📂

File System

cordova-plugin-file

iOS Android 🌐 Browser

This official Apache Cordova plugin lets your app read and write files inside its own sandboxed storage. It exposes an API modelled on the HTML5 FileSystem spec, giving you directory and file entries, readers and writers to move data on and off the device's disk.

Installation

Add the plugin to your Cordova project from the command line:

terminal

cordova plugin add cordova-plugin-file

Entry points

Two global functions get you a handle on the filesystem. Call them after the deviceready event has fired:

Function	Description
`window.resolveLocalFileSystemURL(url, success, fail)`	Resolves a URL into a `FileEntry` or `DirectoryEntry` you can work with.
`window.requestFileSystem(type, size, success, fail)`	Returns the root of the filesystem. Pass `LocalFileSystem.PERSISTENT` or `LocalFileSystem.TEMPORARY` as the type.

Storage locations

The plugin exposes a set of cordova.file.* path constants that point at the standard directories on each platform:

Path constant	Description
`cordova.file.applicationDirectory`	Read-only location of the installed app bundle.
`cordova.file.dataDirectory`	Persistent, private storage for the app's own data.
`cordova.file.cacheDirectory`	Cached files the operating system is free to clear.
`cordova.file.documentsDirectory`	iOS user documents folder.
`cordova.file.externalDataDirectory`	Android external storage for app data.
`cordova.file.tempDirectory`	iOS temporary scratch directory.

Core objects

Once you have an entry, you work through these objects to navigate and move data:

Object	Key members
`DirectoryEntry`	`getFile`, `getDirectory`, `createReader`
`FileEntry`	`file`, `createWriter`, `remove`
`FileReader`	`readAsText`, `readAsDataURL`
`FileWriter`	`write`, `seek`, `truncate`

Usage example

Create a text file in the persistent data directory and write a string into it:

www/js/app.js

window.resolveLocalFileSystemURL(cordova.file.dataDirectory, function(dir) {
  dir.getFile("notes.txt", { create: true }, function(fileEntry) {
    fileEntry.createWriter(function(writer) {
      writer.write(new Blob(["Hello"], { type: "text/plain" }));
    });
  });
});

Tips

Every call is asynchronous — pass a success and a fail callback rather than expecting a return value.
Use dataDirectory for files you must keep, and cacheDirectory for throwaway data the OS may clear.
Paths are handed to you as file:// or cdvfile:// URLs, not plain disk paths.

📚 Source: the technical reference on this page (the entry points, storage locations and the install command) is based on the official Apache Cordova file documentation. Descriptions and examples have been rewritten in DedrisFramework's own words. Apache Cordova documentation is published by the Apache Software Foundation under the Apache License 2.0.

← Back to plugins Start a project