Resumable uploads on the web: past, present and future

<p>File uploads are a ubiquitous and fundamental part of modern web applications. While simple at first, they become increasingly challenging as file sizes grow. Users expect reliable data transfers, even when uploading multi-gigabyte files over unreliable mobile networks.</p> <p>Conventional file uploads over HTTP fail unrecoverably when the underlying connection is interrupted. Resumable uploads, on the other hand, allow an application to continue uploading a file exactly where it left off. This preserves previously transferred data and greatly improves the user experience.</p> <p>Historically, resumable uploads were implemented in proprietary ways, with each application building its own solution. Developers couldn’t benefit from the advantages of resumable uploads without investing significant engineering effort.</p> <p>In 2013, we started the <a href="https://tus.io">tus project</a> and created a free and open-source protocol for resumable uploads. The project and its community provide implementations for various client and server runtimes, making it easy today to add resumable uploads to any application.</p> <p>In 2022, we began engaging with the HTTP Working Group at the IETF to make resumable uploads a standardized extension to HTTP. Our goal is to integrate resumable uploads directly into browsers, HTTP clients, servers, and proxies so that even more developers can easily benefit from their capabilities.</p> <p>This talk explores the past and present of resumable uploads and how upcoming standards will help developers deliver exceptional file-upload experiences.</p> <p>Additional links: - Tus homepage: https://tus.io/ - GitHub organization: https://github.com/tus - “Resumable Uploads for HTTP” Internet-Draft: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-ietf-httpbis-resumable-upload/</p>