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Upload file from URL

Useful where you couldn't specify a URL instead of a local file before.
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Whenever a website has an input field for specifying and uploading a local file, the browser also lets you specify a URL instead. The browser tricks the server that you're uploading a local file by downloading the URL destination bytes, then immediately forwarding the content to the page you are submitting. Benefit: no need to download a file locally that you aren't interested in keeping track of.
rhatta, Sep 16 2009

HB Question Category HB_20Question_20Category
A lot of people seeking answers these days... [Jinbish, Sep 17 2009]

Face animator http://labs.mppark.jp/hige/
[Dub, Sep 17 2009]

BIS Celeb Face http://images.googl...mgsz=m&imgtype=face
Pic a smallish file,
get the URI to the (jpg) image (<5Mb),
Click "Change"
paste URI [Dub, Sep 17 2009]

<Input type="file" > http://www.htmlcode...NPUT_TYPE_FILE.html
This is the scenario I was thinking of. An input field for specifying a local file. [rhatta, Sep 17 2009]

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       It would be better if this were done at the protocol level; the POST statement could contain a header to redirect the receiving server to do a download. Stupid to download and upload!
vincevincevince, Sep 16 2009
  

       Some sites have a feature to allow a URL to be specified instead of a filename. The only way I can see a browser feature for that as being useful would be if the browser were connected to a proxy through a slow link and the proxy (which was connected to the net via faster link) could handle the exchange. For non-secure connections, that might allow things to operate more quickly, but I'm not sure how it should work with secure ones.
supercat, Sep 16 2009
  

       Isn't this already baked in Windows using "Network Places"?
MisterQED, Sep 16 2009
  

       @supercat: yes, some sites allow you to specify a URL. This idea is meant to be useful for sites that don't.   

       @MisterQEQ: that's unrelated...
rhatta, Sep 17 2009
  

       Erm, If I understand correctly, I think this already works/baked (at least on XP). I did it in fact with a face animator (linky) and a picture of a celebrity I found on GIS. I think what happens is that XP downloads the file to a temp locaion on the local machine, then passes the file-spec to the site to upload.
Probably depends on the calling params of the "open file" method /func
Dub, Sep 17 2009
  

       @Dub: Hmm, I'll give it a try once I get to a Windows machine. Do you just paste the URL into the File Chooser Dialog?
rhatta, Sep 17 2009
  

       [rhatta] yup - URL of an image [http://vision.stanford.edu/ projects/OPTIMOL/ main/face.jpg]
Dub, Sep 17 2009
  

       @Dub: Cool! Thanks for noticing it! I should check out Windows next time I post. Implemented rather unintuitively however, I would say. Couldn't do the same in OS X. 'Tis baked.
rhatta, Sep 18 2009
  

       Yes, you're right, it doesn't work on OSX :(   

       [21 Quest] Who are you asking?
Dub, Sep 19 2009
  

       feed the website a link to itself, so it just keeps downloading nested copies of itself over and over.
sninctown, Sep 20 2009
  

       Ah
[sninctown] Nooooo! You'll break the internet!
Didn't you see "IT Crowd"?
Dub, Sep 20 2009
  

       No, it isn't - not from the author's point of view. They're not a windows user and didn't know about the feature there; that just came out through the discussion here.
jutta, Sep 21 2009
  

       This wouldn't just be 'advocacy' or 'consumer advice' if the idea were extended to have a proxy site that could handle such requests (e.g. a user with a slow connection accesses a site via proxy site filemoverproxy.com, which sees the 'INPUT_TYPE_FILE' field and allows a user to specify a URL; the proxy site than fetches the file and passes it on, without the file going over the user's slow link).
supercat, Sep 21 2009
  


 

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