How to upload a file using Ajax on POST?

Question

I know, the topics aren't missing on this subject but bear with me. I'd like to upload a file to the server using Ajax or an equivalent.

# html
<form method="post" id="Form" enctype="multipart/form-data">
  {% csrf_token %} # django security
  <input id="image_file" type="file" name="image_file">
  <input type="submit" value="submit">
</form>

---

# javascript
$(document).on('submit', '#Form', function(e){
  e.preventDefault();

  var form_data = new FormData();
  form_data.append('file', $('#image_file').get(0).files);

  $.ajax({
      type:'POST',
      url:'my_url',
      processData: false,
      contentType: false,
      data:{
          logo:form_data,
          csrfmiddlewaretoken:$('input[name=csrfmiddlewaretoken]').val(), # django security
      },
  });
});

---

# views.py (server side)
def myFunction(request):
    if request.method == 'POST':
        image_file = request.FILES
        ...
...

I guess there's an issue with the way I configured the ajax function since on debug mode, every data are returned except the logo.

Am I doing something incorrectly?

Answer 1

Looking back, the older answer is unpractical and not recommended. async: false pauses the entire Javascript to simply upload a file, you are likely firing other functions during the upload.

If you are using JQuery solely for the use of ajax, then I recommend using axios:

const axios = require('axios');

var formData = new FormData();
formData.append('imageFile', document.querySelector('#image_file').files[0]);

axios({
    method: 'post',
    url: 'your_url',
    data: formData,
    headers: {
        "X-CSRFToken": CSRF_TOKEN, # django security
        "content-type": "multipart/form-data"
    }
}).then(function (response) {
    # success
});

Axios Documentation

---

Jquery/Ajax answer:

var formData = new FormData();
formData.append('imageFile', $('#image_file')[0].files[0]);
formData.append('csrfmiddlewaretoken', CSRF_TOKEN); # django security

$.ajax({
   url : 'your_url',
   type : 'POST',
   data : formData,
   processData: false,
   contentType: false,
   success : function(data) {
       # success
   }
});

Jquery/Ajax Documentation