Using <input type="file"> in Django

Question

When someone clicks Submit after selecting a file with the <input type="file"> element, how do I access the contents of the file in Django?

(It seems like the request sent to the request handler has no trace of the file anywhere -- not even in request.FILES.)

Currently my template is like:

<form method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data">
 <input type="file" enctype="multipart/form-data" name="file" accept="text/csv"/>
 <input type="submit" value="Upload" />
</form>

View:

def HandleRequest(request):
  print "**** request:", request

I don't see anything being printed about the file.

Note:

There's probably other ways to do this in Django, but I'm looking a solution using the simple input tag, and not something else (which would probably involve Javascript).

According to the docs (docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/ref/request-response/…) it should work. Maybe post your view code? — Jack M.
– Jack M., Commented Jul 8, 2011 at 17:21
The "other" methods are the right ones, as described in the documentation: docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/topics/http/file-uploads/… . You should define your file upload form in the model rather than directly in the HTML. — George Cummins
– George Cummins, Commented Jul 8, 2011 at 17:23
@George: Those may be better, but my method isn't "wrong", so I want to learn how to do things by hand before resorting to tools that automate it for me. If I don't know what a tool is doing, I usually don't use it. — user541686
– user541686, Commented Jul 8, 2011 at 17:23
@George: actually, I find that Django is really nice precisely because it lets you do things by hand when you want/need to. I remember reading something in the Django book to the effect of "almost all parts of Django are optional" because they don't want the framework to get in the way. — André Caron
– André Caron, Commented Jul 8, 2011 at 17:48

Jack M. · Accepted Answer · 2011-07-08 17:47:57Z

3

The code you posted, as it is posted, works fine. The HTML is sound (though I think the enctype on the <input> is redundant at best), and a very simple view shows an InMemoryFile after the POST. The problem must lie in something between the browser and your view. Some things to check:

Middleware.
Apache.
Nginx.
Decorators on your view.
mod_wsgi configuration.

answered Jul 8, 2011 at 17:47

Jack M.

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1 Comment

user541686 Over a year ago

+1 I have no idea what happened, but after playing with some middleware stuff, it's working (though I'm not sure that's the issue... I think I missed something else but whatever). Thanks. :)

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