What is the easiest way to let user to update the web page contents based on a file on his computer ?

Question

I'm writing an application that runs on Firefox 3.6.3 for internal use only.

I would like to be able to update the contents on the page based on a file on my computer.

What is the easiest way to achieve this ?

I understood from other posts here that I must upload the file to the web server and then return the contents back to the browser. Do I have any other options ?

The file can be pretty big. Is there any limitation on file size that can be transmitted from server to browser ?

Answer 1

From security reasons you can't get access to file system from web page. Are you sure that web application is best choice for you task? may be you need desktop application?

Answer 2

Java script does not allow to access the user files. It is a security implementation.

What JavaScripts Cannot Do

Answer 3

You could write a Java Applet or Flash/Flex thing which can run with elevated permissions. But this is not so easy, and unless there is experience in the company it could also become a support nightmare.

For internal applications it is often very straightforward to pick the file from a shared drive on the network.

If that does not work I would simply upload the file.