6.4. File uploads

To upload a file from the client to the server, the input tag must have the type "file". For instance, the html form will look like this : 

<FORM ENCTYPE="multipart/form-data" ACTION="fileUpload.py" METHOD=POST>
File to process: <INPUT NAME="myfile" TYPE="file">
<INPUT TYPE="submit" VALUE="Send File">
</FORM>

The script which has to handle the file upload will use the variable REQUEST['myfile'] or _myfile, which is an instance of the class FieldStorage in the built-in cgi module. This object has two useful attributes :

  • filename : the name of the file
  • file : a file-like object from which you can read the file content

For instance if you want to store the file in the server's file system, with the same name as the original file : 

import os
f = _myfile.file # file-like object
dest_name = os.path.basename(_myfile.filename)
out = open(dest_name,'wb')
# copy file
import shutil
shutil.copyfileobj(f,out)
out.close()