I am currently working on an app with the file sharing feature.
We have a view to ask the user to plug his device to iTunes to add files if there is no files in the app.
I would like to remove this view when the iOS app is launched on the device and when the user add at least one file with iTunes to the app.
Is there a way to do that with the default FileManager ? Like a delegate or something to detect events from the document directory of the app ?
I have looked on the web and found some pods but only for macOS.
I have also tried something with a Timer which will get the files from the document directory of the app each 0.25 seconds, but I don't think this is the best way to do what I want.
Thanks for your help.
EDIT:
Thanks to the MartinR's comment below, the following link helps me to do what I wanted
Notification if user modifies contents of documents directory via iTunes File sharing
Related
I'm able to create and save files using cordova-plugin-file, and have been saving and accessing them from within the app to cordova.file.documentsDirectory.
The problem it seems is that all the directories that one can save to are private, Cordova-plugin-file documentation
I would like to be able to have these files saved in (or moved to) the ios blue "files" folder, so that they can be opened by other apps such as Numbers, Pages, etc. It seems so simple there has to be a way to do this, but I can't find it after more than a few evenings of searching and trying different ways.
I'd be grateful if someone could point me in the right direction.
From what I can tell you can save to the documents directory "cordova.file.documentsDirectory". By default this directory is shared with iCloud, so a file saved here could be opened through the ios File folder and a user could then select the files and hit the share icon to open with the appropriate app, such as Numbers etc.
In order to turn on iCloud you have to pay the developer fee to Apple and select the options to do so. I found the article "Working with the Files App in iOS 11" to be helpful in starting this process.
I don't have the paid developer account yet, but from what I'm reading it should work once I activate one. I'm open to a better solution or critique.
I have an app that downloads files from a web server. Our customer wants the ability to edit those files on their mobile devices and upload the edited version to our servers. Is this possible in iOS? I have figured out how to allow users to view the files in external apps, but I don't see a way to bring back their changes if the file was modified as it seems to copy the file into the other app's space, so my app is left with the unaltered version.
iOS has a sandbox mechanism, so for sure you can not modify any file in another app.
The only way to transfer data from different app is using sharing.
This is a sample project I wrote for implement sharing on iOS, check it:
Sample for sharing on iOS
Hope it can help you.
Having only worked with Android/web dev before I am having a hard time figuring out where in the world my file should be getting copied to in iOS. After reading the file browser documentation on the iOS developer resource page it says that each app is an "island" which contains its own folder system. If I want to have my user be able to copy a file from my app's sdk to their iOS device, where should I put it?
I downloaded a file browser app from the app store on my iOS testing device but am I right in thinking that there is no global file browsing system?
I am using a Cordova plugin called Asset2sd which works perfectly for me in Android, getting the root storage folder and downloading the file to there. It has no iOS alternative so I'm going to have to figure something else out, I just need to know where to start. Do I have to have the user access my app's internal files somehow? Can I create a folder for them to look in when they download my app? Some documentation or something would be wonderful. I am totally lost.
Thanks!
You're right. Apps don't have access to the global file system. Each app only has access to their own app directory. Here's in-depth information on Sandboxing: https://developer.apple.com/app-sandboxing/
In your app's sandbox, you basically can manage files as you want, i.e. download, copy, move, delete, etc. So you can create a folder Downloads in your apps documents directory and then display the contents of this folder for instance in a table view.
Related documentation/links:
https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/ios/documentation/Cocoa/Reference/Foundation/Classes/NSFileManager_Class/index.html
https://stackoverflow.com/a/6907432/967327
https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/iPhone/Conceptual/iPhoneOSProgrammingGuide/iPhoneAppProgrammingGuide.pdf
I was developing an ios application for file backup. In that I need to list and enable user to pick up files from any folder and need to do email backup like media and image picker.
I am struckup here with a bottle neck. I can't triger populating the list of document and email list for the user to pick. I had tried many codes, but it is not working.
I was working with the simulator.
Could anyone share their insight?
Regards
You should be more precise : do you want to pick up any file from any application on your device or just in your application library folder ? You can't access others applications folders.
You can find more information about the file system here :
https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/FileManagement/Conceptual/FileSystemProgrammingGuide/FileSystemOverview/FileSystemOverview.html
iPhone do not have a file browser.
The only place that a iPhone app can take file is from photo album.
Every application keeps its files in its private place.
I would like to know if it is possible to let another iOS app open a file my app has created and then the other app edits and saves it just in the original location where my app had saved it at creation time. Or, instead, are files opened with the NSUrl in UIApplicationLaunchOptionsURLKey just read-only so they just can be saved in the other app sandbox?
You can't edit other apps sandbox, it's private to your own app (except for the Documents folder, that a user can access from iTunes).
You also don't have access to the file system of the phone.
Welcome to iOS :)
The best way to achieve this is a custom URL scheme. The other option would be iCloud, but I think the URL scheme is the way to go here.
Edit I see the link doesn't work correctly, not sure why, just scroll the page down to the Communicating with Other Apps paragraph.