A File Opener Plugin for Cordova

This plugin will open a file on your device file system with its default application.

cordova.plugins.fileOpenerPDL.open(
    filePath,
    fileMIMEType,
    {
        error : function(){ },
        success : function(){ }
    }
);

Installation

$ cordova plugin add byra-cordova-plugin-file-opener

Optional variables

This plugin requires the Android support library v4. From release 2.1.0 the version of this can be set at installation. The minimum version is 24.1.0. Default value is 27.+. Check out the latest version.

$ cordova plugin add byra-cordova-plugin-file-opener  --variable ANDROID_SUPPORT_V4_VERSION="27.+"

If you are using the cordova-android-support-gradle-release plugin it should match the value you have set there.

Requirements

The following platforms and versions are supported by the latest release:

• Android 9+ / iOS 9+ / Windows / Electron
• Cordova CLI 7.0 or higher

AndroidX Support

fileOpenerPDL.open(filePath, mimeType, options)

Opens a file

Supported Platforms

• Android 9+
• iOS 9+
• Windows
• Electron

Quick Examples

Open an APK install dialog:

cordova.plugins.fileOpenerPDL.open(
    '/Downloads/gmail.apk',
    'application/vnd.android.package-archive'
);

Open a PDF document with the default PDF reader and optional callback object:

cordova.plugins.fileOpenerPDL.open(
    '/Download/starwars.pdf', // You can also use a Cordova-style file uri: cdvfile://localhost/persistent/Downloads/starwars.pdf
    'application/pdf',
    {
        error : function(e) {
            console.log('Error status: ' + e.status + ' - Error message: ' + e.message);
        },
        success : function () {
            console.log('file opened successfully');
        }
    }
);

Note on Electron: Do not forget to enable Node.js in your app by adding "nodeIntegration": true to platforms/electron/platform_www/cdv-electron-settings.json file, See Cordova-Electron documentation.

Market place installation

Install From Market: to install an APK from a market place, such as Google Play or the App Store, you can use an <a> tag in combination with the market:// protocol:

<a href="market://details?id=xxxx" target="_system">Install from Google Play</a>
<a href="itms-apps://itunes.apple.com/app/my-app/idxxxxxxxx?mt=8" target="_system">Install from App Store</a>

or in code:

window.open("[market:// or itms-apps:// link]","_system");

fileOpenerPDL.showOpenWithDialog(filePath, mimeType, options)

Opens with system modal to open file with an already installed app.

Supported Platforms

• Android 4.4+
• iOS 9+

Quick Example

cordova.plugins.fileOpenerPDL.showOpenWithDialog(
    '/Downloads/starwars.pdf', // You can also use a Cordova-style file uri: cdvfile://localhost/persistent/Downloads/starwars.pdf
    'application/pdf',
    {
        error : function(e) {
            console.log('Error status: ' + e.status + ' - Error message: ' + e.message);
        },
        success : function () {
            console.log('file opened successfully');
        },
        position : [0, 0]
    }
);

position array of coordinates from top-left device screen, use for iOS dialog positioning.

fileOpenerPDL.appIsInstalled(packageId, callbackContext)

Check if an app is already installed.

Supported Platforms

• Android 4.4+

Quick Example

cordova.plugins.fileOpenerPDL.appIsInstalled('com.adobe.reader', {
    success : function(res) {
        if (res.status === 0) {
            console.log('Adobe Reader is not installed.');
        } else {
            console.log('Adobe Reader is installed.')
        }
    }
});

Android APK installation limitation

The following limitations apply when opening an APK file for installation:

• On Android 8+, your application must have the ACTION_INSTALL_PACKAGE permission. You can add it by adding this to your app's config.xml file:

<platform name="android">
    <config-file parent="/manifest" target="AndroidManifest.xml" xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
        <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.REQUEST_INSTALL_PACKAGES" />
    </config-file>
</platform>

• Before Android 7, you can only install APKs from the "external" partition. For example, you can install from cordova.file.externalDataDirectory, but not from cordova.file.dataDirectory. Android 7+ does not have this limitation.

SD card limitation on Android

It is not always possible to open a file from the SD Card using this plugin on Android. This is because the underlying Android library used does not support serving files from secondary external storage devices. Whether or not your the SD card is treated as a secondary external device depends on your particular phone's set up.

Notes

• For properly opening any file, you must already have a suitable reader for that particular file type installed on your device. Otherwise this will not work.

• It is reported that in iOS, you might need to remove <preference name="iosPersistentFileLocation" value="Library" /> from your config.xml

• If you are wondering what MIME-type should you pass as the second argument to open function, here is a list of all known MIME-types