A File Opener Plugin for Cordova
This plugin will open a file on your device file system with its default application.
cordova.plugins.fileOpener2.open(
filePath,
fileMIMEType,
{
error : function(){ },
success : function(){ }
}
);
Installation
$ cordova plugin add cordova-plugin-file-opener2
Requirements
The following platforms and versions are supported by the latest release:
- Android 5.1+ / iOS 9+ / Windows / Electron
- Cordova CLI 7.0 or higher
Cordova CLI 6.0 is supported by 2.0.19, but there are a number of issues, particularly with Android builds (see 232 203 207). Using the cordova-android-support-gradle-release plugin may help.
fileOpener2.open(filePath, mimeType, options)
Opens a file
Supported Platforms
- Android 5.1+
- iOS 9+
- Windows
- Electron
Quick Examples
Open an APK install dialog:
cordova.plugins.fileOpener2.open(
'/Downloads/gmail.apk',
'application/vnd.android.package-archive'
);
Open a PDF document with the default PDF reader and optional callback object:
cordova.plugins.fileOpener2.open(
'/Download/starwars.pdf',
'application/pdf',
{
error : function(e) {
console.log('Error status: ' + e.status + ' - Error message: ' + e.message);
},
success : function () {
console.log('file opened successfully');
}
}
);
Note on Electron: Do not forget to enable Node.js in your app by adding "nodeIntegration": true
to platforms/electron/platform_www/cdv-electron-settings.json
file, See Cordova-Electron documentation.
Market place installation
Install From Market: to install an APK from a market place, such as Google Play or the App Store, you can use an <a>
tag in combination with the market://
protocol:
<a href="market://details?id=xxxx" target="_system">Install from Google Play</a>
<a href="itms-apps://itunes.apple.com/app/my-app/idxxxxxxxx?mt=8" target="_system">Install from App Store</a>
or in code:
window.open("[market:// or itms-apps:// link]","_system");
fileOpener2.showOpenWithDialog(filePath, mimeType, options)
Opens with system modal to open file with an already installed app.
Supported Platforms
Quick Example
cordova.plugins.fileOpener2.showOpenWithDialog(
'/Downloads/starwars.pdf',
'application/pdf',
{
error : function(e) {
console.log('Error status: ' + e.status + ' - Error message: ' + e.message);
},
success : function () {
console.log('file opened successfully');
},
position : [0, 0]
}
);
position
array of coordinates from top-left device screen, use for iOS dialog positioning.
fileOpener2.uninstall(packageId, callbackContext)
Uninstall a package with its ID.
Note: You need to add <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.REQUEST_DELETE_PACKAGES" />
to your AndroidManifest.xml
Supported Platforms
Quick Example
cordova.plugins.fileOpener2.uninstall('com.zynga.FarmVille2CountryEscape', {
error : function(e) {
console.log('Error status: ' + e.status + ' - Error message: ' + e.message);
},
success : function() {
console.log('Uninstall intent activity started.');
}
});
fileOpener2.appIsInstalled(packageId, callbackContext)
Check if an app is already installed.
Supported Platforms
Quick Example
cordova.plugins.fileOpener2.appIsInstalled('com.adobe.reader', {
success : function(res) {
if (res.status === 0) {
console.log('Adobe Reader is not installed.');
} else {
console.log('Adobe Reader is installed.')
}
}
});
Android APK installation limitation
The following limitations apply when opening an APK file for installation:
- On Android 8+, your application must have the
ACTION_INSTALL_PACKAGE
permission. You can add it by adding this to your app's config.xml
file:
<platform name="android">
<config-file parent="/manifest" target="AndroidManifest.xml" xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.REQUEST_INSTALL_PACKAGES" />
</config-file>
</platform>
- Before Android 7, you can only install APKs from the "external" partition. For example, you can install from
cordova.file.externalDataDirectory
, but not from cordova.file.dataDirectory
. Android 7+ does not have this limitation.
SD card limitation on Android
It is not always possible to open a file from the SD Card using this plugin on Android. This is because the underlying Android library used does not support serving files from secondary external storage devices. Whether or not your the SD card is treated as a secondary external device depends on your particular phone's set up.
Notes
-
For properly opening any file, you must already have a suitable reader for that particular file type installed on your device. Otherwise this will not work.
-
It is reported that in iOS, you might need to remove <preference name="iosPersistentFileLocation" value="Library" />
from your config.xml
-
If you are wondering what MIME-type should you pass as the second argument to open
function, here is a list of all known MIME-types