How_to_display_JPG_files_that_are_stored_on_the_user

I would like to do as follows:

1. The user identifies any directory on his computer.
2. I go through that directory and find all JPG files in it.
3. I display those JPG files.

This is what I know:

1: The input type “file” would let them choose any file in that
directory and send me the complete pathname (the drive, list of
directories leading to it and file name.) I then ignore the file name
at the end and I have the directory.

Is there a way for them to browse to a directory and choose just a
directory instead of a random file within that directory? This is
minor, but still I am only asking for the drive and directories part
of the pathname.

2: I can get a list of the file names in that directory using the
opendir and readdir functions.

3: I go through the list of file names and want to use html IMG to
display the JPG file. This is the real problem. How can I specify
that the SRC is an arbitrary file on their computer? Using the
pathname (drive, directories and file name) doesn’t work.

I can get the contents of the file using the fopen and fread
functions. But how do I specify the contents as the html SRC? Do I
have to save the file contents to the server first? Then would I need
to assign it a file name e.g. “A1”, “A2” etc? And then delete it
after displaying it? And if there is a problem during that process
and it doesn’t run to completion, I have to periodically delete these
“A1” etc. file names that will not be deleted by the process that
created them. How do I tell if it is a file that is currently being
displayed and to not delete it?

Thanks,

P -

PHPBABY3 wrote:
> I would like to do as follows:
>
> 1. The user identifies any directory on his computer.
> 2. I go through that directory and find all JPG files in it.
> 3. I display those JPG files.
>
> This is what I know:
>
I don't know how you think you "know" this, because what you know is wrong.
PHP runs serverside, it cannot access directories on a user's computer.