Here is an Example of File Picker in React Native. For picking a file or a document we will use a library called react-native-document-picker
. Which provides DocumentPicker
component which is very helpful to pick any type of document from your mobile memory.
How to Use
react-native-document-picker
library provides a DocumentPicker
component in which you can set the file type you want to pick and accordingly it will provide you the option to choose the file.
File picker provides you the option to choose single or multiple files. Here is the code snippet of DocumentPicker we have used in this Example
To Pick Single document or File
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 | try { const res = await DocumentPicker.pick({ type: [DocumentPicker.types.allFiles], //There can me more options as well // DocumentPicker.types.allFiles // DocumentPicker.types.images // DocumentPicker.types.plainText // DocumentPicker.types.audio // DocumentPicker.types.pdf }); //Printing the log realted to the file console.log('res : ' + JSON.stringify(res)); console.log('URI : ' + res.uri); console.log('Type : ' + res.type); console.log('File Name : ' + res.name); console.log('File Size : ' + res.size); //Setting the state to show single file attributes this.setState({ singleFile: res }); } catch (err) { //Handling any exception (If any) if (DocumentPicker.isCancel(err)) { //If user canceled the document selection alert('Canceled from single doc picker'); } else { //For Unknown Error alert('Unknown Error: ' + JSON.stringify(err)); throw err; } } |
To Pick Multiple documents or Files
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 | try { const results = await DocumentPicker.pickMultiple({ type: [DocumentPicker.types.images], //There can me more options as well find above }); for (const res of results) { //Printing the log realted to the file console.log('res : ' + JSON.stringify(res)); console.log('URI : ' + res.uri); console.log('Type : ' + res.type); console.log('File Name : ' + res.name); console.log('File Size : ' + res.size); } //Setting the state to show multiple file attributes this.setState({ multipleFile: results }); } catch (err) { //Handling any exception (If any) if (DocumentPicker.isCancel(err)) { //If user canceled the document selection alert('Canceled from multiple doc picker'); } else { //For Unknown Error alert('Unknown Error: ' + JSON.stringify(err)); throw err; } } |
In this example below, we will open a File Picker on a click of a button and will show the selected File URI, File Type, File name and File Size on the Text component. So Let’s get started with the 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 DocumentPicker
we need to install react-native-document-picker
package. To install this
Open the terminal and jump into your project
1 | cd ProjectName |
Run the following command
1 | npm install react-native-document-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-document-picker
.
Linking of Dependency
After the updation of React Native 0.60, they have introduced autolinking feature means we do not require to link the library but they have also mentioned that some libraries need linking and react-native-document-picker is one of those cases. So for that we need to link the library using
1 | react-native link react-native-document-picker |
CocoaPods Installation
Now we need to install pods
1 | cd ios && pod install && cd .. |
Permission to access External Storage for Android
We are going to access external storage so we need to add some permission to the AndroidManifest.xml
file.
So we are going to add the following permissions in the AndroidManifest.xml
1 | <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE"/> |
Permission | Purpose |
---|---|
READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE | To Read the content of the SD card |
For more about the permission, you can see this post.
Code for the File Picker in React Native
Open App.js in any code editor and the 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 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 | /*This is an example of File Picker in React Native*/ import React from 'react'; import { StyleSheet, Text, View, Button, TouchableOpacity, ScrollView, Image, } from 'react-native'; import DocumentPicker from 'react-native-document-picker'; export default class App extends React.Component { constructor(props) { super(props); //Initialization of the state to store the selected file related attribute this.state = { singleFile: '', multipleFile: [], }; } async selectOneFile() { //Opening Document Picker for selection of one file try { const res = await DocumentPicker.pick({ type: [DocumentPicker.types.allFiles], //There can me more options as well // DocumentPicker.types.allFiles // DocumentPicker.types.images // DocumentPicker.types.plainText // DocumentPicker.types.audio // DocumentPicker.types.pdf }); //Printing the log realted to the file console.log('res : ' + JSON.stringify(res)); console.log('URI : ' + res.uri); console.log('Type : ' + res.type); console.log('File Name : ' + res.name); console.log('File Size : ' + res.size); //Setting the state to show single file attributes this.setState({ singleFile: res }); } catch (err) { //Handling any exception (If any) if (DocumentPicker.isCancel(err)) { //If user canceled the document selection alert('Canceled from single doc picker'); } else { //For Unknown Error alert('Unknown Error: ' + JSON.stringify(err)); throw err; } } } async selectMultipleFile() { //Opening Document Picker for selection of multiple file try { const results = await DocumentPicker.pickMultiple({ type: [DocumentPicker.types.images], //There can me more options as well find above }); for (const res of results) { //Printing the log realted to the file console.log('res : ' + JSON.stringify(res)); console.log('URI : ' + res.uri); console.log('Type : ' + res.type); console.log('File Name : ' + res.name); console.log('File Size : ' + res.size); } //Setting the state to show multiple file attributes this.setState({ multipleFile: results }); } catch (err) { //Handling any exception (If any) if (DocumentPicker.isCancel(err)) { //If user canceled the document selection alert('Canceled from multiple doc picker'); } else { //For Unknown Error alert('Unknown Error: ' + JSON.stringify(err)); throw err; } } } render() { return ( <View style={styles.containerStyle}> {/*To show single file attribute*/} <TouchableOpacity activeOpacity={0.5} style={styles.buttonStyle} onPress={this.selectOneFile.bind(this)}> {/*Single file selection button*/} <Text style={{ marginRight: 10, fontSize: 19 }}> Click here to pick one file </Text> <Image source={{ uri: 'https://img.icons8.com/offices/40/000000/attach.png', }} style={styles.imageIconStyle} /> </TouchableOpacity> {/*Showing the data of selected Single file*/} <Text style={styles.textStyle}> File Name:{' '} {this.state.singleFile.name ? this.state.singleFile.name : ''} {'\n'} Type: {this.state.singleFile.type ? this.state.singleFile.type : ''} {'\n'} File Size:{' '} {this.state.singleFile.size ? this.state.singleFile.size : ''} {'\n'} URI: {this.state.singleFile.uri ? this.state.singleFile.uri : ''} {'\n'} </Text> <View style={{ backgroundColor: 'grey', height: 2, margin: 10 }} /> {/*To multiple single file attribute*/} <TouchableOpacity activeOpacity={0.5} style={styles.buttonStyle} onPress={this.selectMultipleFile.bind(this)}> {/*Multiple files selection button*/} <Text style={{ marginRight: 10, fontSize: 19 }}> Click here to pick multiple files </Text> <Image source={{ uri: 'https://img.icons8.com/offices/40/000000/attach.png', }} style={styles.imageIconStyle} /> </TouchableOpacity> <ScrollView> {/*Showing the data of selected Multiple files*/} {this.state.multipleFile.map((item, key) => ( <View key={key}> <Text style={styles.textStyle}> File Name: {item.name ? item.name : ''} {'\n'} Type: {item.type ? item.type : ''} {'\n'} File Size: {item.size ? item.size : ''} {'\n'} URI: {item.uri ? item.uri : ''} {'\n'} </Text> </View> ))} </ScrollView> </View> ); } } const styles = StyleSheet.create({ containerStyle: { flex: 1, backgroundColor: '#fff', padding: 16, }, textStyle: { backgroundColor: '#fff', fontSize: 15, marginTop: 16, color: 'black', }, buttonStyle: { alignItems: 'center', flexDirection: 'row', backgroundColor: '#DDDDDD', padding: 5, }, imageIconStyle: { height: 20, width: 20, resizeMode: 'stretch', }, }); |
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 devicereact-native run-android
or on the iOS Simulator by runningreact-native run-ios
(macOS only).
Android
IOS
As this file picker provides the iCloud pick also so before running the application for IOS. Open the project in Xcode and click on the project in the left sidebar and you will see many options in the workspace.
1. In the general tab, you have to choose your signing profile from XCode.
2. In the Capabilities tab, You can see the iCloud option which you have to turn on.
3. It will ask you to choose the development team. Select your development team.
4. Now we are ready go with iOS also
This is how you can Pick a file 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. 🙂
How to prevent the package from accessing icloud as I do not have Apple Developer Account and would just want to access from the local storage.
I have tried but you have to have an ICloud Account for that.
* What went wrong:
A problem occurred evaluating project ‘:react-native-document-picker’.
> Could not find method google() for arguments [] on repository container.
Awesome, please note that the picker V3 is now released this doc is for version2 ( https://github.com/Elyx0/react-native-document-picker/tree/v2 – npm install react-native-document-picker@2.3.0
Thank you very much for the valuable information. 🙂
How do i get file contents from this?so that i can move the contents to another file and move to folder.
how do i get file contents from document picker?
For that you need to read the document and the process depends upon the type of document you want to read.
I just tried using version 3.2.4
Tapping add attachment gives me an error screen
“undefined is not an object (eveluating ‘_reactNativeDocumentPicker.DocumentPicker.show’)”
I followed all steps as stated here on this page. Please advice. Thanks in advance.
Hey Nana, After the update of React native 0.60 We have a new update in the library too. Can you please wait till the end of the day as I have updated the post and will update it till the end of the day.
Would really appreciate that. Thanks again
I have updated the example please have a look and thanks for the patience. 🙂
Hi I’m from Peru. I tried several times with this library react-native-document-picker for uploading files but I still get the same error as Nana :
“Unhandled Promise Rejection. DocumentPicker.isCancel is not a function.”
Im working with react native version 0.60. Please any help.
Please check your inbox.
Sometime, when already picked a file, return dot not a Uri, otherwise it is local path file. Then, I using react-native-firebase upload a file from Uri via method putFile happend error.
How do return 100% Uri?
hi dude , successfully i am picking up the file paths from the above example .
i am getting only the path location. But i need the content(File data) of the path in base 64.
How can i read this file data ?
You have to use react-native-fetch-blob (https://github.com/wkh237/react-native-fetch-blob) or you can follow the following thread
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/34908009/react-native-convert-image-url-to-base64-string