Test if a file exists with javascript [duplicate]

Question

This question has already been asked here and here. But I have tried three of the answers with no good luck. I am using a system called Niagara which is acting as a web server, which may be the reason these techniques did not work. Nonetheless, I feel there must be a way to check for the existence of a file, not the existence of a 404 or 200 or 0.

What do want to check where for a file? Is the browser checking the user's local system? Is the webserver checking for a file on a remote host? Is the browser checking for the file on the server? Some other combination? — Alex Wayne
– Alex Wayne, Commented May 14, 2013 at 21:32
@AlexWayne The users browser would check for a file on the internet. — dezman
– dezman, Commented May 14, 2013 at 21:33
On your own webserver or someone elses? Is mydomain.com/mypage.html checking on a file somewhere like somewhereelse.com/somefile.txt? Or is mydomain.com/mypage.html check on a file somewhere like mydomain.com/somefile.txt? — Alex Wayne
– Alex Wayne, Commented May 14, 2013 at 21:36
If it's on the same domain, @karthikr has the answer. But on other domains it's not that simple due to the same origin policy. Which means you cannot achieve this without their server letting you, or proxying the request through your own server, both of which are a bit more complicated. — Alex Wayne
– Alex Wayne, Commented May 14, 2013 at 21:41
Also it's worth noting that "existence of a file" is a bit vague. Yes, many web servers serve "files" directly from the file system. But ultimately most of the time it is an HTTP request and an HTTP response. — Aaron Gibralter
– Aaron Gibralter, Commented May 14, 2013 at 21:45

karthikr · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-14 21:38:35Z

13

You can use $.ajax

$.ajax({
  url: 'example.com/abc.html', //or your url
  success: function(data){
    alert('exists');
  },
  error: function(data){
    alert('does not exist');
  },
})

edited May 14, 2013 at 21:38

answered May 14, 2013 at 21:31

karthikr

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6 Comments

dezman Over a year ago

will this work with relative paths, lets say i just have url: 'abc.html'?

Diodeus - James MacFarlane Over a year ago

That answer was given on one of the referenced questions. Why is this different?

dezman Over a year ago

and what about a fail alert?

karthikr Over a year ago

Refer to this: stackoverflow.com/questions/3646914/… This answer is essentially the same

Alex Wayne Over a year ago

@watson api.jquery.com/jQuery.ajax

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