I am building a web application and need to capture the full directory path of a file when a user selects it via an input tag. Currently, using JavaScript or jQuery, I only see the filename or a "C:\fakepath" prefix. Is there a specific API or a workaround in modern browsers to bypass this security restriction for internal tool logging purposes?
3 answers
Due to modern browser security protocols and the "Same-origin policy," you cannot programmatically access the full local file system path of a user's machine. This is a privacy feature designed to prevent malicious sites from mapping out a user's local directory structure. When you access the value of a file input, the browser provides "C:\fakepath\filename.ext" instead. To handle files, you should use the File API. You can access the File object via event.target.files[0], which allows you to read the content using FileReader or upload it via jQuery-Ajax using FormData.
Does your specific use case actually require the absolute path for the server to process the request, or are you just trying to display the path to the user for UI purposes? If it is the latter, have you considered using the webkitdirectory attribute?
You can't get the full path because of security. Use the File API to get the name, size, and type. For uploading, use new FormData() with a standard jQuery .ajax() POST request.
I agree with Amanda. Security standards across Chrome and Firefox have blocked this for years. Relying on the File object is the only "future-proof" way to handle uploads today.
Robert, the webkitdirectory attribute is great for selecting entire folders, but even then, browsers will only provide the relative path within that folder, not the absolute system path like /Users/Name/Documents. For my Ajax upload, I found that appending the file object to a FormData instance is the only reliable way to send the data to the backend without needing the full path.