Search packages, repositories and app categories

Package detailsv4.2.0

file_picker_platform_interface

A common platform interface for the file_picker plugin, defining the shared API surface and data contracts across platforms.

AndroidiOSLinuxmacOSWebWindows
30-day downloads
1.2M
Likes
4
Pub points
150

Install package

flutter pub add file_picker_platform_interface

Package Overview

Package selection guidance compiled from public package information, community data, and project usage.

The file_picker_platform_interface package provides a shared API surface and data contracts for the file_picker plugin across multiple platforms. It acts as a common foundation, enabling consistent file selection functionality on Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, Web, and Windows. By defining platform-agnostic interfaces, it simplifies cross-platform development and ensures uniform behavior regardless of the underlying operating system. This package is essential for developers building plugins or apps that require reliable file picking capabilities.

Use cases

  • Cross-platform file selection
  • Plugin development for file picking
  • Unified file picker API
  • Multi-platform app integration
  • Shared data contract implementation
  • Maintaining consistency across platforms

Key features

  • Platform-agnostic API design
  • Shared data contracts
  • Support for six major platforms
  • Enables plugin extensibility
  • Standardized file metadata handling
  • Facilitates code reuse

Suitable for

  • Developers building file picker plugins
  • Cross-platform Flutter applications
  • Teams requiring consistent file operations
  • Maintainers of multi-platform packages
  • Those integrating file selection into apps

Considerations

  • Requires companion implementations on each platform
  • Not intended for direct use in end-user apps
  • Depends on platform-specific plugins
  • May require additional configuration per platform
  • Limited to API definition, not functionality
  • Best used within larger plugin ecosystems

Original README

Original README snapshot from the linked source repository. Visit the repository for the latest content.

File Picker

pub package CI pipeline status GitHub issues License Awesome Flutter

File Picker

A Flutter plugin that lets you use the native file explorer to pick single or multiple files, with extension filtering, directory selection, and save-file dialogs, across Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, Windows, and Web.

This repository is a Melos workspace hosting file_picker as a federated plugin: a single cross-platform API package on top of one implementation package per platform, all versioned and published independently.

Packages

Package Pub Description
file_picker pub The main package. Add this to your app, it pulls in the right platform implementation automatically.
file_picker_platform_interface pub The shared interface and data contracts (PlatformFile, FileType, platform option classes) every implementation builds on.
file_picker_darwin pub iOS and macOS implementation.
android_file_picker pub Android implementation, including Storage Access Framework (SAF) support.
file_picker_linux pub Linux implementation, using GTK3 and XDG Desktop Portals.
windows_file_picker pub Windows implementation, using the Win32 COM APIs.
file_picker_web pub Web implementation, including Wasm compilation support.

Almost all apps should only ever depend on file_picker directly. The platform packages are pulled in transitively and registered automatically by Flutter's plugin system; you only reach for one of them directly if you need a platform-specific API that isn't exposed on the shared facade (for example FilePickerDarwin.skipEntitlementsChecks() on macOS).

Quick start

dependencies:
  file_picker: ^13.0.0
import 'package:file_picker/file_picker.dart';

final file = await FilePicker.pickFile();

if (file != null) {
  print(file.name);
  print(await file.length()); // Returns Future<int?> (or use file.lengthSync())
}

See packages/file_picker/README.md for the full feature list, platform compatibility chart, and more usage examples (multiple files, extension filters, directory picking, save-file dialogs).

Migration

  • Upgrading to v13? See the Migrating to v13 Guide for details on PlatformFile.length() returning Future<int?> and the removal of legacy v12-deprecated parameters.
  • Upgrading from pre-v12? See the Migrating to v12 Guide for the federated architecture changes (FilePicker.pickFiles() returning List<PlatformFile>, platform options, and streaming).

Documentation

Contributing

Contributions are welcome. Please read CONTRIBUTING.md before opening a pull request, it covers testing requirements, versioning, and changelog conventions for this workspace.

To work on this repository locally:

dart pub global activate melos
melos bootstrap
melos run analyze   # flutter analyze across every package
melos run test       # flutter test across every package

Each package keeps its own pubspec.yaml and CHANGELOG.md and is released independently, only the package(s) you actually changed need a version bump.

Credits

file_picker was created and maintained by Miguel Ruivo, starting in 2018, growing it from a single Android/iOS plugin into the federated, cross-platform package it is today. This repository continues that work under new ownership, built entirely on the foundation of his years of effort.

Thank you, Miguel.

License

MIT, see LICENSE. Every package in this repository is released under the same license.

Categories

Dependencies

Dependency list 3 items

Source repository

Projects using this package

No data available yet.

Rankings