Upload files via ajax using jquery.form

[pa...@cancamusa.net]

The web2py book says:

Because Ajax post does not support multipart forms, i.e. file uploads, upload
fields will not work with the LOAD component

This is a pity, as we are expected to split backend and frontend these days, and ajax comes handy. I have found other people hitted the same problem but didn't find a solution:

• https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/web2py/upload$20file$20ajax/web2py/6yL1pNd7QE0/-9z7DWoQyDwJ
• https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/web2py/upload$20file$20ajax/web2py/PmvIKczfn84/MCJso4P0vXEJ
• https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/web2py/upload$20file$20ajax/web2py/IHSnr6cppBQ/2FCBSgCCUTcJ

Then I realized there is one part of my app that has been doing file uploads via ajax for a long time. I grabbed it from this example appliance by Massimo, and never researched the code in depth:

https://github.com/mdipierro/web2py-appliances/tree/master/FileManager

I did some research and found it is using the jQuery.form library, which can do file uploads via ajax:

http://malsup.com/jquery/form/#file-upload

I write this in the hope that people trying to do fle uploads via ajax find this library, and the example app by Massimo, and it helps them.