Seeding files from browser

Question

I'm trying to allow a user to select a file from their computer and start seeding it, I've followed the example here. I've used a normal input rather than using drag and drop as I couldn't get it to work.

Now whenever a file is selected I get this error:

Uncaught Error: filesystem paths do not work in the browser

How can I start seeding from a user's computer without uploading the file to my server?

Answer 1

I think you tryed reading a file with file:///, but this not possible for security reasons. A file must be selected or drap&droped from the user. The simplest solution is with a button:

function readFile(evt) {
  var file = evt.target.files[0]
  if (!file) {
    return
  }
  var reader = new FileReader()
  reader.onload = evt => {
    var contents = evt.target.result
    console.log(contents)
  }
  reader.readAsText(file)
}

<input type="file" onchange="readFile.call(this, event)" />

With this snippet you can read a file without any interaction with a server and thats ideal for a serverless techlology like torrent.