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
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
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 | 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-cliRun the following commands to create a new React Native project
react-native init ProjectNameIf 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.Xreact-native init ProjectName --version react-native@nextThis 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
1 | cd ProjectName |
Run the following command
1 | 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
1 | 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
1 2 | <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
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 | /*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 ProjectNamereact-native run-androidreact-native run-ios (macOS only).Android
IOS
This is how you can Pick an Image from the React Native Application. If you have any doubt 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. 🙂
Please tell us How to manage run time permissions when using camera for this tutorial on android>=23?
Hi Nikhil,
I will update the source code today for that.
Mean while if you want to see the example of camera permission then please visit the camera example https://aboutreact.com/react-native-camera
Hope this will help you.
snehal you have any idea for browse multiple images from gallery….?
You can try react native image crop picker:
https://github.com/ivpusic/react-native-image-crop-picker
Thank you so much for the suggestion.. I’ll update you if I post anything related to it.
On some android phones When I press ‘Choose From Library’ It shows an app chooser rather than going to gallery directly, as a result if I choose any other app other than default photos app and select image the response object is {didCancel:true}
hey , Nikhil i follow all the steps and than after we launch the app with RN and android studio the app will crashed.
Is there something that you can able see?
Have you tried to add run time permission(https://aboutreact.com/react-native-camera)?
Can you please see the Logcat in Android studio as well.