Google Apps Script Web App - crossing server side calls(?) - google-apps-script

I have a web app I am writing and wanted updates to write back to the server real time. On the client side I have this function running and capturing each input. The inputs are currently all checkboxes. The problem is that I can check the boxes faster than the script works on them and therefore end up with unexpected results. So I need to slow the user down between selections or make sure each server call completes before the next one begins. How do I do this?
This is the start of the client side script section. There are other functions such as the success and failure handlers.
<script>
$("form").change(function(e) {
if (e.target.type && e.target.type === 'checkbox') {
//A checkbox was changed, so act on it
var name = e.target.value.substr(0,e.target.value.lastIndexOf("_"));
var position = e.target.value.substr(e.target.value.lastIndexOf("_") + 1);
var passArray = [name, position];
if (e.target.checked) {
//Add the value to the person's Assigned Position
google.script.run.withSuccessHandler(editChangeReturnedFromServer).withFailureHandler(editFailed).setWSAssignedPosition(passArray);
} else {
//Remove the value from the peson's Assigned Position
google.script.run.withSuccessHandler(editChangeReturnedFromServer).withFailureHandler(editFailed).clearWSAssignedPosition(passArray);
}
return;
}
...(other functions)...
</script>
If the user checks boxes quickly, the calls to the server side setWSAssignedPosition() function seem to cross or even duplicate, as all the correct values are not added to the spreadsheet OR multiple copies of the same are added. If I slow the end user down with alert('I am changing that'); right before the google.script.run... line then all works fine. I actually watched as one line in the spreadsheet was replaced with an entry that came later. But that was intrusive and quickly became annoying.
I am not interested in a Submit or Apply button. I really want this to happen on the fly.
The server side function is:
//Set the Assigned Position for the person passed to the function
function setWSAssignedPosition(passedArray){
var name = passedArray[0];
var position = passedArray[1];
//Get the entries from the filled out Position Requests in the appropriate sheet
var validWSRequests = getValidWSRequests();
var foundWSRequest = false;
for (i in validWSRequests) {
if (validWSRequests[i].participantName === name){
ws_sheet.getRange(validWSRequests[i].sheetrow + 2 , ws_headers[0].indexOf("Assigned Position") + 1).setValue(position);
foundWSRequest = true;
break;
}
}
if (!foundWSRequest) {
var WSOthersAssigned = getRowsData(ws_norequests_sheet);
var WSOthersAssigned_headers = ws_norequests_sheet.getRange(1, 1, 1, ws_norequests_sheet.getLastColumn()).getValues();
//Get the first empty row on the sheet for those who didn't fill out the form in case we need it.
var firstEmptyRow = getFirstEmptyRowWholeRow(ws_norequests_sheet);
if (WSOthersAssigned.length < 1){
//No records exist at all, so add the first
ws_norequests_sheet.getRange(firstEmptyRow, WSOthersAssigned_headers[0].indexOf("Assigned Position") + 1).setValue(position);
ws_norequests_sheet.getRange(firstEmptyRow, WSOthersAssigned_headers[0].indexOf("PARTICIPANT NAME") + 1).setValue(name);
}else {
for (i in WSOthersAssigned){
var seeme = i;
if (WSOthersAssigned[i].participantName === name) {
//Found a record so edit it
ws_norequests_sheet.getRange(WSOthersAssigned[i].sheetrow + 2 , WSOthersAssigned_headers[0].indexOf("Assigned Position") + 1).setValue(position);
break;
} else {
//No record found, so append it
ws_norequests_sheet.getRange(firstEmptyRow, WSOthersAssigned_headers[0].indexOf("Assigned Position") + 1).setValue(position);
ws_norequests_sheet.getRange(firstEmptyRow, WSOthersAssigned_headers[0].indexOf("PARTICIPANT NAME") + 1).setValue(name);
break;
}
}
}
}
// This didn't help
// SpreadsheetApp.flush();
return [name, true, position];
}
ws_norequests_sheet and ws_norequests_sheet are defined globally to get the appropriate sheet in the spreadsheet where these items are stored. Depending on the initial source, the data is saved in one of two sheets. I am currently testing where all the data is going into the second sheet as these checkboxes are all stacked on top of each other and therefore quickly accessed

That's the nature of asynchronous server calls. You always need to be mindful that the calls may not return in the same order in which you sent them. You always need to take care and use the success and failure callbacks to properly respond.
There are several ways to deal with your issue (in the way that you want) and most involve preventing the user from triggering the change action on the form's elements and then allowing them to do so only after the server calls return.
One of the simpler ways would be to disable the form elements on change and the re-enable them in your callbacks.
So first disable them on change:
$("form").change(function(e) {
if (e.target.type && e.target.type === 'checkbox') {
$("input[type=checkbox]", "form").attr("disabled", "disabled");
//Your change code here
}
}
Then in both your success and fail handlers, re-enable them:
function editChangeReturnedFromServer(response) {
//your code here to work with server data
$("input[type=checkbox]", "form").removeAttr("disabled");
}
function editFailed(error) {
//your code here to handle error
$("input[type=checkbox]", "form").removeAttr("disabled");
}
Other options would be to use something like jQuery UI to create a modal dialog that would prevent the user from clicking options, which you could destroy on success. This is nice as it very clearly indicates to the user that something is happening where disabling inputs may not be as obvious to them.
Basically, you need to ensure that the user cannot trigger another change until the previous one has completed. Alternatively, you could in theory user a global variable to track the unprocessed checkbox values and another to track if a server call is in progress, but this is a lot of complexity for such a simple thing.
To be frank though, I don't really agree with your approach from a UI perspective. The expected behaviour of a checkbox is that it collects a user's input and only sends that to a server when a submit button is clicked. As an end user, I would expect to wait when 'submitting' something, but not when checking a box. Having to wait any amount of time (even fractions of a second) would personally annoy me. I would much rather check several options and wait for a longer submit.
Depending on what's actually being done with the return values, a more elegant solution might be to take care of the actions on the client side immediately without involving the server. Only sending it data once the user has finished their selections.
For example, if checking one box should show the user 3 inputs, you could:
$("#check1").click(function(){
$(".showOnCheck1").toggle(this.checked);
});
.showOnCheck1 {display:none;}
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<p>
<input type="checkbox" id="check1" value="check1"><label for="check1">Check box 1</label>
</p>
<p class="showOnCheck1">
<label for="text1">Text Box 1</label><input type="text" id="text1">
</p>
<p class="showOnCheck1">
<label for="text2">Text Box 2</label><input type="text" id="text2">
</p>
<p class="showOnCheck1">
<label for="text3">Text Box 3</label><input type="text" id="text3">
</p>
As you can see with the above, there's no delay at all and no need to slow the user down or wait for the server, but it does depend on what you're doing with the response. The more logic you can put on the client side, the less the user has to wait for the server.

Related

How to represent a state machine with HTML elements?

On a web page I wish to display an element which depends on the state of some JavaScript. State like in a state machine. Currently the possible states are these (but I may add more):
input: display some input elements for the user to set. The user can click a button to start some JavaScript processing and move to the working state.
working: display a progress bar informing the user that the script is running. The user can cancel the computation (moving back to the input state) or the computation can end (moving to either the result or error state).
result: display the computation result. The user can go back to input with a button.
error: display the error. The user can go back to input with a button.
The JavaScript part is ready and working, but I'm unsure how to do this in HTML + CSS.
Current solution and its issue
Currently I've been doing it with classes: I set a class to a common ancestor element with the same name of the state and I display the right elements based on it. Something like this:
const parent=document.querySelector("#parent");
let timer=null;
function input(){
parent.classList.remove("working","result","error");
parent.classList.add("input");
}
function run(){
parent.classList.remove("input");
parent.classList.add("working");
timer=setTimeout(result,1500)
}
function stop(){
clearTimeout(timer);
input();
}
function result(){
parent.classList.remove("working");
if(Math.random()>0.5){parent.classList.add("result");}
else{parent.classList.add("error");}
}
input();
#input{display:none;}
#working{display:none;}
#result{display:none;}
#error{display:none;}
#parent.input #input{display:block;}
#parent.working #working{display:block;}
#parent.result #result{display:block;}
#parent.error #error{display:block;}
<div id="parent">
<div id="input">INPUT. RUN</div>
<div id="working">WORKING. STOP</div>
<div id="result">RESULT. RESTART</div>
<div id="error">ERROR. RESTART</div>
</div>
This solution works but it feels unstable: in theory it would be possible for the parent element to have no classes (in which case nothing is displayed) or multiple ones (in which case you'd see multiple states at once). This shouldn't happen, but the only thing preventing it is the correctness of my script.
Question
Are there better ways to implement this idea of states, so that the HTML elements can't end up in inconsistent states?
Let’s consider the role which HTML plays in a state machine on the web. A machine has moving parts, it is dynamic, so the core of any machine on the web must be implemented in Javascript. HTML is useful only to provide the interface between the user and the machine. It’s a subtle distinction but it fundamentally changes the way you write it.
Have you ever used React? React provides the framework to create entire web applications as “state machines”. React’s mantra is “UI is a function of state”. In a React app, you have a single variable which contains the current state, rendering code which builds the UI based on the state, and core code (mostly event handlers) which updates the state.
Even if you don’t want to build in React, you can use the same general idea:
keep the current state in a Javascript variable (typically you’d use an object, but in this case we only need a string)
write a rendering function which reads the state and then builds the appropriate HTML to represent that state
in the event handlers for your links, do any operations which are required, update the state and call the rendering function
let state = null
let timer = null
// core code
const input = () => {
state = 'input'
render()
}
const run = () => {
state = 'working'
render()
timer = setTimeout(result,1500)
}
const stop = () => {
clearTimeout(timer)
state = 'input'
render()
}
const result = () => {
if(Math.random()>0.5)
state = 'result'
else
state = 'error'
render()
}
// rendering code
const render = () => {
let x = state
switch(state) {
case 'input':
x += ' run'
break
case 'working':
x += ' stop'
break
case 'result':
x += ' restart'
break
case 'error':
x += ' restart'
break
}
document.getElementById('container').innerHTML = x
}
// initialisation code
state = 'input'
render()
<div id="container"></div>

ngOnChanges only works when it's not the same value

So basically I have a modal component with an input field that tells it which modal should be opened (coz I didn't want to make a component for each modal):
#Input() type!:string
ngOnChanges(changes: SimpleChanges): void {
this.type = changes["type"].currentValue;
this.openModal();
}
that field is binded to one in the app component:
modalType = "auth";
HTML:
<app-modal [type] = modalType></app-modal>
In the beginning it's got the type "auth" (to login or register), but when I click on an icon I want to open a different modal, I do it like so:
<h1 id="options-route"
(click) ="modalType = 'settings'"
>⚙</h1>
but this only works the first time, when modalType already has the value "settings" the event doesn't trigger even though the value has technically changed
I think the problem is that it's the same value because i tried putting a button that does the exact same thing but with the value "auth" again and with that it was clear that the settings button only worked when tha last modal opened was auth and viceversa
any ideas? I want to be able to open the settings modal more than once consecutively possibly keeping onChange because ngDoCheck gets called a whole lot of times and it slows down the app
You need to include the changeDetectorRef, in order to continue in this way.
More about it https://angular.io/api/core/ChangeDetectorRef
Although, a better and a faster alternative is the use of a behavior Subject.
All you have to do is create a service that makes use of a behavior subject to cycle through each and every value exposed and then retrieve that value in as many components as you want. To do that just check for data changes in the ngOnInit of target component.
You may modify this for implementation,
private headerData = new BehaviorSubject(new HeaderData());
headerDataCurrent = this.headerData.asObservable();
changeHeaderData(headerDataNext : HeaderData) {
this.headerData.next(headerDataNext)
console.log("subscription - changeUserData - "+headerDataNext);
}
Explanation:
HeaderData is a class that includes the various values that can be shared with respective data types.
changeHeaderData({obj: value}), is used to update the subject with multiple values.
headerDataCurrent, an observable has to be subscribed to in the target component and data can be retrieved easily.
I mean i'm too l-a-z-y to use your slightly-not-so-much-tbh complicated answers so I just did this:
I added a counter that tops to 9 then gets resetted to 0 and I add it to the value
screwYouOnChangesImTheMasterAndYouShallDoMyBidding = 0;
//gets called onClick
openSettings(){
if(this.screwYouOnChangesImTheMasterAndYouShallDoMyBidding === 9){
this.screwYouOnChangesImTheMasterAndYouShallDoMyBidding = 0;
}
this.screwYouOnChangesImTheMasterAndYouShallDoMyBidding = this.screwYouOnChangesImTheMasterAndYouShallDoMyBidding + 1;
this.modalType = "settings"+this.screwYouOnChangesImTheMasterAndYouShallDoMyBidding;
}
then in the child component I just cut that last character out:
ngOnChanges(changes: SimpleChanges): void {
let change = changes["type"].currentValue as string;
change = change.substring(0, change.length - 1);
this.type = change;
this.openModal();
}
works like a charm 😂

When is the page left/unloaded

I'm protocolling how long someone is staying at a certain jsp-page, so I have three functions called in my body-tag:
<body onunload="pageLeft();" onload="pageEnter(); startInterval();">
pageEnter sends an ajax-request to the server which contains the ID of the page and a '1' for page-enter.
startInterval starts an interval and sends every few seconds an ajax-request to the server which contains a '2' for being still there.
pageLeft send a '3' by ajax so I know the user has left the page.
Most essential are '1' and '3' which are used to group all the protocolled-data.
There is also a form on the page which has a submit-button:
<form action="/UpdateDB/Customers.jsp" method="POST" name="Custpost">
I was in the intention the form-data would be transferred to Customers.jsp afterwards the current page is unloaded and Customers.jsp loaded.
All my trials making the procedures in Customers.jsp work failed and now I found out why:
In the database are only 1s and 2s but no 3. This means the current page was never unloaded - yet the procedure has started already...
I thought about manually setting the 3-entry in the Customers.jsp but this would leave two such entries in the database. Also if the user just leaves the page no 3-entry would be left at all.
What am I supposed to do?
Unfortunately onbeforeunload didn't work as expected - after the replacement nothing was called. onbeforesubmit didn't look too promising either (but I haven't tried), but I got another idea:
First: Adding a Function which is called on submit to the form, also a variable to distinguish whether the function had been called or not. Also saving the ID of the interval in the variable intervalid (See: Stop setInterval call in JavaScript):
var nosubmit = true;
$(function () {
$('#Custpostform').submit(function () {
if (nosubmit) {
pageLeft();
clearInterval(intervalid);
nosubmit = false;
return true; // return false to cancel form action
}
});
});
<!-- -->
<form action="/UpdateDB/Customers.jsp" method="POST" name="Custpost" name="Custpostform">
The rest remains pretty much the same, just the onunload is now slightly modiefied:
<body onunload="if (nosubmit) {
pageLeft();
nosubmit = false;
}"
It's not really the solution I anticipated but it works as supposed
This way would seem to be better. I can get both onbeforeunload and onunload to work in Chrome and Firefox (I didn't test any others).
See the fiddle for an interactive version.
HTML:
<body onload="testLoad()" onunload="testUnload()" onbeforeunload="return testBeforeUnload()">
</body>
JS:
function testBeforeUnload() {
return "test before unload event";
}
function testUnload() {
console.log("test unload event");
}

How to make two checkboxes required out of three in HTML?

<input type="checkbox" name="Package1" value="packagename">
<input type="checkbox" name="Package2" value="packagename">
<input type="checkbox" name="Package3" value="packagename">
How to make any two checkboxes required for the user to submit the form. The user should not be able to submit the form unless he has checked atleast two checkboxes?
How to achieve that?
Rename checkboxes to name=package[] and values 1, 2, 3.
Then in PHP you'll have o condition (if you send form with GET method, just change POST to GET):
if (isset($_POST['package']) && count($_POST['package']) >= 2) {/* continue */}
If you want to validate it in browser (JS), than:
<script>
var i = 0;
$('[type="checkbox"]').each(function() {
if ($(this).is(':checked')) {
i++;
}
});
if (i <= 1) {
return false; // disable sending form when you've checked 1 checkbox in maximum
}
</script>
Add a class that refers only these checkboxes and then count how many are checked.
A quick and dirty way to validate the checkboxes using JavaScript:
JavaScript
checkCheckboxes = function() {
var numberOfCheckedCheckboxes = 0;
var checkbox1 = document.getElementsByName("Package1")[0];
var checkbox2 = document.getElementsByName("Package2")[0];
var checkbox3 = document.getElementsByName("Package3")[0];
if (checkbox1.checked)
{
numberOfCheckedCheckboxes++;
}
if (checkbox2.checked)
{
numberOfCheckedCheckboxes++;
}
if (checkbox3.checked)
{
numberOfCheckedCheckboxes++;
}
alert(numberOfCheckedCheckboxes >= 2);
}
DEMO: JSFiddle
This code isn't the cleanest block of code, however it does get the job done, and will return true if there are at least 2 checkboxes checked, and will return false otherwise. To make it cleaner, you can change the name value of each checkbox to the same name, such as "packages", and then use document.getElementByName("packages"), then use a for-each loop to loop through each element and check its checked state (I would provide a demo in JSFiddle or JSBin, however it seems that Google Chrome is blocking the script in that case). Using the for-each implementation would allow you to use the same amount of code, regardless of the number of checkboxes.
In HTML, you cannot.
You can impose restrictions in client-side JavaScript or in server-side processing of form data, or both. As usual, client-side restrictions are inherently unreliable and should be regarded as convenience to the user, not a reliable method of doing anything. Server-side processing depends on the server-side technology used.

How to detect when cancel is clicked on file input?

How can I detect when the user cancels a file input using an html file input?
onChange lets me detect when they choose a file, but I would also like to know when they cancel (close the file choose dialog without selecting anything).
While not a direct solution, and also bad in that it only (as far as I've tested) works with onfocus (requiring a pretty limiting event blocking) you can achieve it with the following:
document.body.onfocus = function(){ /*rock it*/ }
What's nice about this, is that you can attach/detach it in time with the file event, and it also seems to work fine with hidden inputs (a definite perk if you're using a visual workaround for the crappy default input type='file'). After that, you just need to figure out if the input value changed.
An example:
var godzilla = document.getElementById('godzilla')
godzilla.onclick = charge
function charge()
{
document.body.onfocus = roar
console.log('chargin')
}
function roar()
{
if(godzilla.value.length) alert('ROAR! FILES!')
else alert('*empty wheeze*')
document.body.onfocus = null
console.log('depleted')
}
See it in action: http://jsfiddle.net/Shiboe/yuK3r/6/
Sadly, it only seems to work on webkit browsers. Maybe someone else can figure out the firefox/IE solution
So I'll throw my hat into this question since I came up with a novel solution. I have a Progressive Web App which allows users to capture photos and videos and upload them. We use WebRTC when possible, but fall back to HTML5 file pickers for devices with less support *cough Safari cough*. If you're working specifically on an Android/iOS mobile web application which uses the native camera to capture photos/videos directly, then this is the best solution I have come across.
The crux of this problem is that when the page loads, the file is null, but then when the user opens the dialog and presses "Cancel", the file is still null, hence it did not "change", so no "change" event is triggered. For desktops, this isn't too bad because most desktop UI's aren't dependent on knowing when a cancel is invoked, but mobile UI's which bring up the camera to capture a photo/video are very dependent on knowing when a cancel is pressed.
I originally used the document.body.onfocus event to detect when the user returned from the file picker, and this worked for most devices, but iOS 11.3 broke it as that event is not triggered.
Concept
My solution to this is *shudder* to measure CPU timing to determine if the page is currently in the foreground or the background. On mobile devices, processing time is given to the app currently in the foreground. When a camera is visible it will steal CPU time and deprioritize the browser. All we need to do is measure how much processing time our page is given, when camera launches our available time will drop drastically. When the camera is dismissed (either cancelled or otherwise), our available time spike back up.
Implementation
We can measure CPU timing by using setTimeout() to invoke a callback in X milliseconds, and then measure how long it took to actually invoke it. The browser will never invoke it exactly after X milliseconds, but if it is reasonable close then we must be in the foreground. If the browser is very far away (over 10x slower than requested) then we must be in the background. A basic implementation of this is like so:
function waitForCameraDismiss() {
const REQUESTED_DELAY_MS = 25;
const ALLOWED_MARGIN_OF_ERROR_MS = 25;
const MAX_REASONABLE_DELAY_MS =
REQUESTED_DELAY_MS + ALLOWED_MARGIN_OF_ERROR_MS;
const MAX_TRIALS_TO_RECORD = 10;
const triggerDelays = [];
let lastTriggerTime = Date.now();
return new Promise((resolve) => {
const evtTimer = () => {
// Add the time since the last run
const now = Date.now();
triggerDelays.push(now - lastTriggerTime);
lastTriggerTime = now;
// Wait until we have enough trials before interpreting them.
if (triggerDelays.length < MAX_TRIALS_TO_RECORD) {
window.setTimeout(evtTimer, REQUESTED_DELAY_MS);
return;
}
// Only maintain the last few event delays as trials so as not
// to penalize a long time in the camera and to avoid exploding
// memory.
if (triggerDelays.length > MAX_TRIALS_TO_RECORD) {
triggerDelays.shift();
}
// Compute the average of all trials. If it is outside the
// acceptable margin of error, then the user must have the
// camera open. If it is within the margin of error, then the
// user must have dismissed the camera and returned to the page.
const averageDelay =
triggerDelays.reduce((l, r) => l + r) / triggerDelays.length
if (averageDelay < MAX_REASONABLE_DELAY_MS) {
// Beyond any reasonable doubt, the user has returned from the
// camera
resolve();
} else {
// Probably not returned from camera, run another trial.
window.setTimeout(evtTimer, REQUESTED_DELAY_MS);
}
};
window.setTimeout(evtTimer, REQUESTED_DELAY_MS);
});
}
I tested this on recent version of iOS and Android, bringing up the native camera by setting the attributes on the <input /> element.
<input type="file" accept="image/*" capture="camera" />
<input type="file" accept="video/*" capture="camcorder" />
This works out actually a lot better than I expected. It runs 10 trials by requesting a timer to be invoked in 25 milliseconds. It then measures how long it actually took to invoke, and if the average of 10 trials is less than 50 milliseconds, we assume that we must be in the foreground and the camera is gone. If it is greater than 50 milliseconds, then we must still be in the background and should continue to wait.
Some additional details
I used setTimeout() rather than setInterval() because the latter can queue multiple invocations which execute immediately after each other. This could drastically increase the noise in our data, so I stuck with setTimeout() even though it is a little more complicated to do so.
These particular numbers worked well for me, though I have see at least once instance where the camera dismiss was detected prematurely. I believe this is because the camera may be slow to open, and the device may run 10 trials before it actually becomes backgrounded. Adding more trials or waiting some 25-50 milliseconds before starting this function may be a workaround for that.
Desktop
Unfortuantely, this doesn't really work for desktop browsers. In theory the same trick is possible as they do prioritize the current page over backgrounded pages. However many desktops have enough resources to keep the page running at full speed even when backgrounded, so this strategy doesn't really work in practice.
Alternative solutions
One alternative solution not many people mention that I did explore was mocking a FileList. We start with null in the <input /> and then if the user opens the camera and cancels they come back to null, which is not a change and no event will trigger. One solution would be to assign a dummy file to the <input /> at page start, therefore setting to null would be a change which would trigger the appropriate event.
Unfortunately, there's no way official way to create a FileList, and the <input /> element requires a FileList in particular and will not accept any other value besides null. Naturally, FileList objects cannot be directly constructed, do to some old security issue which isn't even relevant anymore apparently. The only way to get ahold of one outside of an <input /> element is to utilize a hack which copy-pastes data to fake a clipboard event which can contain a FileList object (you're basically faking a drag-and-drop-a-file-on-your-website event). This is possible in Firefox, but not for iOS Safari, so it was not viable for my particular use case.
Browsers, please...
Needless to say this is patently ridiculous. The fact that web pages are given zero notification that a critical UI element has changed is simply laughable. This is really a bug in the spec, as it was never intended for a full-screen media capture UI, and not triggering the "change" event is technically to spec.
However, can browser vendors please recognize the reality of this? This could be solved with either a new "done" event which is triggered even when no change occurs, or you could just trigger "change" anyways. Yeah, that would be against spec, but it is trivial for me to dedup a change event on the JavaScript side, yet fundamentally impossible to invent my own "done" event. Even my solution is really just heuristics, if offer no guarantees on the state of the browser.
As it stands, this API is fundamentally unusable for mobile devices, and I think a relatively simple browser change could make this infinitely easier for web developers *steps off soap box*.
You can't.
The result of the file dialog is not exposed to the browser.
When you select a file and click open/cancel, the input element should lose focus aka blur. Assuming the initial value of the input is empty, any non empty value in your blur handler would indicate an OK, and an empty value would mean a Cancel.
UPDATE: The blur is not triggered when the input is hidden. So can't use this trick with IFRAME-based uploads, unless you want to temporarily display the input.
Most of these solutions don't work for me.
The problem is that you never know which event will be triggered fist,
is it click or is it change? You can't assume any order, because it probably depends on the browser's implementation.
At least in Opera and Chrome (late 2015) click is triggered just before 'filling' input with files, so you will never know the length of files.length != 0 until you delay click to be triggered after change.
Here is code:
var inputfile = $("#yourid");
inputfile.on("change click", function(ev){
if (ev.originalEvent != null){
console.log("OK clicked");
}
document.body.onfocus = function(){
document.body.onfocus = null;
setTimeout(function(){
if (inputfile.val().length === 0) console.log("Cancel clicked");
}, 1000);
};
});
/* Tested on Google Chrome */
$("input[type=file]").bind("change", function() {
var selected_file_name = $(this).val();
if ( selected_file_name.length > 0 ) {
/* Some file selected */
}
else {
/* No file selected or cancel/close
dialog button clicked */
/* If user has select a file before,
when they submit, it will treated as
no file selected */
}
});
The new File System Access API will make our life easy again :)
try {
const [fileHandle] = await window.showOpenFilePicker();
const file = await fileHandle.getFile();
// ...
}
catch (e) {
console.log('Cancelled, no file selected');
}
Browser support is very limited (Jan, 2021). The example code works well in Chrome Desktop 86.
Just listen to the click event as well.
Following from Shiboe's example, here's a jQuery example:
var godzilla = $('#godzilla');
var godzillaBtn = $('#godzilla-btn');
godzillaBtn.on('click', function(){
godzilla.trigger('click');
});
godzilla.on('change click', function(){
if (godzilla.val() != '') {
$('#state').html('You have chosen a Mech!');
} else {
$('#state').html('Choose your Mech!');
}
});
You can see it in action here: http://jsfiddle.net/T3Vwz
You can catch the cancel if you choose the same file as previously and you click cancel: in this case.
You can do it like this:
<input type="file" id="myinputfile"/>
<script>
document.getElementById('myinputfile').addEventListener('change', myMethod, false);
function myMethod(evt) {
var files = evt.target.files;
f= files[0];
if (f==undefined) {
// the user has clicked on cancel
}
else if (f.name.match(".*\.jpg")|| f.name.match(".*\.png")) {
//.... the user has choosen an image file
var reader = new FileReader();
reader.onload = function(evt) {
try {
myimage.src=evt.target.result;
...
} catch (err) {
...
}
};
}
reader.readAsDataURL(f);
</script>
The easiest way is to check if there are any files in temporary memory. If you want to get the change event every time user clicks the file input you can trigger it.
var yourFileInput = $("#yourFileInput");
yourFileInput.on('mouseup', function() {
$(this).trigger("change");
}).on('change', function() {
if (this.files.length) {
//User chose a picture
} else {
//User clicked cancel
}
});
In my case i had to hide submit button while users were selecting images.
This is what i come up:
$(document).on('click', '#image-field', function(e) {
$('.submit-button').prop('disabled', true)
})
$(document).on('focus', '#image-field'), function(e) {
$('.submit-button').prop('disabled', false)
})
#image-field is my file selector. When somenone clicks on it, i disable the form submit button. The point is, when the file dialog closed - doesn't matter they select a file or cancel - #image-field got the focus back, so i listen on that event.
UPDATE
I found that, this does not work in safari and poltergeist/phantomjs. Take this info into account if you would like to implement it.
Shiboe's solution would be a good one if it worked on mobile webkit, but it doesn't. What I can come up with is to add a mousemove event listener to some dom object at the time that the file input window is opened, like so:
$('.upload-progress').mousemove(function() {
checkForFiles(this);
});
checkForFiles = function(me) {
var filefield = $('#myfileinput');
var files = filefield.get(0).files;
if (files == undefined || files[0] == undefined) $(me).remove(); // user cancelled the upload
};
The mousemove event is blocked from the page while the file dialog is open, and when its closed one checks to see if there are any files in the file input. In my case I want an activity indicator blocking things till the file is uploaded, so I only want to remove my indicator on cancel.
However this doesn't solve for mobile, since there is no mouse to move. My solution there is less than perfect, but I think its good enough.
$('.upload-progress').bind('touchstart', function() {
checkForFiles(this);
});
Now we're listening for a touch on the screen to do the same files check. I'm pretty confident that the user's finger will be put on the screen pretty quickly after cancel and dismiss this activity indicator.
One could also just add the activity indicator on the file input change event, but on mobile there is often a few seconds lag between selecting the image and the change event firing, so its just much better UX for the activity indicator to be displayed at the start of the process.
I found this atribute, its most simple yet.
if ($('#selectedFile')[0].files.length > 1)
{
// Clicked on 'open' with file
} else {
// Clicked on 'cancel'
}
Here, selectedFile is an input type=file.
I know this is a very old question but just in case it helps someone, I found when using the onmousemove event to detect the cancel, that it was necessary to test for two or more such events in a short space of time.
This was because single onmousemove events are generated by the browser (Chrome 65) each time the cursor is moved out of the select file dialog window and each time it is moved out of the main window and back in.
A simple counter of mouse movement events coupled with a short duration timeout to reset the counter back to zero worked a treat.
Combining Shiboe's and alx's solutions, i've got the most reliable code:
var selector = $('<input/>')
.attr({ /* just for example, use your own attributes */
"id": "FilesSelector",
"name": "File",
"type": "file",
"contentEditable": "false" /* if you "click" on input via label, this prevents IE7-8 from just setting caret into file input's text filed*/
})
.on("click.filesSelector", function () {
/* do some magic here, e.g. invoke callback for selection begin */
var cancelled = false; /* need this because .one calls handler once for each event type */
setTimeout(function () {
$(document).one("mousemove.filesSelector focusin.filesSelector", function () {
/* namespace is optional */
if (selector.val().length === 0 && !cancelled) {
cancelled = true; /* prevent double cancel */
/* that's the point of cancel, */
}
});
}, 1); /* 1 is enough as we just need to delay until first available tick */
})
.on("change.filesSelector", function () {
/* do some magic here, e.g. invoke callback for successful selection */
})
.appendTo(yourHolder).end(); /* just for example */
Generally, mousemove event does the trick, but in case user made a click and than:
cancelled file open dialog by escape key (without moving a mouse), made another accurate click to open file dialog again...
switched focus to any other application, than came back to browser's file open dialog and closed it, than opened again via enter or space key...
... we won't get mousemove event hence no cancel callback. Moreover, if user cancels second dialog and makes a mouse move, we'll get 2 cancel callbacks.
Fortunately, special jQuery focusIn event bubbles up to the document in both cases, helping us to avoid such situations. The only limitation is if one blocks focusIn event either.
I see that my response would be quite outdated, but never the less.
I faced with the same problem. So here's my solution.
The most useful code snipped was KGA's one. But it isn't totally working and is a bit complicated. But I simplified it.
Also, the main trouble maker was that fact, that 'change' event doesn't come instantly after focus, so we have to wait for some time.
"#appendfile" - which user clicks on to append a new file.
Hrefs get focus events.
$("#appendfile").one("focusin", function () {
// no matter - user uploaded file or canceled,
// appendfile gets focus
// change doesn't come instantly after focus, so we have to wait for some time
// wrapper represents an element where a new file input is placed into
setTimeout(function(){
if (wrapper.find("input.fileinput").val() != "") {
// user has uploaded some file
// add your logic for new file here
}
else {
// user canceled file upload
// you have to remove a fileinput element from DOM
}
}, 900);
});
You can detect this only in limited circumstances. Specifically, in chrome if a file was selected earlier and then the file dialog is clicked and cancel clicked, Chrome clears the file and fires the onChange event.
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=2508
In this scenario, you can detect this by handling the onChange event and checking the files property.
This is hacky at best, but here is a working example of my solution to detect whether or not a user has uploaded a file, and only allowing them to proceed if they have uploaded a file.
Basically hide the Continue, Save, Proceed or whatever your button is. Then in the JavaScript you grab the file name. If the file name does not have a value, then do not show the Continue button. If it does have a value, then show the button. This also works if they at first upload a file and then they try to upload a different file and click cancel.
Here is the code.
HTML:
<div class="container">
<div class="row">
<input class="file-input" type="file" accept="image/*" name="fileUpload" id="fileUpload" capture="camera">
<label for="fileUpload" id="file-upload-btn">Capture or Upload Photo</label>
</div>
<div class="row padding-top-two-em">
<input class="btn btn-success hidden" id="accept-btn" type="submit" value="Accept & Continue"/>
<button class="btn btn-danger">Back</button>
</div></div>
JavaScript:
$('#fileUpload').change(function () {
var fileName = $('#fileUpload').val();
if (fileName != "") {
$('#file-upload-btn').html(fileName);
$('#accept-btn').removeClass('hidden').addClass('show');
} else {
$('#file-upload-btn').html("Upload File");
$('#accept-btn').addClass('hidden');
}
});
CSS:
.file-input {
width: 0.1px;
height: 0.1px;
opacity: 0;
overflow: hidden;
position: absolute;
z-index: -1;
}
.file-input + label {
font-size: 1.25em;
font-weight: normal;
color: white;
background-color: blue;
display: inline-block;
padding: 5px;
}
.file-input:focus + label,
.file-input + label:hover {
background-color: red;
}
.file-input + label {
cursor: pointer;
}
.file-input + label * {
pointer-events: none;
}
For the CSS a lot of this is to make the website and button accessible for everyone. Style your button to whatever you like.
The following seems to work for me (on desktop, windows):
var openFile = function (mimeType, fileExtension) {
var defer = $q.defer();
var uploadInput = document.createElement("input");
uploadInput.type = 'file';
uploadInput.accept = '.' + fileExtension + ',' + mimeType;
var hasActivated = false;
var hasChangedBeenCalled = false;
var hasFocusBeenCalled = false;
var focusCallback = function () {
if (hasActivated) {
hasFocusBeenCalled = true;
document.removeEventListener('focus', focusCallback, true);
setTimeout(function () {
if (!hasChangedBeenCalled) {
uploadInput.removeEventListener('change', changedCallback, true);
defer.resolve(null);
}
}, 300);
}
};
var changedCallback = function () {
uploadInput.removeEventListener('change', changedCallback, true);
if (!hasFocusBeenCalled) {
document.removeEventListener('focus', focusCallback, true);
}
hasChangedBeenCalled = true;
if (uploadInput.files.length === 1) {
//File picked
var reader = new FileReader();
reader.onload = function (e) {
defer.resolve(e.target.result);
};
reader.readAsText(uploadInput.files[0]);
}
else {
defer.resolve(null);
}
};
document.addEventListener('focus', focusCallback, true); //Detect cancel
uploadInput.addEventListener('change', changedCallback, true); //Detect when a file is picked
uploadInput.click();
hasActivated = true;
return defer.promise;
}
This does use angularjs $q but you should be able to replace it with any other promise framework if needed.
Tested on IE11, Edge, Chrome, Firefox, but it does not seem to work on Chrome on a Android Tablet as it does not fire the Focus event.
The file-type field, frustratingly, doesn't respond to a lot of events (blur would be lovely). I see a lot of people suggesting change-oriented solutions and them getting downvoted.
change does work, but it has a major flaw (vs what we want to happen).
When you freshly load a page containing a file field, open the box and press cancel. Nothing, frustratingly, changes.
What I chose to do is load in a gated-state.
The next part of the form a section#after-image in my case is hidden from view. When my file field changes, an upload button is shown. Upon successful upload, section#after-image is shown.
If the user loads, opens the file-dialog, then cancels out, they never see the upload button.
If the user chooses a file, the upload button is shown. If they then open the dialog and cancel, the change event is triggered by this cancel, and there I can (and do) re-hide my upload button until a proper file is selected.
I was fortunate that this gated-state was already the design of my form. You do not need to use the same style, merely having the upload button initially hidden and upon change, setting a hidden field or javascript variable to something you can monitor on submit.
I tried changing the value of files[0] before the field was interacted with. This didn't do anything regarding onchange.
So yes, change works, at least as good as we're going to get. The filefield is secured, for obvious reasons, but to the frustration of well-intentioned developers.
It's not fitting to my purpose, but you might be able to, onclick, load a warning prompt (not an alert(), because that stalls page-processing), and hide it if change is triggered and files[0] is null. If change is not triggered, the div remains in its state.
Solution for file selection with hidden input
Note: this code doesn't detect cancellation, it offers a way to circumvent the need to detect it in a common case in which people try to detect it.
I got here while looking for a solution for file uploads using a hidden input, I believe that this is the most common reason to look for a way to detect cancellation of file input (open file dialog -> if a file was selected then run some code, otherwise do nothing), here's my solution:
var fileSelectorResolve;
var fileSelector = document.createElement('input');
fileSelector.setAttribute('type', 'file');
fileSelector.addEventListener('input', function(){
fileSelectorResolve(this.files[0]);
fileSelectorResolve = null;
fileSelector.value = '';
});
function selectFile(){
if(fileSelectorResolve){
fileSelectorResolve();
fileSelectorResolve = null;
}
return new Promise(function(resolve){
fileSelectorResolve = resolve;
fileSelector.dispatchEvent(new MouseEvent('click'));
});
}
Usage example:
Note that if no file was selected then the first line will return only once selectFile() is called again (or if you called fileSelectorResolve() from elsewhere).
async function logFileName(){
const file = await selectFile();
if(!file) return;
console.log(file.name);
}
Another example:
async function uploadFile(){
const file = await selectFile();
if(!file) return;
// ... make an ajax call here to upload the file ...
}
There is a hackish way to do this (add callbacks or resolve some deferred/promise implementation instead of alert() calls):
var result = null;
$('<input type="file" />')
.on('change', function () {
result = this.files[0];
alert('selected!');
})
.click();
setTimeout(function () {
$(document).one('mousemove', function () {
if (!result) {
alert('cancelled');
}
});
}, 1000);
How it works: while file selection dialog is open, document does not receive mouse pointer events. There is 1000ms delay to allow the dialog to actually appear and block browser window. Checked in Chrome and Firefox (Windows only).
But this is not a reliable way to detect cancelled dialog, of course. Though, might improve some UI behavior for you.
Here is my solution, using the file input focus (not using any timers)
var fileInputSelectionInitiated = false;
function fileInputAnimationStart() {
fileInputSelectionInitiated = true;
if (!$("#image-selector-area-icon").hasClass("fa-spin"))
$("#image-selector-area-icon").addClass("fa-spin");
if (!$("#image-selector-button-icon").hasClass("fa-spin"))
$("#image-selector-button-icon").addClass("fa-spin");
}
function fileInputAnimationStop() {
fileInputSelectionInitiated = false;
if ($("#image-selector-area-icon").hasClass("fa-spin"))
$("#image-selector-area-icon").removeClass("fa-spin");
if ($("#image-selector-button-icon").hasClass("fa-spin"))
$("#image-selector-button-icon").removeClass("fa-spin");
}
$("#image-selector-area-wrapper").click(function (e) {
$("#fileinput").focus();
$("#fileinput").click();
});
$("#preview-image-wrapper").click(function (e) {
$("#fileinput").focus();
$("#fileinput").click();
});
$("#fileinput").click(function (e) {
fileInputAnimationStart();
});
$("#fileinput").focus(function (e) {
fileInputAnimationStop();
});
$("#fileinput").change(function(e) {
// ...
}
Well, this doesn't exactly answers your question. My assumption is that, you have a scenario, when you add a file input, and invoke file selection, and if user hits cancel, you just remove the input.
If this is the case, then: Why adding empty file input?
Create the one on the fly, but add it to DOM only when it is filled in. Like so:
var fileInput = $("<input type='file' name='files' style='display: none' />");
fileInput.bind("change", function() {
if (fileInput.val() !== null) {
// if has value add it to DOM
$("#files").append(fileInput);
}
}).click();
So here I create <input type="file" /> on the fly, bind to it's change event and then immediately invoke click. On change will fire only when user selects a file and hits Ok, otherwise input will not be added to DOM, therefore will not be submitted.
Working example here: https://jsfiddle.net/69g0Lxno/3/
//Use hover instead of blur
var fileInput = $("#fileInput");
if (fileInput.is(":hover") {
//open
} else {
}
function file_click() {
document.body.onfocus = () => {
setTimeout(_=>{
let file_input = document.getElementById('file_input');
if (!file_input.value) alert('please choose file ')
else alert(file_input.value)
document.body.onfocus = null
},100)
}
}
Using setTimeout to get the certain value of the input.
If you already require JQuery, this solution might do the work (this is the exact same code I actually needed in my case, although using a Promise is just to force the code to wait until file selection has been resolved):
await new Promise(resolve => {
const input = $("<input type='file'/>");
input.on('change', function() {
resolve($(this).val());
});
$('body').one('focus', '*', e => {
resolve(null);
e.stopPropagation();
});
input.click();
});
There are several proposed solutions in this thread and this difficulty to detecting when the user clicks the "Cancel" button on the file selection box is a problem that affects many people.
The fact is that there is no 100% reliable way to detect if the user has clicked the "Cancel" button on the file selection box. But there are ways to reliably detect if the user has added a file to the input file. So this is the basic strategy of this answer!
I decided to add this answer because apparently the other answers don't work on most browsers or guaranteed on mobile devices.
Briefly the code is based on 3 points:
The input file is initially created dynamically in "memory" in js
(we don't add it to the "HTML" at this moment);
After adding the file then the input file is added to the HTML, otherwise nothing occurs;
The removal of the file is done by removing the input file from the
HTML by a specific event, which means that the
"editing"/"modification" of the file is done by removing the old
input file and creating a new one.
For a better understanding look at the code below and the notes as well.
[...]
<button type="button" onclick="addIptFl();">ADD INPUT FILE!</button>
<span id="ipt_fl_parent"></span>
[...]
function dynIptFl(jqElInst, funcsObj) {
if (typeof funcsObj === "undefined" || funcsObj === "") {
funcsObj = {};
}
if (funcsObj.hasOwnProperty("before")) {
if (!funcsObj["before"].hasOwnProperty("args")) {
funcsObj["before"]["args"] = [];
}
funcsObj["before"]["func"].apply(this, funcsObj["before"]["args"]);
}
var jqElInstFl = jqElInst.find("input[type=file]");
// NOTE: Open the file selection box via js. By Questor
jqElInstFl.trigger("click");
// NOTE: This event is triggered if the user selects a file. By Questor
jqElInstFl.on("change", {funcsObj: funcsObj}, function(e) {
// NOTE: With the strategy below we avoid problems with other unwanted events
// that may be associated with the DOM element. By Questor
e.preventDefault();
var funcsObj = e.data.funcsObj;
if (funcsObj.hasOwnProperty("after")) {
if (!funcsObj["after"].hasOwnProperty("args")) {
funcsObj["after"]["args"] = [];
}
funcsObj["after"]["func"].apply(this, funcsObj["after"]["args"]);
}
});
}
function remIptFl() {
// NOTE: Remove the input file. By Questor
$("#ipt_fl_parent").empty();
}
function addIptFl() {
function addBefore(someArgs0, someArgs1) {
// NOTE: All the logic here happens just before the file selection box opens.
// By Questor
// SOME CODE HERE!
}
function addAfter(someArgs0, someArgs1) {
// NOTE: All the logic here happens only if the user adds a file. By Questor
// SOME CODE HERE!
$("#ipt_fl_parent").prepend(jqElInst);
}
// NOTE: The input file is hidden as all manipulation must be done via js.
// By Questor
var jqElInst = $('\
<span>\
<button type="button" onclick="remIptFl();">REMOVE INPUT FILE!</button>\
<input type="file" name="input_fl_nm" style="display: block;">\
</span>\
');
var funcsObj = {
before: {
func: addBefore,
args: [someArgs0, someArgs1]
},
after: {
func: addAfter,
// NOTE: The instance with the input file ("jqElInst") could be passed
// here instead of using the context of the "addIptFl()" function. That
// way "addBefore()" and "addAfter()" will not need to be inside "addIptFl()",
// for example. By Questor
args: [someArgs0, someArgs1]
}
};
dynIptFl(jqElInst, funcsObj);
}
Thanks! =D
We achieved in angular like below.
bind click event on input type file.
Attach focus event with window and add condition if uploadPanel is true then show console.
when click on input type file the boolean uploadPanel value is true. and dialogue box appear.
when cancel OR Esc button click then dialogue box dispensary and console appear.
HTML
<input type="file" formControlName="FileUpload" click)="handleFileInput($event.target.files)" />
/>
TS
this.uploadPanel = false;
handleFileInput(files: FileList) {
this.fileToUpload = files.item(0);
console.log("ggg" + files);
this.uploadPanel = true;
}
#HostListener("window:focus", ["$event"])
onFocus(event: FocusEvent): void {
if (this.uploadPanel == true) {
console.log("cancel clicked")
this.addSlot
.get("FileUpload")
.setValidators([
Validators.required,
FileValidator.validate,
requiredFileType("png")
]);
this.addSlot.get("FileUpload").updateValueAndValidity();
}
}
Just add 'change' listener on your input whose type is file. i.e
<input type="file" id="file_to_upload" name="file_to_upload" />
I have done using jQuery and obviously anyone can use valina JS (as per the requirement).
$("#file_to_upload").change(function() {
if (this.files.length) {
alert('file choosen');
} else {
alert('file NOT choosen');
}
});