feat: On Android I can't select files on SD card - I see only Photos and Google drive

[ieugen]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe:

I would like to be able to pick files (a directory, see capawesome-team/capacitor-plugins#16 )
from my SD card .

Right now I can't see my SD card with the sample code I found on the README.

Is there a way to do that?

This is the code I use:

const pickFiles = async () => {
  const result = await FilePicker.pickFiles();
  const file = result.files[0];

  alert('Selected file is' +
      JSON.stringify(file) +
      ' ' + JSON.stringify(result));
  return result
};

I am getting this in my emulator.

[robingenz]

Unfortunately, I do not have an Android device with SD card. I guess that the permissions are missing.

Add the following permissions to your AndroidManifest.xml:

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

(More info here)

Use the @capacitor/filesystem plugin to request the permissions at runtime:

import { Filesystem } from '@capacitor/filesystem';

const pickFiles = async () => {
  // 1. Request permissions
  await Filesystem.requestPermissions();
  // 2. Pick files
  const result = await FilePicker.pickFiles();
  const file = result.files[0];

  alert('Selected file is' +
      JSON.stringify(file) +
      ' ' + JSON.stringify(result));
  return result
};

Please let me know if this helps.

[ieugen]

Hi,

I have those permissions set.
I've added this code to a branch and I tried again without success.

(Running inside emulator)

You can find the code and a repro here: https://github.com/ieugen/organice/blob/ddf41a3451784473952e894d53b4b4e17004dee2/src/components/SyncServiceSignIn/index.js#L175 .

For build instructions see https://github.com/ieugen/organice/tree/android-local-fs#native-app-on-android .

I also checked the application permissions and they are present (I got asked for them).

There is also the fact that StorageClient app for https://github.com/android/storage-samples/tree/main/StorageClient .
That app allows me to select a file from every place but does not require any permissions.
I am quite surprised by this.

[ieugen]

ok, so I talked with a friend that does Android development and we discovered that the difference is caused by this:

• file-picker uses Intent.ACTION_GET_CONTENT

  capacitor-file-picker/android/src/main/java/io/capawesome/capacitorjs/plugins/filepicker/FilePickerPlugin.java

  Line 37 in 97b8bd6

  Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_GET_CONTENT);

This API is old for Android less then 4.3 https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/providers/document-provider#client

On Android 4.3 and lower, if you want your app to retrieve a file from another app, it must invoke an intent such as ACTION_PICK or ACTION_GET_CONTENT. The user must then select a single app from which to pick a file and the selected app must provide a user interface for the user to browse and pick from the available files.

Should be updated to ACTION_OPEN_DOCUMENT that supports Android > 4.3

On Android 4.4 (API level 19) and higher, you have the additional option of using the ACTION_OPEN_DOCUMENT intent, which displays a system-controlled picker UI controlled that allows the user to browse all files that other apps have made available. From this single UI, the user can pick a file from any of the supported apps.

And an option added to support directories: ACTION_OPEN_DOCUMENT_TREE see capawesome-team/capacitor-plugins#16

On Android 5.0 (API level 21) and higher, you can also use the ACTION_OPEN_DOCUMENT_TREE intent, which allows the user to choose a directory for a client app to access.

List of API's to access storage: https://developer.android.com/training/data-storage .

[ieugen]

The Storage Access Framework API does not need extra permissions (as documented).

[robingenz]

Thanks for your research. I will take a look.

[robingenz]

I have had a look at it and think that Intent.ACTION_GET_CONTENT is the right choice for this plugin, because ...

Note: ACTION_OPEN_DOCUMENT is not intended to be a replacement for ACTION_GET_CONTENT. The one you should use depends on the needs of your app:

Use ACTION_GET_CONTENT if you want your app to simply read or import data. With this approach, the app imports a copy of the data, such as an image file.
Use ACTION_OPEN_DOCUMENT if you want your app to have long term, persistent access to documents owned by a document provider. An example would be a photo-editing app that lets users edit images stored in a document provider.

(Source)

However, I was able to find another fix (see #67).
On my Android device I am now able to select files from the entire file system. Unfortunately I do not have an SD card.
Please try this dev build and let me know if it fixes your issue:

npm i @capawesome/[email protected]

[ieugen]

Thanks.
On my side we implemented our own internal plugin since it's much simpler to maintain.
The API surface is quite small for organice and we can have also file picker: 200ok-ch/organice#933