Looks like that new gmail title lab isn't the only thing Gmail was working on, eh? http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2009/02/updates-to-attachments-multi-select-and.html

I keep on suggesting this in Gmail's help center. thank god they've worked on this already.

Now who's said: Google is evil and Gmail is a Gfail...

What's left is to shift my emails from Y!Mail to Gmail.

Love the progress bar!!

Progress bar
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ZaGO7GjCqAI/SaZiFWNAX7I/AAAAAAAAPF8/T4EZBNtVsec/s640/gmail-multi-upload.png

Multiple file upload
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ZaGO7GjCqAI/SaZk95Nu9CI/AAAAAAAAPGE/K3rn3gtSfiI/s640/gmail-multi-file-upload.png

Screenshots via: googlesystem's blog

Can we send program/apps yet?

Well it's about time! :D

Good job with the new progress bar!

Very nice!

A very nice update – I'm impressed.

Finally! :D
Good addition here

HOWEVER, this update works if and only a Flash plugin was installed to your browser. Else, you need to use the Basic Attachment uploader (and say hello again to single attachment at a time).
You can manually change the settings at the General tab's Attachments.

Love it!

[Moved from "Gmail using different upload method" – Tony]

I noticed that Gmail uses a new way of uploading Attachments.
multiple files could be selected from Finder / Explorer & watch them load visually.

Any idea how did they do it ?

Gunesh, they're using Flash for the front-end. Here's the SWF file:

mail.google.com/mail/uploader/uploaderapi2.swf

Most server-side upload utilities allow for you to display a progress bar these days.

How bout Gears? Gears can do multiple selection... Gmail will work perfectly with Chrome. 'Cause everything Gmail required, Chrome almost had it with no more further installations.
:]

I'm kind of surprized at Gmail's Flash route.... what's the advantage of relying on a third-party runtime component, if equivalent functionality could be implemented just as easy --and in nicer degradable/ wider compatible fashion still-- with CSS and, AT MOST, 1px-square, blank gif?

The Flash uploader is functional, not fancy. Why requiring users to install Gears when more than 99% of Internet users already have Flash? (http://www.adobe.com/products/player_census/flashplayer/)

Ianf, you can't select multiple files to upload using native HTML controls. That's a browser restriction that can't be overcome without a plug-in of some description. And definitely not with CSS or GIFs.

Tony, standard HTML controls do certainly allow for multiple UPLOAD, though not simultaneous SELECTION of files pluralis – I do it all the time within Gmail Basic HTML mode of a Mozilla-derivative Palm PDA browser (files have to be picked one by one, but appear first in a list, up to 10 at a glance, and are then uploaded in sequence upon pressing either the "Done" [selecting] button, or the 11th/ 21st/ etc. attempt to pick a file).

However, we may be talking of different ops – I wondered mainly at Gmail's choice on being dependent on a third-party, if common, component, rather than doing this particular simple linear "progress-bar"-function all within its own code. I still maintain that it could as easily be done/ and with better downgradability to boot/ in CSS alone (my mention of a gif blank was anal-retentively superfluous ;-))

Ianf, of course you're right, but Google clearly wants users to be able to select multiple files at the same time, which requires the usage of a third-party component. (Hence me saying that "you can't *select* multiple files to upload using native HTML controls" rather than "you can't *upload* multiple files".) Given, as Ionut says, that 99% of users have Flash installed, it makes sense to utilise it where possible. (If not installed, I assume they make sure it degrades gracefully and provide the standard multiple file upload interface whereby the user must select files one at a time.)

Just for the record, the progress bar doesn't use Flash; it uses CSS and DHTML as you suggested it should. (Perhaps I wasn't clear in my original statement when I said they were using Flash for the front-end.)

All I can say is...
This is a great addition, much better than Y!'s.
(bow)
:]

[moved from new thread "A flash api for uploading attached files in gmail" -Philipp]

it is the first time i meet a flash API in Google applications. now to upload files to be attached with mails Gmail use this API:

http://mail.google.com/mail/uploader/uploaderapi2.swf

Tony [http://blogoscoped.com/forum/150978.html#id151117]

Correct me if I'm wrong: the Gmailteam elected to wrap a multiple-file-picker code in JS and/or ActionScript inside a Flash.swf file rather than serving it as [YA]JS file (ActionScript is but a variant of Javascript/ ECMAscript anyway). They did it to ensure wider compatibility across the board, than would be possible with plain JS – either the JS being "absent" at runtime, or the file needing to be interpreted by less known, potentially quirky behaviors of present and, especially, future browser-native JS interpreters [true/false?].

Because of "manual" nature of user actions, having to decode those in 2-step fashion – Gmail's SWF backend talking to the resident Flash plugin, which then relays the outcone via browser's http-api to the mothership – a speedy response wouldn't matter. Hence Gmail's choice of the more indirect route, better suited/ and less maintenance-prone overall [true/false?]

Ianf

The way Google have made this is very similar to SWFUpload. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if they have extended its codebase.

This to me just seems like a decision for user experience more than anything. All the HTTP calls are lightweight, so nothing to worry about there, and the whole thing degrades successfully without Flash enabled.

So nobody noticed the bug that creates messages for each of the files you attach and then sends them to Trash?

> Correct me if I'm wrong

You're wrong. You cannot physically create a dialog to select multiple files using the native <INPUT type="FILE" /> element in HTML regardless of whether you use JS or any other client-side scripting language. The only way to do this is with a browser plug-in like Flash (or some kind of ActiveX component in IE).

> So nobody noticed the bug that creates messages for each of
> the files you attach and then sends them to Trash?

I saw that after you posted about it. I guess that's how it works but you'd certainly expect them to add a hack to hide those if that's the case.

On a related note, Safari 4 apparently *does* support the MULTIPLE attribute for the INPUT TYPE="FILE" element:

http://ajaxian.com/archives/input-typefile-multiple-now-in-a-real-browser

[Via: http://friendfeed.com/e/93339d7f-8e9b-997f-05ab-a6306993b73d/input-type-file-multiple-now-in-a-real/]