Introduction

We will create an example here and we will show you how to upload single file or multiple files using AJAX and jQuery along with Python Flask technologies. You can either upload single file using browse button or multiple files using browse button by holding CTRL key(in Windows OS) from keyboard while selecting multiple files.

The file or files is/are uploaded into a folder called uploads. Make sure this uploads folder exists in the system.

We will also show success or error messages accordingly.

The benefit of using AJAX technique is your entire page will not get refreshed on success or error and instead you will see a particular area on the page gets updated.

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Prerequisites

Python 3.7.4, Flask 1.1.1

Creating Project Directory

Create a project root directory called python-flask-ajax-files-upload as per your chosen location.

We may not mention the project’s root directory name in the subsequent sections but we will assume that we are creating files with respect to the project’s root directory.

Configuring Application

We will configure application through flask framework. We will also define our file upload location and maximum size of all files a user can upload.

We should not allow user to upload unlimited size of file due to security reasons or to avoid exhausting server space.

Create a file called app.py with the below code.

from flask import Flask UPLOAD_FOLDER = 'C:/uploads' app = Flask(__name__) app.secret_key = "secret key" app.config['UPLOAD_FOLDER'] = UPLOAD_FOLDER app.config['MAX_CONTENT_LENGTH'] = 16 * 1024 * 1024

Creating Template View File

We are using template file file-upload.html under templates directory to render the file upload page.

We include jQuery library into <head/> section of the HTML page. As the example AJAX multiple files upload using Python Flask jQuery suggests and without jQuery or JavaScript technology AJAX technique will not work, jQuery library is required.

You may also use plain JavaScript to apply AJAX technique but jQuery provides many built-in functionalities ad easy to use.

We have put the upload field inside <body/> tag in HTML page.

Notice here how the name attribute is used.

We have also used multiple attribute to indicate that we will upload multiple files by holding CTRL key (in Windows OS) while selecting files.

We have added below jQuery, AJAX code immediate after the jQuery library inside <head/> section of the HTML page.

When Upload button is clicked then we first create a new FormData object to store the file data.

We first retrieve the file counts and store each file into FormData object.

We then finally send the file data using python-flask-files-upload REST endpoint where server side code is written for uploading to the destination directory.

<!doctype html> <html> <head> <title>Python Flask File(s) Upload Example</title> <script type="text/javascript" src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.4.1.min.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> $(document).ready(function (e) { $('#upload').on('click', function () { var form_data = new FormData(); var ins = document.getElementById('multiFiles').files.length; if(ins == 0) { $('#msg').html('<span style="color:red">Select at least one file</span>'); return; } for (var x = 0; x < ins; x++) { form_data.append("files[]", document.getElementById('multiFiles').files[x]); } $.ajax({ url: 'python-flask-files-upload', // point to server-side URL dataType: 'json', // what to expect back from server cache: false, contentType: false, processData: false, data: form_data, type: 'post', success: function (response) { // display success response $('#msg').html(''); $.each(response, function (key, data) { if(key !== 'message') { $('#msg').append(key + ' -> ' + data + '<br/>'); } else { $('#msg').append(data + '<br/>'); } }) }, error: function (response) { $('#msg').html(response.message); // display error response } }); }); }); </script> </head> <body> <h2>Python Flask File(s) Upload - Select file(s) to upload</h2> <dl> <p> <p id="msg"></p> <input type="file" id="multiFiles" name="files[]" multiple="multiple"/> <button id="upload">Upload</button> </p> </dl> </body>

Configuring View and REST Endpoint

We have defined root ( / ) endpoint that will just render the template view file with file upload option on the page.

We will create REST endpoint that will be used to upload single or multiple files into the server at a destination folder uploads.

We show a successful message once file or files uploaded successfully or error messages depending on the server or client error.

If partial file(s) are uploaded then we will see both success and error messages.

For success message message is the key in the JSON response.

For error messages file name is the key in the JSON response.

We define a method allowed_file(filename) to allow user only upload allowed file types.

Only with successful operation we send response status 201 otherwise we send 400 bad request with error message.

Create a file main.py with the below source code.

import os #import magic import urllib.request from app import app from flask import Flask, flash, request, redirect, render_template, jsonify from werkzeug.utils import secure_filename ALLOWED_EXTENSIONS = set(['txt', 'pdf', 'png', 'jpg', 'jpeg', 'gif']) def allowed_file(filename): return '.' in filename and filename.rsplit('.', 1)[1].lower() in ALLOWED_EXTENSIONS @app.route('/') def upload_form(): return render_template('file-upload.html') @app.route('/python-flask-files-upload', methods=['POST']) def upload_file(): # check if the post request has the file part if 'files[]' not in request.files: resp = jsonify({'message' : 'No file part in the request'}) resp.status_code = 400 return resp files = request.files.getlist('files[]') errors = {} success = False for file in files: if file and allowed_file(file.filename): filename = secure_filename(file.filename) file.save(os.path.join(app.config['UPLOAD_FOLDER'], filename)) success = True else: errors[file.filename] = 'File type is not allowed' if success and errors: errors['message'] = 'File(s) successfully uploaded' resp = jsonify(errors) resp.status_code = 206 return resp if success: resp = jsonify({'message' : 'Files successfully uploaded'}) resp.status_code = 201 return resp else: resp = jsonify(errors) resp.status_code = 400 return resp if __name__ == "__main__": app.run()

Deploying the Application

Now navigate to the project’s root directory using command line tool and execute the command python main.py , your server will be started on default port 5000.

If you want to change the port then you can change the line app.run() to app.run(port=5001) , where 5001 is the new port.

Testing the Application

Home Page

Hit the URL http://localhost:5000/ in the browser and you will see output as shown below in the image:

Validation Error – No File Selected

When you select no file and try to upload by clicking on the Upload button.

Partial Success – Allowed and non-allowed Files

Try to select multiple files (using Ctrl key) and click on Upload button.

So here ppt file is not allowed but pdf file is allowed to be uploaded into the server.

Therefore allowed file types are uploaded and non-allowed file types are not uploaded and displayed with error message including file name so you can be sure which file(s) were not allowed to upload.

Success – Allowed Type Files Only

Try to select multiple files (using Ctrl key) and click on Upload button.

In this case you will get only success message because all files are allowed in allowed types.

That’s all.

Source Code

download source code

Thanks for reading.