react-native-file-viewer

Native file viewer for react-native. Preview any type of file supported by the mobile device.

iOS: it uses QuickLook Framework

Android: it uses ACTION_VIEW Intent to start the default app associated with the specified file.

Windows: Start the default app associated with the specified file.

Getting started

$ npm install react-native-file-viewer --save

or

$ yarn add react-native-file-viewer

Mostly automatic installation (recommended)

# RN >= 0.60
cd ios && pod install

# RN < 0.60
react-native link react-native-file-viewer

Extra step (Android only)

If your app is targeting Android 11 (API level 30) or newer, the following extra step is required, as described in Declaring package visibility needs and Package visibility in Android 11.

Specifically:

If your app targets Android 11 or higher and needs to interact with apps other than the ones that are visible automatically, add the <queries> element in your app’s manifest file. Within the <queries> element, specify the other apps by package name, by intent signature, or by provider authority, as described in the following sections.

For example, if you know upfront that your app is supposed to open PDF files, the following lines should be added to your AndroidManifest.xml.

    ...
  </application>
+ <queries>
+   <intent>
+     <action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" />
+     <!-- If you don't know the MIME type in advance, set "mimeType" to "*/*". -->
+     <data android:mimeType="application/pdf" />
+   </intent>
+ </queries>
</manifest>

IMPORTANT: Try to be as granular as possible when defining your own queries. This might affect your Play Store approval, as mentioned in Package visibility filtering on Android.

If you publish your app on Google Play, your app’s use of this permission is subject to approval based on an upcoming policy.

Expo

If your project is based on Expo, you need to eject your project by switching to the Bare workflow, in order to use this library.

Manual installation

iOS (CocoaPods)

Add the following to your Podfile:

pod 'RNFileViewer', :path => '../node_modules/react-native-file-viewer'

iOS

1. In XCode, in the project navigator, right click Libraries ➜ Add Files to [your project's name]
2. Go to node_modules ➜ react-native-file-viewer and add RNFileViewer.xcodeproj
3. In XCode, in the project navigator, select your project. Add libRNFileViewer.a to your project’s Build Phases ➜ Link Binary With Libraries
4. Run your project (Cmd+R)

Android

1. Open up android/app/src/main/java/[...]/MainApplication.java

• Add import com.vinzscam.reactnativefileviewer.RNFileViewerPackage; to the imports at the top of the file
• Add new RNFileViewerPackage() to the list returned by the getPackages() method

2. Append the following lines to android/settings.gradle:

   include ':react-native-file-viewer'
   project(':react-native-file-viewer').projectDir = new File(rootProject.projectDir,  '../node_modules/react-native-file-viewer/android')
   

3. Insert the following lines inside the dependencies block in android/app/build.gradle:

   compile project(':react-native-file-viewer')
   

4. Locate react-native-file-viewer inside node_modules folder and copy android/src/main/res/xml/file_viewer_provider_paths.xml to your project res/xml/ directory

5. Add the following lines to AndroidManifest.xml between the main <application></application> tag:

   ...
   <application>
   ...
       <provider
           android:name="com.vinzscam.reactnativefileviewer.FileProvider"
           android:authorities="${applicationId}.provider"
           android:exported="false"
           android:grantUriPermissions="true">
           <meta-data
               android:name="android.support.FILE_PROVIDER_PATHS"
               android:resource="@xml/file_viewer_provider_paths"
           />
       </provider>
   </application>
   ....
   

Windows

Follow the instructions in the ‘Linking Libraries’ documentation on the react-native-windows GitHub repo. For the first step of adding the project to the Visual Studio solution file, the path to the project should be ../node_modules/react-native-file-viewer/windows/RNFileViewer/RNFileViewer.csproj.

Usage

Open a local file

import FileViewer from "react-native-file-viewer";

const path = FileViewer.open(path) // absolute-path-to-my-local-file.
  .then(() => {
    // success
  })
  .catch((error) => {
    // error
  });

Pick up and open a local file #1 (using react-native-document-picker)

import FileViewer from "react-native-file-viewer";
import DocumentPicker from "react-native-document-picker";

try {
  const res = await DocumentPicker.pick({
    type: [DocumentPicker.types.allFiles],
  });
  await FileViewer.open(res.uri);
} catch (e) {
  // error
}

Pick up and open a local file #2 (using react-native-image-crop-picker)

import FileViewer from "react-native-file-viewer";
import ImagePicker from "react-native-image-crop-picker";

ImagePicker.openPicker({})
  .then((image) => FileViewer.open(image.path))
  .catch((error) => {
    // error
  });

Prompt the user to choose an app to open the file with (if there are multiple installed apps that support the mimetype)

import FileViewer from "react-native-file-viewer";

const path = FileViewer.open(path, { showOpenWithDialog: true }) // absolute-path-to-my-local-file.
  .then(() => {
    // success
  })
  .catch((error) => {
    // error
  });

Open a file from Android assets folder

Since the library works only with absolute paths and Android assets folder doesn’t have any absolute path, the file needs to be copied first. Use copyFileAssets of react-native-fs.

Example (using react-native-fs):

import FileViewer from "react-native-file-viewer";
import RNFS from "react-native-fs";

const file = "file-to-open.doc"; // this is your file name

// feel free to change main path according to your requirements
const dest = `${RNFS.DocumentDirectoryPath}/${file}`;

RNFS.copyFileAssets(file, dest)
  .then(() => FileViewer.open(dest))
  .then(() => {
    // success
  })
  .catch((error) => {
    /* */
  });

Download and open a file (using react-native-fs)

No function about file downloading has been implemented in this package. Use react-native-fs or any similar library for this purpose.

Example (using react-native-fs):

import RNFS from "react-native-fs";
import FileViewer from "react-native-file-viewer";
import { Platform } from "react-native";

const url =
  "https://github.com/vinzscam/react-native-file-viewer/raw/master/docs/react-native-file-viewer-certificate.pdf";

// *IMPORTANT*: The correct file extension is always required.
// You might encounter issues if the file's extension isn't included
// or if it doesn't match the mime type of the file.
// https://stackoverflow.com/a/47767860
function getUrlExtension(url) {
  return url.split(/[#?]/)[0].split(".").pop().trim();
}

const extension = getUrlExtension(url);

// Feel free to change main path according to your requirements.
const localFile = `${RNFS.DocumentDirectoryPath}/temporaryfile.${extension}`;

const options = {
  fromUrl: url,
  toFile: localFile,
};
RNFS.downloadFile(options)
  .promise.then(() => FileViewer.open(localFile))
  .then(() => {
    // success
  })
  .catch((error) => {
    // error
  });

API

open(filepath: string, options?: Object): Promise<void>

Options

Issues

Android X Breaking changes

The library supports Android X and React Native 0.60+.

If you’re using React Native < 0.60, please append the following snippet to your android/app/build.gradle file:

preBuild.doFirst {
    ant.replaceregexp(match:'androidx.core.content.', replace:'android.support.v4.content.', flags:'g', byline:true) {
        fileset(dir: '../../node_modules/react-native-file-viewer/android/src/main/java/com/vinzscam/reactnativefileviewer', includes: '*.java')
    }
}

If you prefer to not touch your gradle file, you can still use version 1.0.15 which is perfectly compatible.