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

Last Updated : 07 Aug, 2021

In this article, we will look at how to upload multiple files with HTML and PHP. Multiple image upload allows the user to select multiple files at once and upload all files to the server.

index.html Create a simple HTML page to select multiple files and submit it to upload files on the server. Here, the HTML file contains a form to select and upload files using the POST method.

HTML

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>

<head>
    <title>
        Select and upload multiple
        files to the server
    </title>
</head>

<body>

    <!-- multipart/form-data ensures that form
    data is going to be encoded as MIME data -->
    <form action="file_upload.php" method="POST"
            enctype="multipart/form-data">

        <h2>Upload Files</h2>
        
        
<p>
            Select files to upload: 
            
            <!-- name of the input fields are going to
                be used in our php script-->
            <input type="file" name="files[]" multiple>
            
            <br><br>
            
            <input type="submit" name="submit" value="Upload" >
        </p>

    </form>
</body>

</html>

file_upload.php The file_upload.php script will handle the file uploading and show the upload status.

PHP

<?php 

// Check if form was submitted
if(isset($_POST['submit'])) {

    // Configure upload directory and allowed file types
    $upload_dir = 'uploads'.DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR;
    $allowed_types = array('jpg', 'png', 'jpeg', 'gif');
    
    // Define maxsize for files i.e 2MB
    $maxsize = 2 * 1024 * 1024; 

    // Checks if user sent an empty form 
    if(!empty(array_filter($_FILES['files']['name']))) {

        // Loop through each file in files[] array
        foreach ($_FILES['files']['tmp_name'] as $key => $value) {
            
            $file_tmpname = $_FILES['files']['tmp_name'][$key];
            $file_name = $_FILES['files']['name'][$key];
            $file_size = $_FILES['files']['size'][$key];
            $file_ext = pathinfo($file_name, PATHINFO_EXTENSION);

            // Set upload file path
            $filepath = $upload_dir.$file_name;

            // Check file type is allowed or not
            if(in_array(strtolower($file_ext), $allowed_types)) {

                // Verify file size - 2MB max 
                if ($file_size > $maxsize)         
                    echo "Error: File size is larger than the allowed limit."; 

                // If file with name already exist then append time in
                // front of name of the file to avoid overwriting of file
                if(file_exists($filepath)) {
                    $filepath = $upload_dir.time().$file_name;
                    
                    if( move_uploaded_file($file_tmpname, $filepath)) {
                        echo "{$file_name} successfully uploaded <br />";
                    } 
                    else {                     
                        echo "Error uploading {$file_name} <br />"; 
                    }
                }
                else {
                
                    if( move_uploaded_file($file_tmpname, $filepath)) {
                        echo "{$file_name} successfully uploaded <br />";
                    }
                    else {                     
                        echo "Error uploading {$file_name} <br />"; 
                    }
                }
            }
            else {
                
                // If file extension not valid
                echo "Error uploading {$file_name} "; 
                echo "({$file_ext} file type is not allowed)<br / >";
            } 
        }
    } 
    else {
        
        // If no files selected
        echo "No files selected.";
    }
} 

?>

Output:

Before Uploading the file:

After Uploading the file:

PHP is a server-side scripting language designed specifically for web development. You can learn PHP from the ground up by following this PHP Tutorial and PHP Examples.