Find Motive

Its almost 2008 and the use of generic file controls on web forms are still in major use today. Why are we still using this old ugly technology when there are much better solutions?

Reasons not to use them
- They’re ugly
- There is no way to limit the file types displayed in the “Browse” window
- You can’t make them look good very easily as they lack alot of CSS support
- They’re ugly
- You can’t see how much of the file you have uploaded.
- No way to select multiple files to upload at one time without multiple file controls
- They’re ugly

Solution
There are multiple solutions, but the one I always use and is the most widely supported is using flash to upload files from a web browser. Using flash I can tailor the upload process to the site’s UI and design needs.

SWFUpload is a great premade script that allows you to upload files with flash.

Even though I avoid using the file control as much as I can, I still find it useful sometimes…sometimes.