How can I select and upload multiple files with HTML and PHP, using HTTP POST?

This is possible in HTML5. Example (PHP 5.4):

<!doctype html>
<html>
    <head>
        <title>Test</title>
    </head>
    <body>
        <form method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data">
            <input type="file" name="my_file[]" multiple>
            <input type="submit" value="Upload">
        </form>
        <?php
            if (isset($_FILES['my_file'])) {
                $myFile = $_FILES['my_file'];
                $fileCount = count($myFile["name"]);

                for ($i = 0; $i < $fileCount; $i++) {
                    ?>
                        <p>File #<?= $i+1 ?>:</p>
                        <p>
                            Name: <?= $myFile["name"][$i] ?><br>
                            Temporary file: <?= $myFile["tmp_name"][$i] ?><br>
                            Type: <?= $myFile["type"][$i] ?><br>
                            Size: <?= $myFile["size"][$i] ?><br>
                            Error: <?= $myFile["error"][$i] ?><br>
                        </p>
                    <?php
                }
            }
        ?>
    </body>
</html>

Here's what it looks like in Chrome after selecting 2 items in the file dialog:

chrome multiple file select

And here's what it looks like after clicking the "Upload" button.

submitting multiple files to PHP

This is just a sketch of a fully working answer. See PHP Manual: Handling file uploads for more information on proper, secure handling of file uploads in PHP.


Full solution in Firefox 5:

<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
 <form name="uploader" id="uploader" action="multifile.php" method="POST" enctype="multipart/form-data" >
  <input id="infile" name="infile[]" type="file" onBlur="submit();" multiple="true" ></input> 
 </form>

<?php
echo "No. files uploaded : ".count($_FILES['infile']['name'])."<br>"; 


$uploadDir = "images/";
for ($i = 0; $i < count($_FILES['infile']['name']); $i++) {

 echo "File names : ".$_FILES['infile']['name'][$i]."<br>";
 $ext = substr(strrchr($_FILES['infile']['name'][$i], "."), 1); 

 // generate a random new file name to avoid name conflict
 $fPath = md5(rand() * time()) . ".$ext";

 echo "File paths : ".$_FILES['infile']['tmp_name'][$i]."<br>";
 $result = move_uploaded_file($_FILES['infile']['tmp_name'][$i], $uploadDir . $fPath);

 if (strlen($ext) > 0){
  echo "Uploaded ". $fPath ." succefully. <br>";
 }
}
echo "Upload complete.<br>";
?>

</body>
</html>

There are a few things you need to do to create a multiple file upload, its pretty basic actually. You don't need to use Java, Ajax, Flash. Just build a normal file upload form starting off with:

<form enctype="multipart/form-data" action="post_upload.php" method="POST">

Then the key to success;

<input type="file" name="file[]" multiple />

do NOT forget those brackets! In the post_upload.php try the following:

<?php print_r($_FILES['file']['tmp_name']); ?>

Notice you get an array with tmp_name data, which will mean you can access each file with an third pair of brackets with the file 'number' example: 

$_FILES['file']['tmp_name'][0]

You can use php count() to count the number of files that was selected. Goodluck widdit!

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