Is it possible to upload file via $.ajax(options) or xhr.send(file) only?

I'm using file api and xhr2 spec. I created an uploader (backed by flash for older browsers) that was using FormData and $.ajax(options) where the FormData object with File was part of options.data object. Everything was working.

Now I decided to remove FormData because of weak browser support. And I can't figure a way to upload the file other than

var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();

xhr.setRequestHeader("Cache-Control", "no-cache");

xhr.setRequestHeader("X-Requested-With", "XMLHttpRequest");

xhr.setRequestHeader("X-File-Name", file.name);

xhr.send(file);

Which doesn't return Promise that I can use in the recursion function.

My code is like this :

startUpload: function() {

        var that = this;

        that.recurseSend(that.queue);       

    },



    _initProgressListener: function (options, file) {

        var that = this;

        var xhr = $.ajaxSettings.xhr();

        options.contentType = 'multipart/form-data';        

        options.processData = false;

        options.type = 'POST';

        // WHAT TO DO HERE TO avoid FormData???? What ever I put into options.data - fails



        /* THIS WOULD WORK

        var formData = new FormData();

        formData.append('file', file);

        options.data = formData;

        */            



        if (xhr.upload && xhr.upload.addEventListener) {

            xhr.upload.addEventListener('progress', function (e) {

                that._onProgress(e, file);

            }, false);

            options.xhr = function () {

                return xhr;

            };

        }

    }, 



    recurseSend: function (queue) { 

        var file = queue.pop();

        if(file != undefined) {

            var that = this;

            var options = that.options;    

            that._initProgressListener(options, file);



            var send = function() {

                jqXHR = ($.ajax(options)).done(function(result, textStatus, jqXHR) {

                        that._onDone(result, textStatus, jqXHR, file);

                        queue.stats['successful_uploads']++;

                    }).fail(function(jqXHR, textStatus, errorThrown) {

                        that._onFail(jqXHR, textStatus, errorThrown, file);

                        queue.stats['upload_errors']++;

                    }).always(function(result, textStatus, jqXHR) {

                        that._onAlways(result, textStatus, jqXHR, file);

                        queue.stats['files_queued']--;

                        that.recurseSend(queue);

                    });

                    return jqXHR;

            };



            this._beforeSend(file);              

            return send();

        }

    },

To make it short, $.ajax(options) resolves into xhr.send(formData) if options.data = FormData but how do I make it resolve into xhr.send(file) ?

EDITED: I was playing with it and if I set options.data = file; then $.ajax(options) executes xhr.send(theFile); but with error Error: INVALID_STATE_ERR: DOM Exception 11

and the request is sent as POST multipart/form-data request, but without the multipart body with file in it

And if I put it into options.data = {file: file}; it is serialized no matter if processData property is set to true or not.

Source: Tips4all