I would like to upload files just like google mail does. I would want to use jQuery and PHP to do it is there anyway of getting the progressbar etc.?
Here I added a video of how google does it. http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/5910/Jing/2009-04-02_1948.swf
No flash, no perl or cgi please..
I guess I can live without the progressbar now I am actually searching for information about jquery plugins or just what things I would need to look at
The easiest would be to use SWFUpload, it's a small button written in Flash, with all the hooks to drive it in JS. Very easy to use and works well with PHP
but, if you really want it to be pure JS, you'll need some help from the server. specifically, you'll need to start the upload, and periodically query the server about how's it going. unfortunately, PHP upload handling doesn't get any notification until after the download finishes. you'd have to replace it with something else. there are a few pure JS uploaders that include sample Perl server code just because of that.
IOW: JS and PHP don't (fully) cut it. either add flash to the client, or a better upload handler at the server.
PHP doesn't support reporting of upload progress directly. So there is no way of reading the upload status back. However, there is a patch that might work. I haven't tried though.
...gmail uses an iFrame that has style display:hidden; then when you upload on the form, it then sends the iFrame to the upload url. There is no flash involved at all. The only thing Google does with flash on Gmail is just making noises for chats. And you have to allow that in settings. They don't really use flash too much just because it is pretty bad as far as memory and cpu usage. Javascript can do anything flash can do (albiet with a lot more code in some cases) but Javascript, in 99% of cases is much faster, and better memory-wise.
It is weird that people say that gmail doesn't use flash, when you can plainly see the swf file in the gmail interface. Try right clicking on "Attach a file". It is what allows the multiple uploads at once among other things.