javascript - Using form input to access camera and immediately upload photos using web app

Question

I came across this answer which is brilliant:

In iPhone iOS6 and from Android ICS onwards, HTML5 has the following tag which allows you to take pictures from your device:

    <input type="file" accept="image/*" capture="camera">

Capture can take values like camera, camcorder and audio.

Is it possible to take this one step further by using ajax of some kind to immediately upload photo after its taken?

For example, using my phone, once I tap on the input, it then opens the camera which will immediately allow me to take a photo and save it. When I save it to camera, it's then listed by the input button as the file to upload.

What would it take for this photo to be immediately uploaded instead of waiting for the user to click the Submit button of the form?

Answer 1

It's really easy to do this, simply send the file via an XHR request inside of the file input's onchange handler.

<input id="myFileInput" type="file" accept="image/*;capture=camera">

var myInput = document.getElementById('myFileInput');

function sendPic() {
    var file = myInput.files[0];

    // Send file here either by adding it to a `FormData` object 
    // and sending that via XHR, or by simply passing the file into 
    // the `send` method of an XHR instance.
}

myInput.addEventListener('change', sendPic, false);