Idea for new form input type

montulli@stat1.cc.ukans.edu (Lou Montulli)

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Date: Wed, 16 Feb 1994 22:29:44 --100
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From: montulli@stat1.cc.ukans.edu (Lou Montulli)
To: Multiple recipients of list <www-talk@www0.cern.ch>
Subject: Idea for new form input type
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I have an suggestion for a new form input type that I would
like to input on.

In order to support the posting of large files using form based
machanisms I suggest that a new input type "include-file" (or
something similar) be added.  This new type would be a file
that exists on the local machine whose data would be posted
to the forms server during form submission.  This method
would require the file to be posted using a MIME multipart
message.

The reasons this will be useful are as follows:
* large text files can be sent without having to cut and paste
  them into a textarea window as they are now.
* no memory limits on the size of the file.  (currently all input
  data is held in memory)
* arbitrary binary files can be sent 

The particular reason I would like to see this type is that I would
like to design a forms based database control system to simplify
management of HTTP servers.  Users could use forms to upload their
HTML or binary files up onto the server thereby eliminating the
need for them to either run their own server or know the commands
of the remote server's operating system.  Additional features would
allow editing and deletion of files and other database management
functions.

This should be an easy thing to add to existing browsers since
all the GUI browsers have file selection dialog boxs already in
use.  The difficult part will be revamping the form post method
to use mime multipart messaging.

:lou
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