How to read and write into file using JavaScript?

Question

Can anybody give some sample code to read and write a file using JavaScript?

Answer 1

This Javascript function presents a complete "Save As" Dialog box to the user who runs this through the browser. The user presses OK and the file is saved.

Edit: The following code only works with IE Browser since Firefox and Chrome have considered this code a security problem and has blocked it from working.

// content is the data you'll write to file<br/>
// filename is the filename<br/>
// what I did is use iFrame as a buffer, fill it up with text
function save_content_to_file(content, filename)
{
    var dlg = false;
    with(document){
     ir=createElement('iframe');
     ir.id='ifr';
     ir.location='about.blank';
     ir.style.display='none';
     body.appendChild(ir);
      with(getElementById('ifr').contentWindow.document){
           open("text/plain", "replace");
           charset = "utf-8";
           write(content);
           close();
           document.charset = "utf-8";
           dlg = execCommand('SaveAs', false, filename+'.txt');
       }
       body.removeChild(ir);
     }
    return dlg;
}

Invoke the function:

save_content_to_file("Hello", "C:\\test");

Answer 2

For completeness, the OP does not state he is looking to do this in a browser (if he is, as has been stated, it is generally not possible)

However javascript per se does allow this; it can be done with server side javascript.

See this documentation on the Javascript File class

Edit: That link was to the Sun docs that now have been moved by Oracle.

To keep up with the times here's the node.js documentation for the FileSystem class: http://nodejs.org/docs/latest/api/fs.html

Edit(2): You can read files client side now with HTML5: http://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/file/dndfiles/

Answer 3

Here is write solution for chrome v52+ (user still need to select a destination doe...)
source: StreamSaver.js

<!-- load StreamSaver.js before streams polyfill to detect support -->
<script src="StreamSaver.js"></script>
<script src="https://wzrd.in/standalone/web-streams-polyfill@latest"></script>

const writeStream = streamSaver.createWriteStream('filename.txt')
const encoder = new TextEncoder
let data = 'a'.repeat(1024)
let uint8array = encoder.encode(data + "\n\n")

writeStream.write(uint8array) // must be uInt8array
writeStream.close()

Best suited for writing large data generated on client side.
Otherwise I suggest using FileSaver.js to save Blob/Files

Answer 4

here's the mozilla proposal

http://www-archive.mozilla.org/js/js-file-object.html

this is implemented with a compilation switch in spidermonkey, and also in adobe's extendscript. Additionally (I think) you get the File object in firefox extensions.

rhino has a (rather rudementary) readFile function https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Rhino_Shell

for more complex file operations in rhino, you can use java.io.File methods.

you won't get any of this stuff in the browser though. For similar functionality in a browser you can use the SQL database functions from HTML5, clientside persistence, cookies, and flash storage objects.

Answer 5

The future is here! The proposals are closer to completion, no more ActiveX or flash or java. Now we can use:

• File System APIs

• Native Drag&Drop File Access

You could use the Drag/Drop to get the file into the browser, or a simple upload control. Once the user has selected a file, you can read it w/ Javascript: http://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/file/dndfiles/

Answer 6

You cannot do file i/o on the client side using javascript as that would be a security risk. You'd either have to get them to download and run an exe, or if the file is on your server, use AJAX and a server-side language such as PHP to do the i/o on serverside