Upload Multiple Files at Once with PHP
With PHP, it's fairly simple to include a file field in a form to upload one file. But what if you need to upload multiple files at one time? (Like the attach file functionality in Gmail). This can be easily facilitated with the use of the 'for' loop. Here's the code to do it!
The first thing you'll need to do is prompt the user for how many files they need to upload. That will determine how many file fields we need to present. This method creates the fields on a second page, but I recommend you create the fields in real-time with DHTML, to prevent a post-back. But for this example, simplicity is key. Here's the first step, call it "prompt.html".
note – we set the max to 9 to prevent server overloading. You can modify that if you need
<html>
<head>
<title>Choose Number of Files to Upload</title>
</head>
<body>
<form name="form1" method="post" action="uploadForm.php">
<p>How many files would you like to upload? (Max = 9).</p>
<p>
<input name="uploadsNeeded" type="text" id="uploadsNeeded" maxlength="1" />
</p>
<p>
<input type="submit" name="Submit" value="Submit" />
</p>
</form>
</body>
</html>
Here's the code for uploadForm.php, where it will create as many file fields as the user has specified.
<html>
<head>
<title>Upload files</title>
</head>
<body>
<form name="form1" enctype="multipart/form-data" method="post" action="uploadFiles.php">
<p>
<?
$uploadsNeeded = $_POST['uploadsNeeded'];
for($i=0; $i < $uploadsNeeded; $i++){
?>
<input name="uploadFile<? echo $i;?>" type="file" id="uploadFile<? echo $i;?>" />
</p>
<? } ?>
<p><input name="uploadsNeeded" type="hidden" value="<? echo $uploadsNeeded;?>" />
<input type="submit" name="Submit" value="Submit" />
</p>
</form>
</body>
</html>
And finally, here's the code for 'uploadFiles.php', which loops through and processes each field;
<?
$uploadsNeeded = $_POST['uploadsNeeded'];
for($i = 0; $i < $uploadsNeeded; $i++){
$file_name = $_FILES['uploadFile'. $i]['name'];
// strip file_name of slashes
$file_name = stripslashes($file_name);
$file_name = str_replace("'","",$file_name);
$copy = copy($_FILES['uploadFile'. $i]['tmp_name'],$file_name);
// prompt if successfully copied
if($copy){
echo "$file_name | uploaded sucessfully!<br>";
}else{
echo "$file_name | could not be uploaded!<br>";
}
}
?>
on June 26th, 2007 at 5:18 pm
Hi, one question, i´m use this code is very very nice, but i have a problem, where o how can I change the directory where the files go to the server?, I see the it put the files in the root of uploadfile.php but a need change the directory destination.
Thanks!
on June 26th, 2007 at 5:32 pm
Modify this line I believe
$copy = copy($_FILES['uploadFile'. $i]['tmp_name'],$file_name)
on June 26th, 2007 at 6:31 pm
yea, but how? change "tmp_name" ???? I try many ways but fails, thanks for your answer
on June 26th, 2007 at 8:03 pm
// Where the file is going to be placed
$target_path = "uploads/";
$target_path = $target_path . basename( $_FILES['uploadedfile']['name']);
$_FILES['uploadedfile']['tmp_name'];
on June 26th, 2007 at 8:19 pm
Hi, I did:
Modify this line:
$copy = copy($_FILES['uploadFile'. $i]['tmp_name'],$file_name);
TO
$copy = copy($_FILES['uploadFile'. $i]['tmp_name'],"uploads/". $file_name);
Thanks!!
on June 27th, 2007 at 6:02 pm
one question
how can I don´t show the folders "." and ".."
sorry my english
on June 27th, 2007 at 9:36 pm
Just use a simple if statement to check for those names before displaying them
on January 1st, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Hi, interesting script, but what about using zip files? I have been looking for a script that does that.
on October 12th, 2008 at 9:16 am
Why is it limited to 10 because you can make it upload 10 files easily.apart from that this is a fantastic peace of code!
xxx
on October 24th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
Great code, how caI upload into my sql?
on December 28th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
Well Done! Thanks…
on February 5th, 2009 at 5:25 pm
wtf…
this is NOT like Gmail functionality.
Here you need the user to TELL you how many files he wants to upload.
And that is NOT a good idea.
But well… this was posted in 2006. D:
on March 8th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
Thank you
Came in very handy…
on March 11th, 2009 at 10:36 am
This tutorial's simple yet does the trick coolly! I hope improvements would be made in the future such that the file format is filtered as well as its size (and dimensions, if applicable).
Thank you very much!
on April 13th, 2009 at 7:19 am
i want to up load my files as zip then extract and save that file to my host ???????????/ help me please
on May 18th, 2009 at 1:29 pm
I want 1.2 million dollars… can you modify the script to do that too? Hahaha… nice tutorial man!
on June 9th, 2009 at 1:08 pm
Thanks, this works like a charm!
on July 23rd, 2009 at 3:13 pm
This is definately the coolest and most easy to use script I have ever found for multiple uploads.
Thank You!!!
Pembo
on August 5th, 2009 at 5:04 am
hi… your code really worked fine for me but regarding database can u help me .. how can i insert the multiple records for a single user..
on August 5th, 2009 at 5:15 am
please can u send me the correct code for multiple file operation..its really urgent for me
on November 23rd, 2009 at 1:16 am
it's a bad idea to ask the user to enter the number of files he/she wants to upload.
on January 25th, 2010 at 1:16 am
File 1:
File 2:
Is the code above alright? I have not put any trappings on it yet, but ah… I guess it has the most basic idea on how you could upload multiple files and renaming it while uploading.
And yeah, I should make an "upload" directory first before I run this code…
on February 10th, 2010 at 11:58 am
Got one for ya. Can you have the same script but resize the images plus add them into your sql database with a description. That I find is a little tricky
on June 23rd, 2010 at 2:10 am
Thanx,
it was really useful to me.
its easy one.
on October 20th, 2010 at 1:19 pm
The Code was really triky. I am loving it…..
on December 7th, 2010 at 1:32 am
Hi,
This is a really useful snippet of code.
I have made a small project that uploads couple of files
and processes them, with your consent I was hoping to
load my project on github with your code snippets,
with a clear reference to your website in the Readme of the Project.
Let me know if that works or I will then go on without using
any code snippet that you have written.
on December 22nd, 2010 at 2:41 am
Execuse me, sir.
I want to konw about to upload multiple files with single click a main document,,,
Then the pictures in that document will upload, together…
Help Me!!!
on January 10th, 2011 at 7:37 am
very neat,clean & simple code
Thanks…….
on May 5th, 2011 at 7:04 am
Thaks
It's working well and very useful.
on June 12th, 2011 at 7:37 am
Why not just loop through $_FILES ?
on June 27th, 2011 at 9:33 pm
Is there a way to restrict file types?
on August 10th, 2011 at 1:48 am
Thank you, i searched this script by one week…..
on August 10th, 2011 at 11:49 pm
hi…
its 2011 and thanks justin-cooks..
nothing more than a simple, clean, easy to maintain and very very good example
thanks mate..
on September 22nd, 2011 at 1:37 am
thanks for the answer but i think it will create multiple different file input
it seems good if it will produce only one file element for uploading the content
on December 23rd, 2011 at 5:17 am
the code is cool but have some bugs.
)
for example if we upload 0 pics
if we put to upload 3 fields and one of them is not with any file
in prompt if we want do upload 12 files there we can upload 99 in fieldlength( thats normal we put 2 fields if we want 12 files we press 2 times to upload
and doesnt have any kind of max size upload file or kaind of extencion.
but really cool code dude, easy simple to use and debug and to add those things i said
4/5 *