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
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.
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 = awaitFilePicker.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).
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.