File Uploads with Ajax

I get asked a lot, especially on the Web Connect forum and jQuery mailing list, about Ajax (not AJAX, thank you) file uploads. The XHR object in javascript cannot access file uploads, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t give your users an Ajax-like experience. Here are some options and their corresponding back end languages.

Using Ajax in your website makes you buzzword compliant these days (OMG teh Web 2.0!?!), but once the hype passes I think everyone will agree then when used properly, it can greatly enhance the user experience.

Choices

Considering purchasing one of the following?

  • Car
  • Computer
  • Software
  • Wife (I’m just kidding honey…)
  • Friends (No pointing fingers ya’ll)

Then you my friend have choices to make!

Pick two:

  1. Fast
  2. Reliable
  3. Cheap

Now pick one:

  1. Secure
  2. Usable

Good luck with that, and don’t blame me when your head explodes…

Vista UAC not for security?

So if UAC is not a security boundry, then its purpose is to annoy the hell out of me, right?

It should be clear then, that neither UAC elevations nor Protected Mode IE define new Windows security boundaries. -Mark Russinovich on his blog.

I grew immune to the UAC prompt after only a few hours. I didn’t even care anymore. I have a great respect for Mark. Before he was a “Technical Fellow” at Microsoft, he developed the very cool (albeit useful) SysInternals tools. Yet I get tired of the MS chant of “UAC uber alles” and posts like his.