Sign up for a free account at https://kloudless.com to obtain a Kloudless App ID to initialize the File Picker with. The File Picker is built on our unified Storage API abstraction layer (Cloud Storage REST API docs here).
The Kloudless File Picker is a JavaScript library that allows your users to browse and select files and folders from the following storage services:
Services | |||
---|---|---|---|
Adobe CQ5 | Alfresco Cloud | Alfresco | Amazon S3 |
Azure Storage | Box | CMIS | Citrix Sharefile |
Dropbox | Egnyte | Evernote | FTP |
Google Drive | HubSpot Files | Jive | OneDrive for Business |
OneDrive | SMB | Salesforce Files | SharePoint Online |
SugarSync | WebDAV |
- Usage
- File Picker with Vue
- File Picker with React
- Browser Support
- Migration Guide
- Contributing
- Self-hosting
- Misc. Development Notes
- Security Vulnerabilities
- Support
- Changelog
The File Picker JavaScript library can be imported into web applications and launched when a user clicks an element.
Include the Kloudless File Picker JavaScript library on your HTML page using a script tag that points to our CDN:
<script type="text/javascript"
src="https://static-cdn.kloudless.com/p/platform/sdk/kloudless.picker.js"></script>
This exposes a global Kloudless.filePicker
object you can use to initialize
a File Picker. Check out the Configuration Options section further below for
a full list of configuration options.
<script type="text/javascript">
var picker = window.Kloudless.filePicker.picker({
// File Picker initialization options here.
app_id: "Your App ID", // Get your own at https://kloudless.com
});
</script>
You can also install the File Picker package from NPM:
npm ci @kloudless/file-picker
import filePicker from '@kloudless/file-picker';
const picker = filePicker.picker({
app_id: "YOUR_APP_ID"
});
Here is a basic example of a button that launches the File Picker
given the JavaScript above that creates a picker
object.
<body>
<button id="choose-files">Choose Files</button>
<script src="https://static-cdn.kloudless.com/p/platform/sdk/kloudless.picker.js"></script>
<script>
var picker = window.Kloudless.filePicker.picker({ app_id: "APP_ID" });
picker.choosify(document.getElementById('choose-files'));
</script>
</body>
The HTML above adds a specific id
to an element so that we
can reference it later in our JavaScript that launches the File Picker
when the element is clicked. A more complete example is present
below after the full list of configuration options
as well as on our demo page.
Be sure to serve the page via a web server, as pages opened via the
file URI scheme (file://
) cannot receive postMessage messages
from the iframe
created to display the File Picker due to security
concerns.
The File Picker can be configured to either be a file chooser to select files and folders from cloud storage or the local computer, or a file saver to export a specific file to cloud storage.
The Chooser allows your application to prompt a user to select files or a folder, and retrieves metadata about the files or folder selected. It supports choosing files from the local machine as well as cloud storage. Your application can also upload files to users' cloud storage using the Upload API endpoint after prompting users to select a folder to upload data to.
The Chooser is therefore a popular option for both importing files to your application as well as exporting them to specific destinations in cloud storage.
The Dropzone is a variety of the Chooser that opens when files are dragged and dropped into it rather than only when clicked. See the Dropzone section for more information.
The Saver allows your application to prompt a user to select a folder to save a specific file to. This lets your application save some work over the Chooser by automatically handling the upload to cloud storage given a link to the file. However, only a single file is supported at a time.
The Saver returns metadata on the newly uploaded file to the application.
The File Picker has several configuration options. Below, we've included options that can be set on the library inclusion tag itself, options that apply to both the Chooser and Saver modes, and options that are specific to a particular mode.
The following attributes can be set on the <script>
tag used to include the
File Picker JavaScript on the page.
-
data-kloudless-object
: stringOptional. By default, the
filePicker
object will be exposed towindow.Kloudless.filePicker
.Specifies a different name for the
filePicker
object bound towindow
. e.g.data-kloudless-object="filePicker2"
would make the filePicker object accessible viawindow.filePicker2
. Do not use theasync
attribute on the script tag if this is used.
-
app_id
: stringChooser: Required
Saver: Required
The application ID is specific to the developer's application and is located in the developer portal on the App Details page.
-
element
: string or HTMLElementChooser: Optional (default: null)
Saver: Optional (default: null)
Specify a CSS selector string or DOM element to attach the File Picker to instead of displaying the File Picker as a modal (the default). If a string is provided, it will be used to retrieve the DOM element by using document.querySelector.
-
retrieve_token
: booleanChooser: Optional (default: false)
Saver: Optional (default: false)
This option will include Bearer Tokens in addition to the other response data, to allow you to make further requests to the API or save the OAuth Tokens for future use.
// Example response with an OAuth Token in the metadata. [{ bearer_token: { key: "the_token", }, ... }]
Only File Pickers launched from Trusted Domains can make use of this option. You can add a Trusted Domain on the App Details page.
In addition, care should be taken to ensure no malicious JavaScript or XSS vulnerabilities are present on the page, as the Bearer Token provides complete access to that user's account.
-
persist
: stringChooser: "none", "local", "session" (default: "local")
Saver: "none", "local", "session" (default: "local")
This option specifies account persistence for the File Picker in either localStorage, sessionStorage, or no storage. The File Picker will always fall back to localStorage if an invalid option is given.
-
services
: arrayChooser: Optional (default: ['file_store'])
Saver: Optional (default: ['file_store'])
This option specifies which services to allow a user to explore. You can enumerate the specific services or use a service group listed below as a shortcut. The default is the
file_store
service group. If you specify an empty array, no services will show up.Service groups:
file_store
: All File Storage services.object_store
: All Object Storage services.construction
: All Construction services.all
: All storage services.
-
account_management
: booleanChooser: Optional (default: true)
Saver: Optional (default: true)
If
false
, hides the Account menu entry in the dropdown. This can be combined with thetokens
option to ensure a user only browses a pre-defined list of accounts and also does not disconnect any of the accounts. If account disconnection is permitted, setservices
to[]
rather than disabling theaccount_management
option. -
display_backdrop
: booleanChooser: Optional (default: false)
Saver: Optional (default: false)
If
true
, displays a shadow backdrop behind the File Picker, and prevents the page body from scrolling. -
locale
: stringChooser: Optional (default: "en")
Saver: Optional (default: "en")
The Kloudless File Picker supports i18n/l10n. You can specify any of the following ISO-639-1 codes:
ar
,az
,bs
,cs
,cy
,da
,de
,el
,en
,es
,et
,fa
,fi
,fr
,he
,hr
,hu
,hy
,id
,it
,ja
,ka
,kk
,km
,ko
,lt
,lv
,mn
,ms
,nl
,pl
,pt
,ro
,ru
,sk
,sq
,sr
,sr
,sv
,th
,tr
,uk
,zh-CN
,zh-TW
The locale is used to identify the data to retrieve from either the data provided in the
translations
option below or from the out-of-the-box translation data in the messages directory. If no translation data is found, the File Picker uses theen
locale. -
translations
: string or objectChooser: Optional (default: "")
Saver: Optional (default: "")
This option specifies either an object with translation data or a URL that returns the translation data as a JSON string. The
locale
option indicates which locale's translation data to use. Any translation data provided here overrides Kloudless' default translation data included in the messages directory. See translations-suite-sample.json for an example of the translation file format. Any strings not translated will default to theen
locale's representation. -
dateTimeFormat
: stringChooser: Optional (default: "MMMdHm")
Saver: Optional (default: "MMMdHm")
This option specifies a date-time format for the
locale
above. Please refer to theskeleton
values in the globalize JS module for the formats supported. -
create_folder
: booleanChooser: Optional (default: true)
Saver: Optional (default: true)
If
true
, the user will be able to create folders in their cloud storage accounts. -
account_key
: booleanThis option is deprecated as OAuth 2.0 Tokens are used to authenticated accounts now instead of Account Keys. Please use the
retrieve_token
option below instead. Existing Account Keys can be converted to OAuth Tokens using this endpoint. -
keys
: arrayThis option is deprecated as OAuth 2.0 Tokens are used to authenticated accounts now instead of Account Keys. Please use the
tokens
option below instead. Existing Account Keys can be converted to OAuth Tokens using this endpoint. -
tokens
: arrayChooser: Optional (default: [])
Saver: Optional (default: [])
This option should list OAuth 2.0 Tokens for accounts the File Picker should be initialized with. The File Picker will make API requests for additional information on the accounts and display them in the list of accounts the user has connected.
{ tokens: ["abcdefghijklmn", "opqrstuvwxyz"], ... // other options }
-
enable_logout
: boolean (default: true)If
true
, allows users to log out of their accounts, which deletes the account from Kloudless servers. API requests will no longer be possible to the account. -
delete_accounts_on_logout
: boolean (default: false)If
false
, the File Picker only removes tokens from the storage configured inpersist
option when users log out. Iftrue
, it also deletes the accounts from the Kloudless server and invalidates the OAuth tokens. -
oauth
: function (default: see below)Use this parameter to customize the query parameters used in the first leg of the Kloudless OAuth flow when authenticating users. A full list of parameters supported is available on the OAuth docs.
By default, the
scope
the File Picker uses is"<service_id>:normal.storage <service_id>:normal.basic"
. Note that the following options cannot be overridden for consistency or security reasons:client_id
,response_type
redirect_uri
origin
state
Set the value of the
oauth
option to a function that accepts a string. The function will be called when a user attempts to connect an account, with the string argument being the identifier of the service the user is attempting to connect. For example,gdrive
.The function should return an object representing the attributes to include as query parameters in the OAuth flow. Don't URL-encode the values; the File Picker handles that. Here is an example that customizes the OAuth permissions requested if a user attempts to connect a Google Drive account, and also pre-fills the server URL if a user chooses to connect an FTP account:
{ oauth: (service) => { const authOptions = {}; switch (service) { case 'gdrive': // Ask for read-only access to Google Drive data instead. authOptions.scope = 'gdrive.storage."https://www.googleapis.com/auth/userinfo.email https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.readonly":raw'; // Pass additional query parameters to Google Drive. authOptions.raw = { 'query_name': 'query_value' }; break; case 'ftp': // Set a default domain when connecting an FTP account. authOptions.form_data = { domain: 'ftps://ftp.example.com:21', }; break; } return authOptions; }, ... // other options }
If you're familiar with the configuration options accepted by the Kloudless Authenticator, the File Picker requires options returned in the same format that the Authenticator accepts. For convenience, the following supported parameters can be specified as objects as shown in the example above:
form_data
(converted to a URL-encoded JSON string)custom_properties
(converted to a URL-encoded JSON string)raw
(converted to theraw[key]=value
format described in the docs)
-
custom_style_vars
: objectThis project uses LESS as a CSS pre-processor. Since LESS can be run in the browser, we support overriding CSS global variables dynamically to customize styling. For example, change the primary color by setting
main_color
:{ custom_style_vars: { main_color: "black" } }
Please refer to variables.less for the full list of available variables. Most are related to aspects such as colors, fonts, or dimensions. Specifying the
@
prefix for each variable is optional.For further customization, we recommend forking this project and hosting the resources on your own, since we don't guarantee backward-compatibility when overriding undocumented variables.
-
root_folder_id
: objectChooser: Optional (default: {})
Saver: Optional (default: {})
This option is used to specify a specific folder as the root folder for any existing account browsable via the File Picker. This is helpful for scenarios where the user may not have access to the root or other high-level folders but does have access to specific known folders within the account. This option accepts a map of the Kloudless Account ID to the Kloudless Folder ID in the format
{[account_id]: "root_folder_id"}
, as shown below:{ 1234: "folder_abc1234", 5678: "folder_somefolder5678" }
The example above sets the root folder to
folder_abc1234
for account1234
andfolder_somefolder5678
for the account5678
.When connecting or switching to an account that has a root folder ID configured, the default folder opened will be the specified folder rather than the usual root folder
root
. The File Picker UI won't enable navigation outside of the chosen root folder, although it may be accessible to the user via direct API requests. This configuration option should therefore not be used to limit access for security purposes.For existing accounts, be sure to also use the
tokens
attribute to specify the Bearer tokens to use to browse the account. Ifaccount_management
is enabled (the default), the user may also connect new accounts. Since the root folder ID is not possible to provide in advance until the newly connected account's ID is known, please first listen for theaddAccount
event, then perform API requests to determine the ID of the root folder to display, and finally call thepicker.update()
method with the updated configuration that includes the root folder ID for the newly connected account within it:let root_folder_id = {}; // Any existing root folder IDs picker.on('addAccount', account => { // Set `retrieve_token: true` in the config to retrieve the Bearer token // to use in API requests to determine the right root folder ID, and // then include that root folder ID below. root_folder_id[account.id] = 'root'; picker.update({ root_folder_id }); });
Here is an example of limiting users connecting SharePoint accounts to only selecting files from within the primary document library of the main site collection: https://jsfiddle.net/kloudless/uwax8tqy/.
The example above uses a known folder ID based on a consistent location within the SharePoint tenant, but most folders' IDs are random and must be obtained dynamically. To obtain the Kloudless Folder ID for an upstream folder path, please use the Encode Raw Data API endpoint or list the contents of the account, beginning at the
root
, until the required folder's metadata is obtained.Note: Search requests may still return results outside the root folder specified for services that do not support the
parents
query parameter.
-
multiselect
: booleanChooser: Optional (default: false)
This option allows a user to select multiple files or folders from cloud storage or their local device. The Chooser will return a list of one or more entries. Selecting multiple folders is not currently supported on mobile devices.
-
computer
: booleanChooser: Optional (default: false)
Dropzone: Always true
This option allows users to upload files directly from their computer.
Configuring the Chooser's Upload Location
The Chooser will upload files to the developer's Upload Location. The Upload Location can be set in the developer portal. Under 'UI Tools' tab, click 'File Picker' and follow the instructions for selecting a folder in a storage service such as Amazon S3. All local files from a user will be uploaded there.
-
link
: booleanChooser: Optional (default: false)
If
true
, generates a link to the selected file(s). The link will be provided in thelink
key of the response sent to thesuccess
event. For asynchronous requests, the result of the Kloudless Task will contain the link instead.Use with the
copy_to_upload_location
option to generate a link to the newly copied file.The Kloudless File Picker will fire the
error
event if the link generation fails.// Success event result when `link` is true: [{ "link": "https://<the file link>", ... }]
-
link_options
: ObjectChooser: Optional (default: {})
The
link_options
object provides parameters to use when the File Picker creates links. See the documentation for creating links for a full list of the possible options available. Note that links to selected files are only created if thelink
configuration option is set totrue
. In addition, files with thedownloadable
attribute set tofalse
cannot be downloaded so they cannot be selected iflink_options.direct
istrue
.For example:
{ link_options: { direct: true, expiration: "2020-10-12T00:00:00" }, ... // other options }
-
copy_to_upload_location
: stringChooser: Optional (default: null)
If this option is set, it will copy any file or non-root folder selected by the user from cloud storage to the location that files uploaded from the user's computer are placed in.
Since the file must be able to be downloaded for this to occur, only files with the
downloadable
attribute set totrue
can be selected when this option is enabled. When copying folders, the non-downloadable files will be skipped.An Upload Location must be configured via the developer portal to make use of this option.
This option accepts two values:
-
'async'
: Triggers an asynchronous copy and immediately returns a Task ID in thesuccess
event callback that can be checked using the Kloudless Task API for the copied file or folder's metadata.The Kloudless Task API returns a Task object that includes progress information until the task finishes.
When the task finishes, the API endpoint returns File or Folder object instead.
If the task fails, the endpoints returns an Error.Here is an example of polling for the result of a task using jQuery:
function pollingTask(taskId, accountToken, delay) { return new Promise((resolve, reject) => { setTimeout(() => { $.ajax({ url: `https://api.kloudless.com/v1/accounts/me/tasks/${taskId}`, headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${accountToken}` }, }).done(resolve).fail(reject); }, 5000); // Poll every 5 seconds }); } picker.on('success', async (results) => { // Assume the user only selects one item. const [ { id: taskId, // Should enable `retrieve_token` option to get bearer_token. bearer_token: { key: accountToken }, }, ] = results; try { let response = await pollingTask(taskId, accountToken); while (response.id === taskId) { // Task has not finished yet, so keep polling. response = await pollingTask(taskId, accountToken); } // Task has finished. console.log(response); } catch (jqXHR) { if (jqXHR.responseJSON) { // Kloudless API Server returned an error. console.error(response.responseJSON); } } });
-
'sync'
: Triggers a synchronous API request to copy the file or folder and polls till the copying is complete. Thesuccess
event callback receives the newly uploaded file or folder's metadata.
The deprecated
true
option is only available for copying files and will return the new file's hypothetical metadata even though the copy has not yet completed. Please migrate to using'sync'
instead for similar behavior with a guarantee that the copy is successful.The Kloudless File Picker will fire the
error
event if the copy operation is not completely successful. -
-
upload_location_account
: stringChooser: Optional (default: null)
If multiple Upload Locations are configured via the developer portal, this specifies the Account ID of the Upload Location to use. This option is not required if only one Upload Location is configured. The Account ID is a number that can be found in the File Picker Upload Locations section of the Developer Portal page.
upload_location_folder
must also be provided. -
upload_location_folder
: stringChooser: Optional (default: null)
If multiple Upload Locations are configured via the developer portal, this specifies the Folder ID of the Upload Location to use. This option is not required if only one Upload Location is configured. The Folder ID is an encoded string that can be found on the File Picker Upload Locations section of the Developer Portal. The ID of a sub-folder may be specified if the option is enabled in the Developer Portal.
upload_location_account
must also be provided if more than one upload location exists. -
uploads_pause_on_error
: booleanChooser: Optional (default: true)
If
true
, uploads using the Computer option will pause if errors are encountered, giving the user the option to retry the upload by clicking 'Resume'. The user could also remove the file that is failing to upload from the queue. Iffalse
, the file that encounters errors will be skipped and excluded from the list of files returned in thesuccess
callback. -
types
: arrayChooser: Default: ['all']
This option specifies which types of elements the File Picker will show to the user. You can filter based on file extension or by the following categories:
-
all
This configures the File Picker to show all file types and folders. The user can select either files or folders. Do not combine with other options. -
folders
This configures the File Picker to gray out files and show folders. The user can only select folders. -
files
This configures the File Picker to show all file types. The user can only select files. -
text
-
documents
-
images
-
videos
-
audio
-
The categories will be translated to the corresponding file extensions and MIME
types internally. Check TYPE_ALIAS
and MIME_TYPE_ALIAS
in
constants.js for the specific file extensions
and MIME types mapped to.
You can also specify file extensions as well as MIME types by including them
in the array without the period (.
) prefix. For example,
['pdf', 'jpg', 'jpeg', 'png', 'application/vnd.google-apps.document']
.
Include ''
to allow files with the MIME type application/octet-stream
or
without a file extension to be selected.
-
files
: arraySaver: Optional (default: [])
This option should list files for the File Picker to save. The format should be an array of Javascript Objects containing a file url and name. You can specify up to 100 files. Each file will be uploaded via the Kloudless API's upload endpoint, using the
url
attribute.{ files: [{ url: "http://<your image url>", name: "filename.extension" }, { url: "http://<your image url>", name: "filename.extension" }], ... // other options }
-
success(results)
Fired when the user's selections in the Chooser are processed successfully, or files are uploaded successfully via the Chooser's Computer option or Saver.
Thesuccess
event is still fired even if only part of the items were successfully chosen or saved.results
is an array of File or Folder objects that were successfully selected.When
copy_to_upload_location
is set toasync
,results
will instead be an array of Task objects returned by the Kloudless Task API.The File Picker closes once this event has triggered.
-
cancel()
Fired if the user decides to cancel an operation. The File Picker will be closed on cancellation.
-
error(results)
Fired when any of the selections fail to process or any of the files being uploaded fail to upload successfully.
Theerror
event is still fired even if only part of the items failed to be chosen or saved.results
is an array of failed objects. The object structure varies based on usage. For the selections in the Chooser, the object is a File or Folder object.For uploads via the Chooser's Computer option or Saver, the object is the same as that for the
startFileUpload
event mentioned below.An additional key,
error
, is added to the object metadata and includes the error returned from the Kloudless API describing why the operation failed.Here is an example of the
error
object:{ "status_code": 404, "message": "File not found: 1D-QuGwx7acbeGQ3STSCphysJsQs8YHJR", "error_code": "not_found", "id": "9b62d9d8-7bc7-495b-b97a-33b43720274d" }
-
open()
Fired when the File Picker is displayed to the user. This occurs when the Chooser or Saver are opened.
-
close()
Fired when the File Picker is hidden from the user. This occurs when the File Picker is closed. This could be due to either a user action, such as choosing files or cancelling, or due to the
close()
method being called (not to be confused with thisclose
event handler). Thesuccess
orcancel
events will also be fired if appropriate. -
selected(files)
Fired when the user selects files from the File Picker, but before the list is sent to the Kloudless API for additional processing. This means this event fires before the
success
event, and allows you to perform any action while waiting to get the final list.If
copy_to_upload_location
andlink
are both disabled, then this event is equivalent to thesuccess
event (since nothing needs to happen on the server after the selections are made), so this event serves no purpose then.files
is an array of File objects.This event is not fired when the user uses the Chooser's Computer option or the Saver. See
startFileUpload
andfinishFileUpload
for events fired in those cases. -
addAccount(account)
Fired when a user successfully connects an account.
account
is an object containing the account ID, name, and service ID.Here is an example:
{ "id": 123456, "name": "[email protected]", "service": "gdrive" }
-
deleteAccount(accountId)
Fired when a user successfully removes an account.
-
startFileUpload(file)
Fired when a file upload starts, or is requested to be retried by a user after encountering errors (see the
uploads_pause_on_error
option). This event is only fired when the user uploads a file via the Chooser's Computer option or the Saver.For the Chooser's Computer option, the
file
object has the following attributes:id
A randomly generated ID.name
The uploaded file's name.size
The uploaded file's size.mime_type
The uploaded file's MIME type.
Here is an example:
{ "id": "o_1efeta5ej5ac1v4t139e39l1ldka", "mime_type": "image/jpeg", "name": "15224125762.jpeg", "size": 9834 }
For the Saver, the
file
object has the following attributes instead:url
The file URL specified in the Saver's launch options.name
The file name specified in the Saver's launch options.
Here is an example:
{ "url": "https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/static-assets.kloudless.com/static/kloudless-logo-white.png", "name": "kloudless-logo.png" }
This event is fired once per file and not per uploaded chunk.
-
finishFileUpload(file)
Fired when a file upload completes successfully (once per file being uploaded). The
file
object contains the same information as provided to thestartFileUpload
event above, with an additional keymetadata
whose value is the resulting File.This event is only fired when the user uploads a file via the Chooser's Computer option or the Saver.
-
logout()
Fired when the user clicks the logout link in the File Picker, which clears the local state of accounts connected to the File Picker.
-
drop()
Fired when drops files into Dropzone.
-
filePicker.picker(options)
You can initialize a Kloudless File Picker using the options mentioned above.
-
filePicker.getGlobalOptions()
Get build options. These are options configured when the File Picker JavaScript library was initially built. See the Self-Hosting section for more information.
-
filePicker.setGlobalOptions(buildOptions)
Change build options during run-time. The widget is configured to work with default values, so these options should only be set when needed.
-
picker.choose()
This method allows you to launch a Chooser.
-
picker.choosify(element)
This method binds a click handler that launches the Chooser to the DOM element.
-
picker.save(files)
This method allows you to launch a Saver. See Saver Options for more information on the format for
files
. -
picker.savify(element, files)
This method binds a click handler that launches the Saver for
files
to the DOM element. -
picker.on(event, callback)
Invokes a callback method on a particular event. See the
Events
section above for a list of event names, as well as the arguments the corresponding callback methods will be invoked with. -
picker.close()
This method closes the File Picker window.
-
picker.update(options)
Updates the configuration options the File Picker was initialized with. The File Picker will immediately begin using the new configuration.
options
is an Object with the new configuration. Not all options can be updated in this manner. The following are not supported:app_id
types
services
persist
create_folder
account_key
custom_style
custom_css
(deprecated)locale
element
-
picker.logout(deleteAccount=false)
Removes all authentication tokens for the accounts connected to the File Picker as configured via the
persist
option. IfdeleteAccount
is set totrue
, it also deletes the accounts from the Kloudless server and invalidates the OAuth tokens, rendering them unusable and the accounts inaccessible.This method isn't impacted by the
delete_accounts_on_logout
option.
To start using the File Picker, simply include the JavaScript file in your HTML file. You can then create an element on the page to launch the File Picker.
<body>
<button id="file-picker-button">Open File Picker</button>
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://static-cdn.kloudless.com/p/platform/sdk/kloudless.picker.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
// File Picker initialization JS here.
</script>
</body>
The next step is to customize the File Picker according to the developer's needs. In this example, we've decided to disable multiselect, return links, and allow for a few types of files. All of this is contained within the initialization.
// File Picker initialization JS
var picker = window.Kloudless.filePicker.picker({
app_id: 'YOUR_APP_ID',
multiselect: false,
link: true,
types: ['images', 'documents', 'text']
});
The final step is to launch the File Picker and handle the events returned from the File Picker based on a user's actions.
Visit our demo of the File Picker!
// When a user successfully selects or saves a file
picker.on('success', function(files) {
// files is an array of JS objects that contain file metadata.
console.log('Successfully selected files: ', files);
});
// When a user cancels the File Picker
picker.on('cancel', function() {
console.log('File selection cancelled.');
});
// Launching the File Picker to choose when a user clicks the 'Open File Picker'
// button.
picker.choosify(document.getElementById('file-picker-button'));
// In addition, you can launch the File Picker programmatically with choose()
picker.choose();
// Launching the Picker to save when a user clicks the 'Open File Picker' button
// Note: you can pass in an array of files instead of using the configuration
// option
var files = [{
url: 'http://<your image url>',
name: 'filename.extension'
}, {
url: 'http://<your image url>',
name: 'filename.extension'
}];
picker.savify(document.getElementById('file-picker-button'), files);
// In addition, you can launch the File Picker programmatically with save()
var files = [{
url: 'http://<your image url>',
name: 'filename.extension'
}, {
url: 'http://<your image url>',
name: 'filename.extension'
}];
picker.save(files);
The Dropzone is a variety of the Chooser that allows users to drop files into it from their Computer rather than only click on it to launch the File Picker. It opens in place when files are dropped into it.
The configuration is similar to the Chooser's, but requires the element
option
to indicate where to display the Dropzone, as described below. In addition, the
computer
option is always set to true
, and an Upload Location must be
configured as described for the Chooser.
-
element
: string or HTMLElementChooser: Required
The DOM element to bind the Dropzone to. If a CSS selector string is provided, it will be used to retrieve the DOM element by using document.querySelector. The drop zone will render a 600px * 100px area for the user to drag and drop files in. The area's width will adjust automatically when the viewport width is lower than 600px.
-
filePicker.dropzone(options)
Initialize a Dropzone using the options mentioned above.
-
dropzone.on(event, callback)
See
picker.on(event, callback)
for more information. -
dropzone.close()
See
picker.close()
for more information.
Visit our JSBin example of the Dropzone!
HTML
<div id="dropzone" style="width: 600px; height: 100px;"></div>
JavaScript
var dropzone = window.Kloudless.filePicker.dropzone({
app_id: 'Your App ID',
element: '#dropzone',
multiselect: true, // To upload more than 1 file.
// Chooser options below:
computer: true,
link: true,
services: ['all'],
types: ['all'],
});
// All of the Chooser's events are supported.
// For example:
dropzone.on('success', function(files) {
console.log('Successfully selected files: ', files);
});
// See the File Picker's Example section for other events.
See File Picker with Vue.
- Chrome 56+
- Firefox 56+
- IE 11+
- Edge 12+
- Safari 8+
- Opera 49+
To use the Kloudless File Picker on devices with narrow screens, please add a Viewport meta tag to the web page launching the File Picker. This ensures the File Picker uses styling appropriate for mobile screen sizes.
The meta tag assumes that your entire web page renders well in narrow screens since it applies to your page as a whole and not just the File Picker. Please test out your page's usability if you are adding the meta tag for the first time.
Here is an example meta tag:
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
If your page benefits from preventing some devices such as iPhones from
zooming in on input fields, you can also add in the user-scalable=no
option
as shown below. Input fields such as <input>
and <select>
are used in the
File Picker as well.
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1, user-scalable=no">
v2 represents a new layout and set of options for the File Picker, including:
- A completely new theme for the UI with improved responsiveness, clearer HTML and CSS structure with consistent naming conventions, and several bug-fixes.
- A documented format for customizing UI styling such as colors and fonts without forking the entire project.
Provided your application isn't already customizing styling by using the
custom_css
option as detailed below, it will automatically begin using the
new version.
The File Explorer has been renamed to the File Picker to improve clarity. The entire JS namespace, as well as any relevant method, variable, or configuration option names, have been transitioned from referencing an "explorer" to a "picker", while preserving backwards-compatibility.
Here is a table to assist with transitioning previously publicly documented names to their newer counterparts:
Description | Old Name | New Name |
---|---|---|
namespace | window.Kloudless.fileExplorer | window.Kloudless.filePicker |
method | explorer() | picker() |
global option | explorerUrl | pickerUrl |
environment variable | EXPLORER_URL | PICKER_URL |
script tag URL | https://static-cdn.kloudless.com/p/platform/sdk/kloudless.explorer.js | https://static-cdn.kloudless.com/p/platform/sdk/kloudless.picker.js |
Forked projects that are migrating to v2 should take care to replace names similarly.
Previously, getGlobalOptions
and setGlobalOption
were imported from
@kloudless/file-picker
as shown below:
import filePicker from '@kloudless/file-picker';
filePicker.getGlobalOptions()
filePicker.setGlobalOptions({...})
Now, they can be imported from @kloudless/file-picker/react
,
or @kloudless/file-picker/vue
, depending on the framework in use:
import { setGlobalOptions, getGlobalOptions } from '@kloudless/file-picker/react';
// Or use the following syntax for VueJS:
// import { setGlobalOptions, getGlobalOptions } from '@kloudless/file-picker/vue';
getGlobalOptions()
setGlobalOptions({...})
Below are some options that will no longer be effective, or will force the previous version to continue to load instead, to maintain compatibility.
-
custom_css
: stringChooser: Optional (default: null)
Saver: Optional (default: null)
This option is deprecated and no longer supported in the latest versions of the File Picker. Using this option will result in the File Picker reverting to a previous layout that supported this option.
Refer to the
custom_style_vars
option to customize styling instead. Alternatively, you may clone this project and self-host it to customize the UI more extensively.Previous Notes
custom_css
is an optional attribute that accepts a URL to a stylesheet for the File Picker to load to override or customize styling. Supports(http|https)://domain.com/path/to.css
,//domain.com/path/to.css
, and/path/to.css
formats.To use the
custom_css
option, the domain the File Picker is launched from must be added to the application's list of Trusted Domains.
When using the script tag, the target exposed has been updated from
window.Kloudless
to window.Kloudless.fileExplorer
to better scope our UI
tools. All the exports under window.Kloudless
are deprecated and have been
moved to window.Kloudless.fileExplorer
.
Contributions are welcome and appreciated. We'd love to discuss any ideas you have to improve or extend the File Picker. We recommend contacting us at [email protected] first for major modifications that you would like merged in so we can offer feedback on its implementation.
Install Node.js
(sudo apt-get install nodejs
or equivalent)
Make sure you have nodejs >= 10.16.0 and npm >= 6.9.0.
Then run the following commands:
npm ci
npm run install-deps
To develop Vue or React wrapper, you might want to install the corresponding storybook:
npm ci --prefix=storybook-vue # for Vue
npm ci --prefix=storybook-react # for React
Use the following command to set a Kloudless App ID and run the local development server:
KLOUDLESS_APP_ID=<your_app_id> npm run dev
The File Picker that launches on the test page uses the App ID to connect accounts. It must therefore be the ID of a valid Kloudless Application on the Kloudless API server the File Picker accesses.
By default, the development server points to https://api.kloudless.com
.
However, you can point it to an alternate Kloudless API server using the
BASE_URL
environment variable build option as shown below.
# Export this environment variable before the `npm run dev` command above.
export BASE_URL=<your_kloudless_api_server_url>
The development server supports automatically rebuilding the source files whenever changes are saved. However, hot reloading scripts is not supported yet; you will need to reload the page to view your changes.
Be sure to update src/loader/js/interface.d.ts if the corresponding interface is changed.
The command below generates a minified production build at /dist
.
npm run build
Here is an explanation of the dist
folder's structure:
Folder | Purpose |
---|---|
loader |
Contains the script that an application includes to load the File Picker. |
picker |
Contains the File Picker assets that the loader loads in an iframe. Only customize this when self-hosting the File Picker. |
The options below can be set during the build process as environment variables to customize the build, or sometimes at run-time as well.
Build-time Env Var | Run-time option | Description | Default |
---|---|---|---|
BASE_URL |
baseUrl |
URL to the Kloudless API Server | https://api.kloudless.com |
PICKER_URL |
pickerUrl |
The URL that the loader loads the file picker iframe from. | https://static-cdn.kloudless.com/p/platform/file-picker/v2/index.html |
Check out the Self-hosting section below for an example
that changes the PICKER_URL
in order to self-host a customized fork
of the File Picker.
In addition, here is an example that directs API requests from the File Picker to an alternate Kloudless server:
BASE_URL=<your_kloudless_api_server_url> npm run build
To test the build generated by npm run build
, run the following command:
KLOUDLESS_APP_ID=<your_app_id> npm run dist-test
To test the TypeScript definition file, run the following command:
npm run test:ts
Microsoft provides
Windows 10 virtual machines
that can be used to test the File Picker in Legacy Microsoft Edge and Internet
Explorer 11. Note that the development server won't be accessible at
http://localhost:3000
by default because localhost
translates to 127.0.0.1
which points to the VM itself instead of the host running the development
server. To work around this, determine the actual IP address of the host running
the development server, such as 10.0.2.2
when using VirtualBox, and edit
C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
as an Administrator to add a record
that maps localhost
to that IP.
Self-hosting the File Picker is one way to customize all aspects of the File Picker's layout, styling, and functionality beyond what the configuration and theming options provide.
You can fork the File Picker to make the changes you need before
building the File Picker, which results in a JS file at
dist/loader/loader.min.js
. This file must be included in any page you would
like to use the File Picker on. It serves as a light-weight wrapper to load
the actual File Picker page via an iframe.
Both the loader file and the rest of the File Picker's structure are discussed in more detail in the Build section above.
The build contains an picker
folder which includes the actual
HTML and functionality of the widget. By default, this is hosted by Kloudless.
If you would like to host this page yourself to customize the core File Picker source code or styles, follow the steps below:
-
Rebuild the assets while setting
PICKER_URL
to specify the File Picker page URL. For example, if you'd like to host the File Picker assets athttps://example.com/kloudless/index.html
, run the following command:PICKER_URL=https://example.com/kloudless/index.html npm run build
Optionally, you can also set
Kloudless.filePicker.setGlobalOptions
at run-time instead of re-building the loader:Kloudless.filePicker.setGlobalOptions({ pickerUrl: 'https://example.com/kloudless/index.html', });
-
Copy the entire
dist/picker
folder into your web application's assets so thedist/picker/index.html
page can be found at the URL specified in the step above. In the example above, copydist/picker
to/kloudless
forhttps://example.com/kloudless/index.html
to exist. -
Add your web app's domain to your Kloudless App's list of
Trusted Domains
on the App Details Page. This allows the hosted File Picker to receive access tokens to the Kloudless API. -
Include
dist/loader/loader.min.js
in your pages that will launch File Picker as shown in the script tag example above.
This section contains advanced concepts that are not usually required in a fork of the File Picker.
The template/picker.ejs
template contains necessary styles and scripts
for the File Picker as well as the compiled HTML snippets.
Feel free to add additional styles, scripts, or HTML elements you need.
You can then run npm run build:template
to build your customized
File Picker template. The built page will be available at
dist/custom-index.html
. Replace
dist/picker/index.html
with this file, and follow the steps in the
section above to host this page instead.
For an example, run npm run build:template
without any changes and
check the result at dist/custom-index.html
.
- In order to switch folders, we change the current() pointer and then refresh(). refresh() will abort any currently active requests to prevent race conditions
- Put buttons that can be clicked repeatedly into data-bind clicks instead of the router, because the hash will prevent the route from being fired twice consecutively. Use the hash to switch between pages of the application.
If you have discovered a security vulnerability with this library or any other part of Kloudless, we appreciate your help in disclosing it to us privately by emailing [email protected].
Feel free to contact us at [email protected] with any feedback or questions.