File picker for iOS

[Dimitar]

Hello, 

I need to select a pdf file from iOS and upload to firebase cloud and to a local device. For Android I see there is a file picker plugin, but what are the options for 

iOS. 

 

 

[Nick Iliev]

Hello Dimitar,

There is no NativeScript plugin for iOS for file picking. 
However, you can implement this functionality with the file-system module.
What we would need is that the file is in an accessible folder (documents, or temp)
e.g.

import * as fs from "file-system";

let documents = fs.knownFolders.documents(); // documents folder on iOS device
let currentApp = fs.knownFolders.currentApp(); // the current applicaiton "app" folder
let temp = fs.knownFolders.temp(); // the device temp folder

console.log("currentApp: " + currentApp.path);

let file = currentApp.getFile("sample-pdf.pdf");
console.log("file.path: " + file.path);

The example above shows how to pick a file located in <my-project>/app/sample-pdf.pdf

Regarding the second part of your question (uploading to firebase or local device).
You can use -plugin-firebase and create a Firebase bucket to use the storage functionality of Firebase. Once your firebase plugin and account is set you can easily upload the file we had picked earlier

// determine the path to a file in the app/res folder
var filePath = file.path;

// now upload the file with either of the options below:
firebase.uploadFile({
  // optional, can also be passed during init() as 'storageBucket' param so we can cache it (find it in the Firebase console)
  bucket: 'gs://n-plugin-test.appspot.com',
  // the full path of the file in your Firebase storage (folders will be created)
  remoteFullPath: 'uploads/PDF/sample-pdf.pdf',
  // option 1: a file-system module File object
  localFile: fs.File.fromPath(filePath),
  // option 2: a full file path (ignored if 'localFile' is set)
  localFullPath: filePath,
  // get notified of file upload progress
  onProgress: function(status) {
    console.log("Uploaded fraction: " + status.fractionCompleted);
    console.log("Percentage complete: " + status.percentageCompleted);
  }
}).then(
    function (uploadedFile) {
      console.log("File uploaded: " + JSON.stringify(uploadedFile));
    },
    function (error) {
      console.log("File upload error: " + error);
    }
);

Regards,
Nikolay Iliev
Progress Telerik

[Dimitar]

Ok, thank you. The only think which I didn't understand is for iOS how I could show to the user some kind of file explorer to chose from its device , or this is not possible. 

[Nick Iliev]

Hello Dimitar,

Indeed the wanted functionality is not available out-of-the-box.
A possible solution that comes to mind would be to use ListPicker and provide the list of available files as items for the picker. When the users select the wanted file you can proceed with its choice with the flow described in our previous threads.

Regards,
Nikolay Iliev
Progress Telerik