Getting around Firefox not passing the file path

Question

I need a means of getting past Firefox's irritating refusal to pass the full path of a file selected using the input file element. This issue has come up in multiple other forums and I haven't found any solutions that are helpful.

What I want is a means, via javascript, to open a file dialog (without using the silly "hidden file input element that you just call click on" method because that doesn't solve anything). Then, when the user selects a file, I stow the full path in a regular text field. The question: is that feasible at all?

If not, I don't suppose anyone knows of a handy place to find all the properties and relevant functions to call on a javascript file object. For example

<input type="file" name="file_upload" onchange="alert(this.items.item(0).some_property)">

I found a handy list here but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that there's a property corresponding to a full file path (I know, wishfull thinking I'm sure). Anyways, comments are greatly appreciated (unless you just tell me to stop whining about something Firefox has no intention of fixing).

Answer 1

Why would the server ever need to know the full path on the client?

Regardless of why, this is intentional behavior, as exposing this kind of information is a security risk.

It is highly unlikely to change, an any workarounds you may find may end up being shut down by browser writers as the security risks that they are.

Answer 2

This is an intentional security feature and unlikely to go away.

Internet Explorer 8 does the same thing now:

Additionally, the “Include local directory path when uploading files” URLAction has been set to "Disable" for the Internet Zone. This change prevents leakage of potentially sensitive local file-system information to the Internet. For instance, rather than submitting the full path C:\users\ericlaw\documents\secret\image.png, Internet Explorer 8 will now submit only the filename image.png.

Flash-based uploaders like SWFUpload should be able to store the full path with some tweaking.