Validation of file extension before uploading file

Question

I am uploading images to a servlet. The validation whether the uploaded file is an image is done in server side only, by checking the magic numbers in the file header. Is there any way to validate the extensions in client side before submitting the form to servlet? As soon as I hit enter it starts uploading.

I am using Javascript and jQuery in client side.

Update: I was finally ended up with server side validation which reads bytes & rejects the upload if it is not an image.

Answer 1

Do you use the input type="file" to choose the uploadfiles? if so, why not use the accept attribute?

<input type="file" name="myImage" accept="image/x-png,image/gif,image/jpeg" />

Answer 2

<script type="text/javascript">

        function file_upload() {
            var imgpath = document.getElementById("<%=FileUpload1.ClientID %>").value;
            if (imgpath == "") {
                alert("Upload your Photo...");
                document.file.word.focus();
                return false;
            }
            else {
                // code to get File Extension..

                var arr1 = new Array;
                arr1 = imgpath.split("\\");
                var len = arr1.length;
                var img1 = arr1[len - 1];
                var filext = img1.substring(img1.lastIndexOf(".") + 1);
                // Checking Extension
                if (filext == "bmp" || filext == "gif" || filext == "png" || filext == "jpg" || filext == "jpeg" ) {
                    alert("Successfully Uploaded...")
                    return false;
                }
                else {
                    alert("Upload Photo with Extension ' bmp , gif, png , jpg , jpeg '");
                    document.form.word.focus();
                    return false;
                }
            }
        }

        function Doc_upload() {
            var imgpath = document.getElementById("<%=FileUpload2.ClientID %>").value;
            if (imgpath == "") {
                alert("Upload Agreement...");
                document.file.word.focus();
                return false;
            }
            else {
                // code to get File Extension..

                var arr1 = new Array;
                arr1 = imgpath.split("\\");
                var len = arr1.length;
                var img1 = arr1[len - 1];
                var filext = img1.substring(img1.lastIndexOf(".") + 1);
                // Checking Extension
                if (filext == "txt" || filext == "pdf" || filext == "doc") {
                    alert("Successfully Uploaded...")
                    return false;
                }
                else {
                    alert("Upload File with Extension ' txt , pdf , doc '");
                    document.form.word.focus();
                    return false;
                }
            }
        }
</script>

Answer 3

try this (Works for me)

  
  function validate(){
  var file= form.file.value;
       var reg = /(.*?)\.(jpg|bmp|jpeg|png)$/;
       if(!file.match(reg))
       {
    	   alert("Invalid File");
    	   return false;
       }
       }

<form name="form">
<input type="file" name="file"/>
<input type="submit" onClick="return validate();"/>
</form>

     

Answer 4

If you're needing to test remote urls in an input field, you can try testing a simple regex with the types that you're interested in.

$input_field = $('.js-input-field-class');

if ( !(/\.(gif|jpg|jpeg|tiff|png)$/i).test( $input_field.val() )) {
  $('.error-message').text('This URL is not a valid image type. Please use a url with the known image types gif, jpg, jpeg, tiff or png.');
  return false;
}

This will capture anything ending in .gif, .jpg, .jpeg, .tiff or .png

I should note that some popular sites like Twitter append a size attribute to the end of their images. For instance, the following would fail this test even though it's a valid image type:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BrTuXT5CUAAtkZM.jpg:large

Because of that, this isn't a perfect solution. But it will get you to about 90% of the way.

Answer 5

You can use the accept attribute available for input file types. Checkout MDN documentation

Answer 6

I came here because I was sure none of the answers here were quite...poetic:

function checkextension() {
  var file = document.querySelector("#fUpload");
  if ( /\.(jpe?g|png|gif)$/i.test(file.files[0].name) === false ) { alert("not an image!"); }
}

<input type="file" id="fUpload" onchange="checkextension()"/>