Integrating input[type=file] with the Filesystem API

Let's say you have a photo editing app and you'd like users to be able to drag in hundreds of photos and copy them into your app. Ok, what do you do?

Launch Demo
Launch Demo

In a recent post, Eiji Kitamura highlighted a subtle, yet powerful new feature in the drag and drop APIs; the ability to drag in folders and retrieve them as HTML5 Filesystem API FileEntry and DirectoryEntry objects (done by accessing a new method on the DataTransferItem, .webkitGetAsEntry()).

What's remarkably cool about the .webkitGetAsEntry() extension is how elegant it makes importing files and entire folders. Once you have a FileEntry or DirectoryEntry from a drop event, it's a matter of using the Filesystem API's copyTo() to get it imported into your app.

An example of copying multiple dropped folders over to the filesystem:

var fs = null; // Cache filesystem for later.

// Not shown: setup drag and drop event listeners.
function onDrop(e) {
    e.preventDefault();
    e.stopPropagation();

    var items = e.dataTransfer.items;

    for (var i = 0, item; item = items[i]; ++i) {
    var entry = item.webkitGetAsEntry();

    // Folder? Copy the DirectoryEntry over to our local filesystem.
    if (entry.isDirectory) {
        entry.copyTo(fs.root, null, function(copiedEntry) {
        // ...
        }, onError);
    }
    }
}

window.webkitRequestFileSystem(TEMPORARY, 1024 * 1204, function(fileSystem) {
    fs = fileSystem;
}, function(e) {
    console.log('Error', e);
});

Very nice! Again, the simplicity comes from integrating DnD with the Filesystem API calls.

Taking this one step further, we also have the ability to drag and drop a folder and/or files onto a normal <input type="file">, then access the entries as Filesystem directory or file entries. That is done through .webkitEntries:

<input type="file" multiple>
function onChange(e) {
    e.stopPropagation();
    e.preventDefault();

    var entries = e.target.webkitEntries; // Get all dropped items as FS API entries.

    [].forEach.call(entries, function(entry) {

    // Copy the entry into our local filesystem.
    entry.copyTo(fs.root, null, function(copiedEntry) {
        ...
    }, onError);

    });
}

document.querySelector('input[type="file"]').addEventListener('change', onChange);

I've put together a photo gallery demo to demonstrate these different techniques for importing files/folders.

Launch Demo

To learn more about the HTML5 Filesystem API, see Exploring the Filesystem APIs.