Get full path of a file with FileUpload Control

Question

I am working on a web application which uses the FileUpload control. I have an xls file in the full filepath 'C:\Mailid.xls' that I am attempting to upload.

When I use the command

FileUpload1.PostedFile.FileName 

I cannot get the full filepath from my system. However, when I use the above command in another system it works fine.

I also tried the following commands with no success:

   System.IO.Path.GetFullPath(FileUpload1.PostedFile.FileName);
   Path.GetFileName(FileUpload1.PostedFile.FileName);
   System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(FileUpload1.PostedFile.FileName).ToString();
   Convert.ToString(System.IO.Directory.GetParent(FileUpload1.PostedFile.FileName));

How can I get full path?

Answer 1

It's currently true that "when you upload a file the browser will only send the source filename and not the full path" - it makes perfect sense that the server has no business knowing whether the file was in "C:\WINDOWS\" or "F:\SOMEDIR\OTHERDIR\PERSONALINFO\". The filename is always sent, and is useful both to help the user 'recognise' the content and possibly to interrogate the file extension to help determine the file type.

However I know from experience that Internet Explorer definitely used to (in older versions) send the entire path. It's difficult to find an authoritative confirmation (except this apache fileupload control doco)

Internet Explorer provides the entire path to the uploaded file and not just the base file name

Regardless, you should not use nor expect the full path to be sent by any 'modern' browser.

Answer 2

Perhaps you misunderstand the way FileUpload works.

When you upload a file, it is effectively being transferred from the client's computer to the server hosting your application. If you're developing the application, most times, both client and server are the same machine (your computer). Once the application is deployed however, there could be any number of clients connecting to the server, each uploading a different file.

Knowing the full path of the file on the client's computer usually isn't necessary - you'll often want to do something with the file contents. Your examples seem like ASP.NET C#, so I'm guessing you're using the FileUpload control. You can get at the uploaded file's contents by reading the raw stream (FileUpload.PostedFile.InputStream) or by saving the file first (FileUpload.PostedFile.SaveAs), then accessing the saved file. It's your responsibility to save the file, if you want it to be accessible after the current request - if you don't, ASP.NET deletes it.

One more thing - don't forget to set the enctype property on your form to "multipart/form-data". If you don't, the client's browser won't send the file, and you'll spend quite a few minutes wondering what went wrong.

Answer 3

I'm using IE 8 (on two separate machines). Each still uploads the full local file path. As suggested by Gabriël, Path.GetFileName(fileUploadControl.PostedFile.FileName) appears to be the only way to ensure that you only get the filename.

Answer 4

Try

Server.MapPath(FileUpload1.FileName);

Edit: This answer describes how to get the path to a file on the server. It does not describe how to get the path to a file on the client, which is what the question asked. The answer to that question is "you can't", because modern browser will not tell you the path on the client, for security reasons.

Answer 5

Path.GetFullPath(fileUpload.PostedFile.FileName);

Sorry this 'll get your program file directory + your file name.

Answer 6

IE 7 and previous versions sent the full path of the uploaded file to the server related to the input type="file" field. Firefox and other modern browsers consider this to be a security flaw and do not. However, this appears to be have been fixed in IE 8.

Perhaps you should instead evaluate why you need the full path to the file as it was located on the client's system. I think it is really superfluous information that should never be posted at all. All you should be concerned with the is the file name so that you can save the file without making changes to the name.