Save files into selected directory (javascript)

Philip Voronov picture Philip Voronov · Jan 2, 2014 · Viewed 15.8k times · Source


Hello! My question is about javascript.
I want to
1. ask a user to select a directory
2. then write my bunch of files to it (probably with creating sub-directories) without interaction with user

How can I do this? And can I?
I am new in javascript and I hope for your help.

PS.
I've heard about ability to ask a user to select a path by save file dialog and then save data to selected file, but i want to ask a user once for selecting a directory and then create a bunch of files in it without bothering a user for each one.

Answer

cssyphus picture cssyphus · Jan 2, 2014

Javascript alone doesn't have any way to access the local computer's file system for WRITE purposes. Period.

However, Downloadify, by Doug Neiner, was built for this purpose and uses a combination of Javascript and the Flash library.

It needs Flash 10 to work.

Alternately, you can install apache onto the computer (or better yet, a full stack like XAMPP or WAMP/MAMP/LAMP) and use PHP (with javascript/ajax) to write files onto the local file system. However, this means that the website must also be hosted locally. Probably your best bet is Downloadify

Resources:

https://github.com/dcneiner/Downloadify

How to create xml file with jquery

Save content using Jquery? Write to file


Saving to server-side file using AJAX