# Uploading multiple files elegantly

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/uploading-multiple-files-elegantly/49151>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [November 30, 2005, 7:04pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/uploading-multiple-files-elegantly/49151 "2005-11-30T19:04:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![wborgon](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/ce7236/32.png) [@wborgon](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/wborgon)\
**Post date:** [November 30, 2005, 7:04pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/uploading-multiple-files-elegantly/49151/1 "2005-11-30T19:04:21Z")

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I’m very new to rails and don’t yet feel comfortable synthesizing this  
myself, so any help would be really appreciated. I’m trying to  
implement file upload functionality, such that users can upload multiple  
files at once (potentially, well over 10).

Outside of having the user create and upload a zip file, it seems the  
nicest thing would be for them to drag and drop the files from their  
file browser into a scrollable text box on my app, or to at least allow  
them to select files one at a time which appear in a single scrollable  
text box. If they need to delete for example, they could select and  
press a delete button. Clicking submit, would upload all the files at  
once.

Does anyone have any code that does any of this, or suggestions on how  
to handle any of this? (including the zip approach)  
Thanks a lot.  
-W

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![wborgon](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/ce7236/32.png) [@wborgon](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/wborgon)\
**Post date:** [December 1, 2005, 2:33am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/uploading-multiple-files-elegantly/49151/2 "2005-12-01T02:33:54Z")

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I am guessing here, but I don’t think the browsers would really let you  
do  
that.  
The input of file type has strict rules about the files it uploads, and  
user  
clicking on the browse button is mandatory (as far as I know)  
Otherwise everyone would do scripts that would upload random files from  
the  
user’s machine  
bogdan

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![wborgon](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/ce7236/32.png) [@wborgon](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/wborgon)\
**Post date:** [December 1, 2005, 3:14am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/uploading-multiple-files-elegantly/49151/3 "2005-12-01T03:14:14Z")

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It seems like Web apps that let you do this (e.g. Flickr) generally do  
it by  
writing a client side component. That is, something that runs outside  
of  
the browser. Take this with a grain of salt- I am by no means an  
expert.  
But if I were implementing something like this, I’d probably take a look  
at  
how others do it- picture sites and file sharing sites seem like good  
things  
to look at.