React Native FileReader

HTML5 FileAPI FileReader for React Native, thus FileReader.readAsArrayBuffer can work as well which is not implemented in react-native/Libraries/Blob/FileReader.js .

See https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/FileReader

Install

npm install react-native-filereader

For RN >= 0.65, run npm install react-native-blob-util.

For RN < 0.65, run npm install react-native-blob-util@0.16.3, and patch manually to fix: with react-native-web product build will export 'URIUtil' (reexported as 'URIUtil') was not found.

You need request permission first in your APP, e.g. ('react-native').PermissionsAndroid on Android ref to automatically request permission on Android when import file, or android.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE with react-native-permissions.

Usage of new (require('react-native-filereader'))()

Since there is global react-native/Libraries/Blob/FileReader.js and metro babel use it, it's difficult to let react-native-filereader as a polyfill like window.FileReader = require('./FileReader') in index.js .

So you need to port web JS code by replace new FileReader() to new (require('react-native-filereader'))() .

Usage of polyfill like by babel-plugin into specific file

Or if you don't want modify the web JS code to port, you can let babel do the job when babel is working, with these 3 steps:

npm install babel-plugin-transform-globals --save-dev

then add overrides into YOUR_APP/babel.config.js :

module.exports = {
  presets: ['module:metro-react-native-babel-preset'],
  overrides: [
    {
      test: 'node_modules/pixelshapern/src/libs/GifLoader.js', // change to your web JS code file path
      // test: '**/GifLoader.js', // also can use this [glob](https://www.npmjs.com/package/glob) patterns
      plugins: [
        [
          'transform-globals',
          {
            import: {
              'react-native-filereader': {
                FileReader: 'default',
              },
            },
          },
        ],
      ],
    },
  ],
};

then npm run rn-fresh :

watchman watch-del-all; rm -rf /tmp/react-*; rm -rf /tmp/npm-*; rm -rf /tmp/haste-*; rm -rf /tmp/metro-*; node node_modules/react-native/local-cli/cli.js start --reset-cache

PS: overrides comes from Use babel-plugin into specific file via .babelrc? and be implemented in Allow configs to have an 'overrides' array.

Usage of import FileReader from 'react-native-filereader'

import FileReader from 'react-native-filereader';

var fileReader = new FileReader();

// non-standard alias of `addEventListener` listening to non-standard `data` event
fileReader.on('data', function (data) {
  console.log("chunkSize:", data.length);
});

// `onload` as listener
fileReader.addEventListener('load', function (ev) {
  console.log("dataUrlSize:", ev.target.result.length);
});

// `onloadend` as property
fileReader.onloadend = function () {
  console.log("Success");
};

fileReader.setNodeChunkedEncoding(true || false); // non-standard method
fileReader.readAsDataURL('/storage/emulated/0/Android/data/com.YOUR.APP/files/my-file.txt');
// or
fileReader.readAsArrayBuffer('content://com.android.providers.media.documents/document/image%3A33763');
// or
// fileReader.readAsArrayBuffer({url: 'content://com.android.providers.media.documents/document/image%3A33763'});
// fileReader.readAsArrayBuffer({uri: 'content://com.android.providers.media.documents/document/image%3A33763'});
// fileReader.readAsArrayBuffer({path: '/storage/emulated/0/Pictures/gifs/ani (7).gif'});

PS: content:// can be changed to /storage/ on Android by fs.stat() in react-native-blob-util.

On Android, sometimes you select a file from /sdcard by e.g. react-native-system-file-browser, the decodeURIComponent(path) is content://com.android.externalstorage.documents/document/primary:SOME_DIR/SOME.FILE and will be fs.stat() to /storage/emulated/0/Android/data/com.YOUR.APP/files/SOME_DIR/SOME.FILE in react-native-filereader thus cause failed to stat path ".../SOME.FILE" because it does not exist or it is not a folder, in this situation, you should do path = decodeURIComponent(path).replace(/^content:\/\/com.android.externalstorage.documents\/document\/primary:/, '/sdcard/') in your APP.

Implemented API

<File> below is one of StringUriPath, {path: string}, {url: string}, {uri: string}, {buffer: Buffer}, {stream: ReadStream}

• .readAsArrayBuffer(<File>)
• .readAsBinaryString(<File>)
• .readAsDataURL(<File>)
• .readAsText(<File>)
• .addEventListener(eventname, callback)
• .removeEventListener(callback)
• .dispatchEvent(eventname)
• .EMPTY = 0
• .LOADING = 1
• .DONE = 2
• .error = undefined
• .readyState = self.EMPTY
• .result = undefined

Events

• start
• progress
• error
• load
• end
• abort
• data // non-standard

Event Payload

end

{ target:
  { nodeBufferResult: <Buffer> // non-standard
  , result: <Buffer|Binary|Text|DataURL>
  }
}

progress

{ lengthComputable: (!isNaN(file.size)) ? true : false
, loaded: buffers.dataLength
, total: file.size
}

Non-W3C API

• .on(eventname, callback)
• .nodeChunkedEncoding = false
• .setNodeChunkedEncoding(<Boolean>)

Misc Notes on FileReader

FileReader.setNodeChunkedEncoding() is a non-standard method which hints that the FileReader should chunk if possible

I.E. The file will be sent with the header Transfer-Encoding: chunked

The default is false since many webservers do not correctly implement the standard correctly, and hence do not expect or accept Transfer-Encoding: chunked from clients.

FileReader.on is a non-standard alias of addEventListener

EventTarget.target.nodeBufferResult is a non-standard property which is a Node.Buffer instance of the data.

FileReader.on('data', fn) is a non-standard event which passes a Node.Buffer chunk each time the progress event is fired.