FilePicker Plugin for Xamarin.Forms

Simple cross-platform plug-in that allows you to pick files and work with them.

The original project can be found here, but seems abandoned, this one was forked and further developed.

The future: Xamarin.Essentials

Since version 1.6.0 the Xamarin.Essentials project also supports file picking! See the Migration Guide on how to migrate from this plugin to the official Xamarin.Essentials API!

Build status

Stable

NuGet: https://www.nuget.org/packages/Xamarin.Plugin.FilePicker/

Development feed (possibly instable)

Add this as a source to your IDE to find the latest packages: https://www.myget.org/F/filepicker-plugin/api/v3/index.json

Setup

• Install into your Xamarin.Android, Xamarin.iOS, Xamarin.Forms, Xamarin.Mac, Xamarin.WPF project and Client projects.

Platform Support

* The Xamarin.Mac implementation has only been tested on MacOS 10.12.

API Usage

Call CrossFilePicker.Current from any platform or .NET Standard project to gain access to APIs.

Example

try
{
    FileData fileData = await CrossFilePicker.Current.PickFile();
    if (fileData == null)
        return; // user canceled file picking

    string fileName = fileData.FileName;
    string contents = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString(fileData.DataArray);

    System.Console.WriteLine("File name chosen: " + fileName);
    System.Console.WriteLine("File data: " + contents);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
    System.Console.WriteLine("Exception choosing file: " + ex.ToString());
}

Methods

async Task<FileData> PickFile(string[] allowedTypes = null)

Starts file picking and returns file data for picked file. File types can be specified in order to limit files that can be selected. Note that this method may throw exceptions that occured during file picking.

Note that on Android it can happen that PickFile() can be called twice. In this case the first PickFile() call will return null as it is effectively cancelled.

Parameter allowedTypes: Specifies one or multiple allowed types. When null, all file types can be selected while picking.

On Android you can specify one or more MIME types, e.g. "image/png"; also wild card characters can be used, e.g. "image/*".

On iOS you can specify UTType constants, e.g. UTType.Image.

On UWP, specify a list of extensions, like this: ".jpg", ".png".

On WPF, specify strings like this: "Data type (*.ext)|*.ext", which corresponds how the Windows file open dialog specifies file types.

Data structures

The returned FileData object contains multiple properties that can be accessed:

public class FileData
{
    /// When accessed, reads all data from the picked file and returns it.
    public byte[] DataArray { get; }

    /// Filename of the picked file; doesn't contain any path.
    public string FileName { get; }

    /// Full file path of the picked file; note that on some platforms the
    /// file path may not be a real, accessible path but may contain an
    /// platform specific URI; may also be null.
    public string FilePath { get; }

    /// Returns a stream to the picked file; this is the most reliable way
    /// to access the data of the picked file.
    public Stream GetStream();
}

Note that DataArray is filled on first access, so be sure to rewind the stream when you access it via GetStream() afterwards.

IMPORTANT

Android: The FilePath property may contain a content URI that starts with content://. The plugin tries hard to find out an actual filename, but when it can't, the file can only be accessed using GetStream() or DataArray. On Android ContentProvider classes are used to share data between apps. The resource that is accessed may not even be a file, streamed over the internet or loaded from a database.

The plugin also tries to get a persistable content URI that can be stored for later access. Be prepared that this may fail, though. Content could have been moved to a different location or could be deleted.

The READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permission is automatically added to your Android app project. Starting from Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) the user is asked for the permission when not granted yet. When the user denies the permission, PickFile() returns null.

The WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE is required if you call SaveFile() and must be added to your Android app project by yourself.

iOS: You need to Configure iCloud Driver for your app.

Migration guide

Migrating the usage of this FilePicker plugin to Xamarin.Essentials.FilePicker isn't straight-forward. It's similar, though, since the Essentials code originated from this plugin. Here's a little guide on how to do it.

1. If you don't have the Xamarin.Essentials NuGet package installed yet, install it into the Android, iOS and UWP projects. Also install it into your Forms project, if you're calling the FilePicker from there. Be sure to also properly initialize Essentials. You can remove the Xamarin.Plugin.FilePicker NuGet package now or afterwards.

2. Rename the namespaces, types and method calls. Replace

   using Plugin.FilePicker;
   using Plugin.FilePicker.Abstractions;
   

   with

   using Xamarin.Essentials;
   

   Replace await CrossFilePicker.Current.PickFile() with await FilePicker.PickAsync(). Replace FileData with FileResult (or use the var keyword).

3. Use Xamarin.Essentials.PickOptions if you specified file types for picking. Replace code like this:

   string[] fileTypes = null;
   if (Device.RuntimePlatform == Device.Android)
       fileTypes = new string[] { "image/png", "image/jpeg" };
   
   if (Device.RuntimePlatform == Device.iOS)
       fileTypes = new string[] { "public.image" };
   
   if (Device.RuntimePlatform == Device.UWP)
       fileTypes = new string[] { ".jpg", ".png" };
   

   with:

   var options = new PickOptions
   {
       FileTypes = new FilePickerFileType(
           new Dictionary<DevicePlatform, IEnumerable<string>>
           {
               { DevicePlatform.Android, new string[] { "image/png", "image/jpeg"} },
               { DevicePlatform.iOS, new string[] { "public.image" } },
               { DevicePlatform.UWP, new string[] { ".jpg", ".png" } },
           }),
       PickerTitle = "Select a file to import"
   };
   

   If you can't specify a list of MIME types or file extensions, use null as the value of the dictionary entry, or else file picking on that platform won't be available:

   { DevicePlatform.Android, null },
   

   Note also that the PickerTitle is a new property, but the title is only shown on Android.

4. Replace usage of FileData with Xamarin.Essentials.FileResult. The new FileResult structure has some properties and methods named differently. The biggest change is that you should not (and in some cases on Android can't) rely on FileResult.FullPath to be a file system filename. Always use FileResult.OpenStreamAsync() to get a stream to the picked file. From there you can either read from the stream directly (e.g. using a StreamReader), or copy the file into your app folder. This can be done using Stream.CopyToAsync() and has the advantage that you do the copying in a background task, and you can specify a CancellationToken that can be used to cancel the operation. You could even show a progress dialog to the user that allows cancelling the transfer.

Troubleshooting

All platforms

InvalidOperationException "Only one operation can be active at a time"

This occurs when PickFile() is called multiple times and the task being awaited didn't return or throws an exception that wasn't caught. Be sure to catch any exceptions and handle them appropriately. See the example code above.

Android

Exception "This functionality is not implemented in the portable version of this assembly. You should reference the NuGet package from your main application project in order to reference the platform-specific implementation."

This occurs when you are using the old-style NuGet references (not the PackageReference mechanism) and you forgot to add the NuGet package to the Android package. When using PackageReference this is not necessary anymore because the bait-and-switch assemblies of FilePicker are correctly resolved.

iOS

Picked file path is invalid, file doesn't exist

On iOS the plugin uses UIDocumentPickerViewController and specifies the mode UIDocumentPickerMode.Import. After picking is done, iOS copies the picked file to the app's temporary "Inbox" folder where it can be accessed. iOS also cleans up the temporary inbox folder regularly. After picking the file you have to either copy the file to another folder, access the data by getting the property DataArray or opening a stream to the file by calling GetStream().

Contributors

• jfversluis
• rafaelrmou (original author)
• vividos

Thanks!

License

MIT Licence