Use HTML5 to resize an image before upload

Question

Here is what I ended up doing and it worked great.

First I moved the file input outside of the form so that it is not submitted:

<input name="imagefile[]" type="file" id="takePictureField" accept="image/*" onchange="uploadPhotos(\'#{imageUploadUrl}\')" />
<form id="uploadImageForm" enctype="multipart/form-data">
    <input id="name" value="#{name}" />
    ... a few more inputs ... 
</form>

Then I changed the uploadPhotos function to handle only the resizing:

window.uploadPhotos = function(url){
    // Read in file
    var file = event.target.files[0];

    // Ensure it's an image
    if(file.type.match(/image.*/)) {
        console.log('An image has been loaded');

        // Load the image
        var reader = new FileReader();
        reader.onload = function (readerEvent) {
            var image = new Image();
            image.onload = function (imageEvent) {

                // Resize the image
                var canvas = document.createElement('canvas'),
                    max_size = 544,// TODO : pull max size from a site config
                    width = image.width,
                    height = image.height;
                if (width > height) {
                    if (width > max_size) {
                        height *= max_size / width;
                        width = max_size;
                    }
                } else {
                    if (height > max_size) {
                        width *= max_size / height;
                        height = max_size;
                    }
                }
                canvas.width = width;
                canvas.height = height;
                canvas.getContext('2d').drawImage(image, 0, 0, width, height);
                var dataUrl = canvas.toDataURL('image/jpeg');
                var resizedImage = dataURLToBlob(dataUrl);
                $.event.trigger({
                    type: "imageResized",
                    blob: resizedImage,
                    url: dataUrl
                });
            }
            image.src = readerEvent.target.result;
        }
        reader.readAsDataURL(file);
    }
};

As you can see I'm using canvas.toDataURL('image/jpeg'); to change the resized image into a dataUrl adn then I call the function dataURLToBlob(dataUrl); to turn the dataUrl into a blob that I can then append to the form. When the blob is created, I trigger a custom event. Here is the function to create the blob:

/* Utility function to convert a canvas to a BLOB */
var dataURLToBlob = function(dataURL) {
    var BASE64_MARKER = ';base64,';
    if (dataURL.indexOf(BASE64_MARKER) == -1) {
        var parts = dataURL.split(',');
        var contentType = parts[0].split(':')[1];
        var raw = parts[1];

        return new Blob([raw], {type: contentType});
    }

    var parts = dataURL.split(BASE64_MARKER);
    var contentType = parts[0].split(':')[1];
    var raw = window.atob(parts[1]);
    var rawLength = raw.length;

    var uInt8Array = new Uint8Array(rawLength);

    for (var i = 0; i < rawLength; ++i) {
        uInt8Array[i] = raw.charCodeAt(i);
    }

    return new Blob([uInt8Array], {type: contentType});
}
/* End Utility function to convert a canvas to a BLOB      */

Finally, here is my event handler that takes the blob from the custom event, appends the form and then submits it.

/* Handle image resized events */
$(document).on("imageResized", function (event) {
    var data = new FormData($("form[id*='uploadImageForm']")[0]);
    if (event.blob && event.url) {
        data.append('image_data', event.blob);

        $.ajax({
            url: event.url,
            data: data,
            cache: false,
            contentType: false,
            processData: false,
            type: 'POST',
            success: function(data){
               //handle errors...
            }
        });
    }
});

if any interested I've made a typescript version:

interface IResizeImageOptions {
  maxSize: number;
  file: File;
}
const resizeImage = (settings: IResizeImageOptions) => {
  const file = settings.file;
  const maxSize = settings.maxSize;
  const reader = new FileReader();
  const image = new Image();
  const canvas = document.createElement('canvas');
  const dataURItoBlob = (dataURI: string) => {
    const bytes = dataURI.split(',')[0].indexOf('base64') >= 0 ?
        atob(dataURI.split(',')[1]) :
        unescape(dataURI.split(',')[1]);
    const mime = dataURI.split(',')[0].split(':')[1].split(';')[0];
    const max = bytes.length;
    const ia = new Uint8Array(max);
    for (var i = 0; i < max; i++) ia[i] = bytes.charCodeAt(i);
    return new Blob([ia], {type:mime});
  };
  const resize = () => {
    let width = image.width;
    let height = image.height;

    if (width > height) {
        if (width > maxSize) {
            height *= maxSize / width;
            width = maxSize;
        }
    } else {
        if (height > maxSize) {
            width *= maxSize / height;
            height = maxSize;
        }
    }

    canvas.width = width;
    canvas.height = height;
    canvas.getContext('2d').drawImage(image, 0, 0, width, height);
    let dataUrl = canvas.toDataURL('image/jpeg');
    return dataURItoBlob(dataUrl);
  };

  return new Promise((ok, no) => {
      if (!file.type.match(/image.*/)) {
        no(new Error("Not an image"));
        return;
      }

      reader.onload = (readerEvent: any) => {
        image.onload = () => ok(resize());
        image.src = readerEvent.target.result;
      };
      reader.readAsDataURL(file);
  })    
};

and here's the javascript result:

var resizeImage = function (settings) {
    var file = settings.file;
    var maxSize = settings.maxSize;
    var reader = new FileReader();
    var image = new Image();
    var canvas = document.createElement('canvas');
    var dataURItoBlob = function (dataURI) {
        var bytes = dataURI.split(',')[0].indexOf('base64') >= 0 ?
            atob(dataURI.split(',')[1]) :
            unescape(dataURI.split(',')[1]);
        var mime = dataURI.split(',')[0].split(':')[1].split(';')[0];
        var max = bytes.length;
        var ia = new Uint8Array(max);
        for (var i = 0; i < max; i++)
            ia[i] = bytes.charCodeAt(i);
        return new Blob([ia], { type: mime });
    };
    var resize = function () {
        var width = image.width;
        var height = image.height;
        if (width > height) {
            if (width > maxSize) {
                height *= maxSize / width;
                width = maxSize;
            }
        } else {
            if (height > maxSize) {
                width *= maxSize / height;
                height = maxSize;
            }
        }
        canvas.width = width;
        canvas.height = height;
        canvas.getContext('2d').drawImage(image, 0, 0, width, height);
        var dataUrl = canvas.toDataURL('image/jpeg');
        return dataURItoBlob(dataUrl);
    };
    return new Promise(function (ok, no) {
        if (!file.type.match(/image.*/)) {
            no(new Error("Not an image"));
            return;
        }
        reader.onload = function (readerEvent) {
            image.onload = function () { return ok(resize()); };
            image.src = readerEvent.target.result;
        };
        reader.readAsDataURL(file);
    });
};

usage is like:

resizeImage({
    file: $image.files[0],
    maxSize: 500
}).then(function (resizedImage) {
    console.log("upload resized image")
}).catch(function (err) {
    console.error(err);
});

or (async/await):

const config = {
    file: $image.files[0],
    maxSize: 500
};
const resizedImage = await resizeImage(config)
console.log("upload resized image")

If some of you, like me, encounter orientation problems I have combined the solutions here with a exif orientation fix

https://gist.github.com/SagiMedina/f00a57de4e211456225d3114fd10b0d0