File upload in ASP.NET MVC without input field type file?

Question

I want to have file upload possibilites on my MVC site, and I have that no problem with the input field type="file". But the problem is, the browser decides how this field should look, and that ruins the look and feel of the page.

So my question is, if I want to have icons/images for download and upload and so on instead of the default button that is created by the input type="file" field, is that possible?

Answer 1

Is silverlight out of the question?

http://slfileupload.codeplex.com/

The reason I suggest this is because your options are very limited with the file input field. For obvious (I'd hope) security reasons, it is immune to being scripted or otherwise automated and is only visually customizable in very basic ways.

-Oisin

Answer 2

There are a ton of javascript + flash combination uploaders that can replace the button and add other goodies like progress bar, file type and size checking, etc. SWFUpload and jQuery Uploadify are two of the more popular ones and are pretty easy to implement.