Uploading files/image with Ajax & Jquery, without submitting a form

Here is the code for uploading an image or file without submitting a form with Ajax. For this we will create object of FormData class and will append the properties of the file field in a attribute of FormData object, finally we will set the FormData object with the data key of ajax method of JQuery.

<input id="avatar" type="file" name="avatar" />

<button id="upload" value="Upload" />

$(document).on("click", "#upload", function() {
	var file_data = $("#avatar").prop("files")[0];   // Getting the properties of file from file field
	var form_data = new FormData();                  // Creating object of FormData class
	form_data.append("file", file_data)              // Appending parameter named file with properties of file_field to form_data
	form_data.append("user_id", 123)                 // Adding extra parameters to form_data
	$.ajax({
                url: "/upload_avatar",
                dataType: 'script',
                cache: false,
                contentType: false,
                processData: false,
                data: form_data,                         // Setting the data attribute of ajax with file_data
                type: 'post'
       })
})

We can get the parameters of file field by accessing the "file" key of the parameters hash. Sorry to say, but the FormData class is not supported in IE. :( If you are looking for a solution that works on all browsers have a look at Upload image without submitting form, works on all browsers.