A html5 web app for mobile safari to upload images from the Photos.app?

Question

Is it possible to write a HTML5 web application designed for the iOS devices (iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch) which can allow the user to upload an image from the filesystem?

Imagine uploading a new photo to your twitter avatar via a web app.

Solution 1

UPDATE: iOs 6 Safari is going to support upload videos and images from the Photo Library.

====

I hate this word, but, it's impossible (up now). Here is the reasons:

1) mobile safari doesn't support upload anything.

2) mobile safari can't access ios components (actually it can, but, only through phonegap)

Solution 2

another way to approach this problem would be to give users a private email address that they can email their photos to for automatic upload (eg. [email protected]).

A little more work to set up, but will give a consistent experience for users on all devices (and non-mobile users might find it convenient too).

Solution 3

I like the picup solution at http://picupapp.com

Solution 4

I found an acceptable work around for this. Add a mailTo link on the page with predefined instructions which shows the user how to copy paste an image from his camera roll into the email. Then, write a job/script that listens to that inbox for inbound emails, strip the image and process accordingly.

It's not perfect, but they click the link from safari and then only need to go to photos, copy and come back to your app. After trying it on my phone, it's more than an acceptable work around that allows me to move forward without writing an App.

    <div data-role="collapsible" data-collapsed="true" id="uploadPicContainer" data-theme="d">
    <h3>{l t='Upload Picture'}</h3>
    <a href="mailto:[email protected]?subject={l t='My pictures of'} {$var_biz.bizname}[{$var_biz.id}]!&body={l t='To upload a picture go to your Camera Roll and copy paste an image to this area in the email.  We will apply your picture after review!'}">{l t='Click here to upload pictures of'} {$var_biz.bizname}</a>
</div>

Solution 5

You will be able to upload photos using safari in iOS 6 onwards. Although the above workarounds will still be neccesary for iOS 5 and below.

View more solutions