Example of Image Picker in React Native

React Native Image Picker

Here is an example of Image Picker in React Native. For picking the image we will use a very good library called react-native-image-picker. Which provides ImagePicker component to in which you can provide the image picking option from Gallery or Camera or From you custom source like Facebook posts.

How to Use ImagePicker Component?

react-native-image-picker library provides an ImagePicker component in which you can set the options like the title of the picker, Your custom Buttons(Name and title of the button) and storage options like skipBackup or path.
Here is the code snippet of ImagePicker we have used in this Example

var options = {
   title: 'Select Image',
   customButtons: [
     { name: 'customOptionKey', title: 'Choose Photo from Custom Option' },
   ],
   storageOptions: {
     skipBackup: true,
     path: 'images',
   },
};
ImagePicker.showImagePicker(options, response => {
   console.log('Response = ', response);
   if (response.didCancel) {
     console.log('User cancelled image picker');
   } else if (response.error) {
     console.log('ImagePicker Error: ', response.error);
   } else if (response.customButton) {
     console.log('User tapped custom button: ', response.customButton);
     alert(response.customButton);
   } else {
     let source = response;
     this.setState({
       filePath: source,
     });
   }
});

In this example below, we will open an Image picker on a click of a button and will show the selected image on the Image component. Selection options Camera and Gallery are by default but we have also added a custom button which will simply generate an alert when we click on it but You can do whatever you want. So Let’s get started with our Example.

To Make a React Native App

Getting started with React Native will help you to know more about the way you can make a React Native project. We are going to use react-native init to make our React Native App. Assuming that you have node installed, you can use npm to install the react-native-cli command line utility. Open the terminal and go to the workspace and run

npm install -g react-native-cli

Run the following commands to create a new React Native project

react-native init ProjectName

If you want to start a new project with a specific React Native version, you can use the --version argument:

react-native init ProjectName --version X.XX.X

react-native init ProjectName --version react-native@next

This will make a project structure with an index file named App.js in your project directory.

Installation of Dependency

To use ImagePicker we need to install react-native-image-picker dependency.

To install this open the terminal and jump into your project using

cd ProjectName

Run the following command

npm install react-native-image-picker --save

This command will copy all the dependencies into your node_module directory, You can find the directory in node_module the directory named react-native-image-picker.

CocoaPods Installation

After the updation of React Native 0.60, they have introduced autolinking so we do not require to link the library but need to install pods. So to install pods use

cd ios && pod install && cd ..

Android Permission to use the Camera and to Read the Storage

We are using a Native API Camera and also going to choose the image from the gallery so we need to add some permission to the AndroidManifest.xml file.

Please add the following permissions in the AndroidManifest.xml

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.CAMERA"/>
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE"/>

Permission	Purpose
CAMERA	To access the camera
WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE	To Read and Write the content in the SD card

For more about the permission, you can see this post.

IOS Permission to use the Camera and to Read the Storage

1. Open the project ImagePickerExample -> ios -> ImagePickerExample.xcodeproj in XCode. Click on Project (ImagePickerExample in my case) from the left sidebar and you will see multiple options in the workspace.

2. Select info tab which is info.plist

3. Click on the plus button to add following permission key and value which will be visible when permission dialog pops up.

Key	Value
Privacy – Photo Library Additions Usage Description	App needs photo library Access
Privacy – Camera Usage Description	App needs Camera Access Permission for testing

Code for Image Picker in React Native

Open App.js in any code editor and replace the code with the following code

App.js

/*This is an example of Image Picker in React Native*/
import React from 'react';
import { StyleSheet, Text, View, Button, Image } from 'react-native';
import ImagePicker from 'react-native-image-picker';
export default class App extends React.Component {
  constructor(props) {
    super(props);
    this.state = {
      filePath: {},
    };
  }
  chooseFile = () => {
    var options = {
      title: 'Select Image',
      customButtons: [
        { name: 'customOptionKey', title: 'Choose Photo from Custom Option' },
      ],
      storageOptions: {
        skipBackup: true,
        path: 'images',
      },
    };
    ImagePicker.showImagePicker(options, response => {
      console.log('Response = ', response);

      if (response.didCancel) {
        console.log('User cancelled image picker');
      } else if (response.error) {
        console.log('ImagePicker Error: ', response.error);
      } else if (response.customButton) {
        console.log('User tapped custom button: ', response.customButton);
        alert(response.customButton);
      } else {
        let source = response;
        // You can also display the image using data:
        // let source = { uri: 'data:image/jpeg;base64,' + response.data };
        this.setState({
          filePath: source,
        });
      }
    });
  };
  render() {
    return (
      <View style={styles.container}>
        <View style={styles.container}>
          {/*<Image 
          source={{ uri: this.state.filePath.path}} 
          style={{width: 100, height: 100}} />*/}
          <Image
            source={{
              uri: 'data:image/jpeg;base64,' + this.state.filePath.data,
            }}
            style={{ width: 100, height: 100 }}
          />
          <Image
            source={{ uri: this.state.filePath.uri }}
            style={{ width: 250, height: 250 }}
          />
          <Text style={{ alignItems: 'center' }}>
            {this.state.filePath.uri}
          </Text>
          <Button title="Choose File" onPress={this.chooseFile.bind(this)} />
        </View>
      </View>
    );
  }
}
const styles = StyleSheet.create({
  container: {
    flex: 1,
    backgroundColor: '#fff',
    alignItems: 'center',
    justifyContent: 'center',
  },
});

To Run the React Native App

Open the terminal again and jump into your project using.

cd ProjectName

To run the project on an Android Virtual Device or on real debugging device

react-native run-android

or on the iOS Simulator by running

react-native run-ios (macOS only).

Output Screenshots

This is how you can Pick an Image from the React Native Application. If you have any doubts or you want to share something about the topic you can comment below or contact us here. There will be more posts coming soon. Stay tuned!

Hope you liked it. 🙂