Reading local files from file path in javascript

Question

I have been struggling with reading local files from the file path in javascript. I have tried XMLHttpRequest to no avail.

function readFile(file) {
  var rawFile = new XMLHttpRequest();
  rawFile.open("GET", file, false);
  rawFile.onreadystatechange = function() {
    if (rawFile.readyState === 4) {
      if (rawFile.status === 200 || rawFile.status == 0) {
        var text = rawFile.responseText;
        document.write(text);
      }
    }
  }
  rawFile.send(null);
}

window.onload = function() {
  readFile("text.txt");
}

I have also tried FileReader but the way I understand it is that it doesn't read files from a string file path; or how can I create a File object to use in FileReader. I also don't want to use node fs module. Could anyone help out on the best and surest way to read local files from the file path? THANKS

Answer 1

Security restrictions in most browsers make this impossible.

Webpages are not allowed to select files from the user's computer to make accessible to JavaScript. Only the user (e.g. via a file <input>) can do that.