Shadow Server: About File Upload

File upload is a standard part of the HTML 3.2 Reference Specification published by the World Wide Web Consortium. This capability allows users to submit arbitrary files, text and binary, to Web sites. Without it, (in the absence of special programming), the only information a user can submit from a Web page is text entered into input fields. Web resources such as the Shadow Server cannot function without file upload, as there is no other way to transmit the original image to which the shadow is to be added.

By mid-1997, any browser claiming to be up-to-date with the state of the Web must, as a bare minimum, implement the HTML 3.2 specification, in most cases agumented by various commonly-used extensions originally introduced as proprietary features by various browser developers. Users should, one would think, be reasonably confident their browsers could upload files. Such naïve confidence is betrayed, as is so often the case, by Microsoft.

Microsoft Internet Explorer (“Internet Exploder”) version 3.0, claims to fully implement the HTML 3.2 standard. Further, its documentation names file upload as a supported feature. Guess what? It flat doesn't work. So, if you're using Internet Exploder 3.0 or some other version that doesn't know file upload from fish entrails, you won't be able to use the Shadow Server. Why not replace that chock full 'o bugs, security-hole-riddled mound of garbage with a browser whose developer treats their customers with some degree of respect instead of feeding on their frustration and lost productivity?

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