How to upload files in ReactJs with Example

File uploading in React.js

For any developer who envisions building an application, uploading images is a major component they have to take into account. It is an essential requirement while creating a complete application. File uploading means a user from a client machine wants to upload files to the server. For example, users can upload images, videos, etc on Facebook, Instagram. As with any programming problem, there are many ways to achieve this outcome. This article explains a simple way to implement the approach to upload a single file with React.

The process of uploading an image can be broadly divided into two steps:

• Select a File (user input): To enable the user to pick a file, the first step is to add the tag to our App component. This tag should have the type attribute set as “file”. Now, we need an event handler to listen to any changes made to the file. This event handler will be triggered whenever the user selects a new file and will update the state.
• Send a request to the server: After storing the selected file (in the state), we are now required to send it to a server. For this purpose, we can use fetch or Axios. (In this code, we use Axios a promise-based HTTP client for the browser and NodeJS). The file is sent to the service wrapped in a FormData object.

  Installation Axios:

• Run the below command.

npm install axios --save

Example:

import axios from 'axios';
import React,{Component} from 'react'; 
class App extends Component { 

    state = { 
  
      // Initially, no file is selected 
      selectedFile: null
    }; 
     
    // On file select (from the pop up) 
    onFileChange = event => { 
      // Update the state 
      this.setState({ selectedFile: event.target.files[0] }); 
    }; 
     
    // On file upload (click the upload button) 
    onFileUpload = () => { 
      // Create an object of formData 
      const formData = new FormData(); 
     
      // Update the formData object 
      formData.append( 
        "myFile", 
        this.state.selectedFile, 
        this.state.selectedFile.name 
      ); 
     
      // Details of the uploaded file 
      console.log(this.state.selectedFile); 
     
      // Request made to the backend api 
      // Send formData object 
      axios.post("api/uploadfile", formData); 
    }; 
     
    // File content to be displayed after 
    // file upload is complete 
    fileData = () => { 
      if (this.state.selectedFile) { 
          
        return ( 
          <div> 
            <h2>File Details:</h2> 
            <p>File Name: {this.state.selectedFile.name}</p> 
            <p>File Type: {this.state.selectedFile.type}</p> 
            <p> 
              Last Modified:{" "} 
              {this.state.selectedFile.lastModifiedDate.toDateString()} 
            </p> 
          </div> 
        ); 
      } else { 
        return ( 
          <div> 
            <br /> 
            <h4>Choose before Pressing the Upload button</h4> 
          </div> 
        ); 
      } 
    }; 
     
    render() { 
      return ( 
        <div> 
            <h1> 
              GeeksforGeeks 
            </h1> 
            <h3> 
              File Upload using React! 
            </h3> 
            <div> 
                <input type="file" onChange={this.onFileChange} /> 
                <button onClick={this.onFileUpload}> 
                  Upload! 
                </button> 
            </div> 
          {this.fileData()} 
        </div> 
      ); 
    } 
  } 
  
  export default App; 

i hope you like this article.