I have created a program that decrypts whats stored in a export file from a certain program,
at the moment people need to open the file and copy and paste into a text feild, i know that i can use the form type "file" but to read the contents of what has been POSTED it needs to be saved to the server if i am correct?
Is there no way of just reading the file contents without saving it to the server?
Thanks!
POSTing to the server doesn't necessarily mean that it's saved on the server in anyway.
Though, if I'm reading your question correctly, a file POSTed to a server will be stored temporarily on the server.
Why do want/need to avoid this?
No. PHP is a server side language, the contents would have to go to the server. You could always upload the file -temporarily- and simply deleted it after. You could use AJAX to immediately send back the information to a user followed by deleting the file.
If that doesn't work, you need to go with the current solution of users copying the file into a text box and sending to server...