aFileChooser - Android File Chooser

aFileChooser is an Android Library Project that simplifies the process of presenting a file chooser.

Intents provide the ability to hook into third-party app components for content selection. This works well for media files, but if you want users to be able to select any file, they must have an existing File Explorer app installed. Because many Android devices don't have stock File Explorers, the developer must often instruct the user to install one, or build one, themselves. aFileChooser solves this issue.

Features:

Full file explorer
Simplify GET_CONTENT Intent creation
Easily convert a Uri into a File
Determine MIME data types
Follows Android conventions (Fragments, Loaders, Intents, etc.)

Installation

Add aFileChooser to your project as an Android Library Project.

Add FileChooserActivity to your project's AndroidManifest.xml file with a fully-qualified name. The label and icon set here will be shown in the "Intent Chooser" dialog.

Important FileChooserActivity must have the <intent-filter> set as follows:

<activity
    android:name="com.ipaulpro.afilechooser.FileChooserActivity"
    android:icon="@drawable/ic_chooser"
    android:label="@string/chooser_label" >
    <intent-filter>
        <action android:name="android.intent.action.GET_CONTENT" />

        <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
        <category android:name="android.intent.category.OPENABLE" />

        <data android:mimeType="*/*" />
    </intent-filter>
</activity>

Usage

Use startActivityForResult(Intent, int) to launch the "Intent Chooser" dialog (shown below), or FileChooserActivity directly. FileChooserActivity returns the Uri of the file selected as the Intent data in onActivityResult(int, int, Intent).

private static final int REQUEST_CHOOSER = 1234;

@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

    Intent intent = new Intent(this, FileChooserActivity.class);
    
    //Add the following statement only if you want to set a custom root path for the chooser:
    intent.putExtra(FileChooserActivity.PATH, "/your/custom/path");
    
    //Add the following statement only if you want to enable the user to select only a single file type
    intent.putExtra(FileChooserActivity.ALLOWED_FILE_EXTENSION, "pdf")

    startActivityForResult(intent, REQUEST_CHOOSER);
}

@Override
protected void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data) {
    switch (requestCode) {
    	case REQUEST_CHOOSER:	
        	if (resultCode == RESULT_OK) {	
            	final Uri uri = data.getData();
            	File file = FileUtils.getFile(uri);
        	}
    }
}

A more robust example can be found in the aFileChooserExample folder.

Note The FileUtils class provides a helper method to construct an ACTION_GET_CONTENT Intent (FileUtils.createGetContentIntent()). It also contains a method to convert a Uri into a File (FileUtils.getFile(Uri)).

Credits

Developed by Paul Burke (iPaulPro) - paulburke.co

Translations by Thomas Taschauer (TomTasche) - tomtasche.at

License