alternate to onchange event in <input type='file' />

Question

Seems really a simple thing but can't figure it out. I've been using the onchange event on element and it works well. Once the user browses and selects a file, I get the path and upload it using a my custom js function.

The problem is this doesn't work if a user selects the same file twice in a row, the onchange doesn't fire (which makes sense since nothing changed) but in my case it's important for me to capture that event too, get the path and upload.

Edit

(Similar to http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1043957/clearing-input-typefile-using-jquery, not sure if I should resolve this as duplicate)

Answer 1

Is this behavior only present in IE? If so, it may be related to this issue:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1637503/jquery-change-event-on-select-not-firing-in-ie/
In essence: You may need to check for onClick instead.

Answer 2

There really isn't any way to fix that. If you add any other listener or timer, then you will potentially upload the file even when the user doesn't want it to (eg, with an onclick). Are you sure uploading the same file can't be done in another way? What about clearing the input once the upload has started (or replace it with a new input if you can't clear it).

Answer 3

One way that first comes to my mind, change (or empty) the text in the input once you do your JS magic so any change registers as such.

Edit, accepted answer is: You can just remove the input and create one with javascript - the new one will be empty for sure

Answer 4

You could have the choose file button clear the contents of the input onclick, that way even even if they choose the same file your event will still trigger. Of course, then your onchange handler will have to check for blank values, but it should probably be doing something similar or more anyway if it's going to use that value to upload a file...