far > to solve that, I think. > > > -John > > > > On Tue, Apr 6, 2010 at 12:38 PM, Ojan Vafai > <o...@chromium.org> wrote: > What about drag-drop? I should be able to drag > a directory, a file, or a list of files onto > an input, no? If not, how is this distinction > shown to users? How will it be clear to users > when they can do one or the other? > > > Ojan > > > > On Thu, Apr 1, 2010 at 3:53 PM, John Gregg > <john...@google.com> wrote: > For context, Ian Fette started a > thread about uploading directories of > files in > December: > http://lists.whatwg.org/pipermail/whatwg-whatwg.org/2009-December/024455.html > > At that time, it was thought that > directory upload could be implemented > by a UA in response to a <input > type="file" multiple> tag using > different UI only, and modifying the > FileAPI spec to allow path information > in the form > > input.files[0].name="1.jpg" > input.files[0].path="a" > input.files[1].name="2.jpg" > input.files[1].path="a/b" > input.files[2].name="3.jpg" > input.files[2].path="a/c" > > I've started developing a prototype of > this in WebKit/Chromium. Based on > what I've encountered so far, I would > like to propose adding directory > upload functionality using an explicit > new 'directory' attribute on the file > input element. > > > The existing behavior of <input > type="file" multiple> would not > change, but when processing <input > type="file" directory>, the UA would > display a directory selection UI and > store the path information, and not > allow individual files to be > selected. It would allow multiple > files to have the same leaf name > (.name attribute), as long as the > paths were different. The path > attributes would include the name of > the chosen directory > > This would be preferable for several > reasons: > - Most built-in file system UI on > major platforms (Windows/Mac/Linux) > have distinct dialogs for choosing > files and choosing directories. > Allowing the UA to use these directly > makes sense rather than creating > hybrids. > - Avoiding "leaf name" conflicts in a > directory tree is not feasible in many > applications -- asking a user to > ensure unique photo names in a large > set of albums before uploading would > fail to meet that use case. Therefore > HTML documents should know in advance > whether the path information will be > relevant in the eventual storage of > the files. Sites currently using > <input type="file" multiple> would > have compatibility problems with an > implementation which allowed > conflicting file names along different > paths. > > > What are your thoughts about adding > the 'directory' attribute? > > > Thanks, > -John > > > > > > > > -- Diogo Resende <drese...@thinkdigital.pt> ThinkDigital
