How to get absolute path of a file upload in React and send it to MongoDB?

Question

I'm trying to upload files to MongoDB with react, and I'm struggling to get the absolute path in order to use GridFS to store the file.

In the backend, I have a route for AddFile defined as such:

const addFile = async (req, res) => {
    const { path }  = req.body        //get absolute path for file
    filename = path.split('\\').pop() //extract filename from absolute path


     const uploadStream = fs.createReadStream(path).
     pipe(bucket.openUploadStream(filename)) //store the file as the filename}
     res.json({id : uploadStream.id})

 }

in routes, I have the route defined as such: router.post('/fs', addFile)

this function takes a Json like this

{
    "path" : "C:\\Users\\name\\work\\files\\file.json"
}

and returns the MongoDB ObjectId of the file as it is inserted into the database:

{
    "id": "6474b6b838e87a34febe8d0b"
}

In the frontend, I have an upload button through which I can add multiple files, and they basically enable me to get the name of the file in the local directory where it was selected from, but not the absolute path I need in order to store the file into GridFS. Is there a better way to upload insert files into mongoDB or is there a way to get the absolute path of a file through upload? Any help would be appreciated!

Answer 1

This is a security restriction as MDN writes: "For security reasons, the path is excluded from this property."

Browsers don't share that information intentionally