Titanium.Filesystem.File
Object representing a path to a file or directory in the device's persistent storage.
Use the Titanium.Filesystem.getFile method to get a handle to a File object, which represents a given path. There does not need to be an existing file or directory does not need to exist before getFile is called. If the file doesn't exist, and the file path identifies a file in a writable directory, writing to the file creates the file implicitly.
See Titanium.Filesystem for constants identifying commonly-used device directories.
Use the exists method to test whether the file exists.
A file object can point to an ordinary file, a directory or a symbolic link. Use createDirectory to create a directory. Use the getDirectoryListing method to retrieve a list of the directory's contents.
The File object doesn't provide methods for random access into the file. The read method reads the file's entire contents into a Blob object. The write method can either overwrite the entire file or append to an existing file.
For random access to a file, such as accessing a small portion of a larger file, you can open a file as a FileStream object. Use the open method to get a FileStream for an existing File object, or use the Titanium.Filesystem.openStream method to get a FileStream directly without calling getFile first.
The Titanium.Filesystem module defines a number of properties and methods related to filesystem access, including properties that specify paths for application-specific directories, and methods for creating temporary files and directories.
On Android, files may be stored on external storage (that is, removable media such as SD Cards).
Note that once created with getFile, the path associated with a file object is immutable. If you move the underlying file using move or rename, you can no longer access it with the original File object. You must use getFile to get a handle to the new path.
Resource Files
The Resources directory and all the files in it are read-only. On Android, resource files are stored in the resource bundle and do not have all of the properties of normal files. In particular, they do not have creation or modification timestamps.
Extends: Titanium.Proxy · Since: 0.1
Properties #
apiName#
Type: String
The name of the API that this proxy corresponds to.
The value of this property is the fully qualified name of the API. For example, Button
returns Ti.UI.Button.
bubbleParent#
Type: Boolean
Indicates if the proxy will bubble an event to its parent.
Some proxies (most commonly views) have a relationship to other proxies, often
established by the add() method. For example, for a button added to a window, a
click event on the button would bubble up to the window. Other common parents are
table sections to their rows, table views to their sections, and scrollable views
to their views. Set this property to false to disable the bubbling to the proxy's parent.
executable#
Type: Boolean
true if the file is executable.
On iOS, this property exists but is always false.
hidden#
Type: Boolean
Set to true if the file is hidden.
On iOS, this property exists but is always false.
lifecycleContainer#
Type: Titanium.UI.Window, Titanium.UI.TabGroup
The Window or TabGroup whose Activity lifecycle should be triggered on the proxy.
If this property is set to a Window or TabGroup, then the corresponding Activity lifecycle event callbacks
will also be called on the proxy. Proxies that require the activity lifecycle will need this property set
to the appropriate containing Window or TabGroup.
nativePath#
Type: String
Native path associated with this file object, as a file URL.
On iOS, use the resolve
method to obtain a plain file path for use with native modules.
parent#
Type: Titanium.Filesystem.File
A File object representing the parent directory of the file identified by this object.
iOS platform-note: Prior to Titanium SDK 7.0.0, this method returned the
path of the parent directory as a String. Since Titanium SDK 7.0.0 it
returns a Titanium.Filesystem.File reference for parity wih Android and Windows.
remoteBackup#
Type: Boolean
Value indicating whether or not to back up to a cloud service.
Some apps may be rejected by Apple for backing up specific files; if this
is the case, ensure that this value is set to false for them. This
value should only need to be set once by your app, but setting it
multiple times will not cause problems. For files distributed with your
app, this will need to be set on boot. This flag will only affect iOS
versions 5.0.1 and later, but is safe to set on earlier versions.
Note that setting this property to false will also prevent the
file identified by this object from being backed up to iCloud.
Methods #
addEventListener #
Adds the specified callback as an event listener for the named event.
| Name | Type | Summary | Optional |
|---|---|---|---|
name | String | Name of the event. | No |
callback | Callback<Titanium.Event> | Callback function to invoke when the event is fired. | No |
append #
Appends data to the file identified by this file object.
Data to append can be specified as a String, Blob, or File.
If the data argument is a File object, the file's contents
are appended to this file.
Returns true if the operation succeeds.
| Name | Type | Summary | Optional |
|---|---|---|---|
data | String, Titanium.Blob, Titanium.Filesystem.File | Data to append. | No |
Returns: Boolean
applyProperties #
Applies the properties to the proxy.
Properties are supplied as a dictionary. Each key-value pair in the object is applied to the proxy such that
myproxy[key] = value.
| Name | Type | Summary | Optional |
|---|---|---|---|
props | Dictionary | A dictionary of properties to apply. | No |
copy #
Copies the file identified by this file object to a new path.
Returns true if the copy succeeds.
| Name | Type | Summary | Optional |
|---|---|---|---|
destinationPath | String | Destination path to copy to. | No |
Returns: Boolean
createdAt #
Returns the creation Date for the file identified by this file object.
On Android, returns a Date whose getTime() value is 0 for resource files.
Important: When developing for the Apple ecosystem, using this API requires the NSPrivacyAccessedAPICategoryFileTimestamp
property set in the privacy manifest that was introduced in iOS 17. You can learn more about it here.
Returns: Date
createDirectory #
Creates a directory at the path identified by this file object.
Returns true if the directory was created successfully.
| Name | Type | Summary | Optional |
|---|---|---|---|
recursive | Boolean | Toggles whether to recursively create the directory structure (like mkdir -p). Pass false to avoid recursively creating the directory.Defaults to true on SDK 7.3.0+, defaults to false on older SDK versions. | Yes |
Returns: Boolean
createFile #
Creates a file at the path identified by this file object.
Note that if you write to a file that doesn't exist, the file is created automatically,
so it is not necessary to call this method unless you want to explicitly create the file
(for example, to create an empty file).
Returns true if the file was created successfully. Returns false if the
file already exists, or if the file couldn't be created for some other reason.
Returns: Boolean
createTimestamp #
Returns the creation timestamp for the file identified by this file object.
On Android, returns 0 for resource files.
Returns: Number
deleteDirectory #
Deletes the directory identified by this file object.
Returns true if the operation was successful. Does nothing if the file
object does not identify a directory.
| Name | Type | Summary | Optional |
|---|---|---|---|
recursive | Boolean | Pass true to recursively delete any directory contents. | Yes |
Returns: Boolean
deleteFile #
Deletes the file identified by this file object.
Returns true if the operation was successful.
Returns: Boolean
exists #
Returns true if the file or directory identified by this file object exists on the device.
Returns: Boolean
fireEvent #
Fires a synthesized event to any registered listeners.
| Name | Type | Summary | Optional |
|---|---|---|---|
name | String | Name of the event. | No |
event | Dictionary | A dictionary of keys and values to add to the Titanium.Event object sent to the listeners. | Yes |
getDirectoryListing #
Returns a listing of the directory identified by this file object, or null
if this object doesn't identify a directory.
Returns: Array<String>
getParent #
Returns the path of the parent directory holding the file identified by this
file object, as a String (deprecated) or as a File object.
Prior to Titanium SDK 7.0.0, on iOS this method returned the path of the parent
directory as a String. Since Titanium SDK 7.0.0, this method has been deprecated
in favor of the parent property and will return
a File reference in the future as well.
Returns: String, Titanium.Filesystem.File — Returns a String on iOS, a `Titanium.Filesystem.File` on Android
getProtectionKey #
Returns the protection key value of this file object.
Returns null if there's an error.
Returns: String
modificationTimestamp #
Returns the last modification time for this file.
On Android, returns 0 for resource files.
Returns: Number
modifiedAt #
Returns the last modification Date for the file identified by this file object.
On Android, returns a Date whose getTime() value is 0 for resource files.
Important: When developing for the Apple ecosystem, using this API requires the NSPrivacyAccessedAPICategoryFileTimestamp
property set in the privacy manifest that was introduced in iOS 17. You can learn more about it here.
Returns: Date
move #
Moves the file identified by this file object to another path.
Note that this method moves the stored file, but doesn't update this
file object to point to the new path. To access the file after moving it,
you must call getFile using the destination
path to obtain a new file handle.
| Name | Type | Summary | Optional |
|---|---|---|---|
newpath | String | New location for the file. | No |
Returns: Boolean
open #
Opens the file identified by this file object for random access.
You can open the file for reading, writing, or appending by specifying one of the
MODE constants from Titanium.Filesystem:
MODE_READ, MODE_WRITE,
or MODE_APPEND.
The FileStream object returned by this call can be used to read from, write to, or
append to the file, depending on what mode the file is opened in.
| Name | Type | Summary | Optional |
|---|---|---|---|
mode | Number | Mode to open the file in: MODE_READ, MODE_WRITE, or MODE_APPEND. | No |
Returns: Titanium.Filesystem.FileStream
read #
Returns the contents of the file identified by this file object as a Blob.
Returns: Titanium.Blob
removeEventListener #
Removes the specified callback as an event listener for the named event.
Multiple listeners can be registered for the same event, so the
callback parameter is used to determine which listener to remove.
When adding a listener, you must save a reference to the callback function
in order to remove the listener later:
var listener = function() { Ti.API.info("Event listener called."); }
window.addEventListener('click', listener);
To remove the listener, pass in a reference to the callback function:
window.removeEventListener('click', listener);
| Name | Type | Summary | Optional |
|---|---|---|---|
name | String | Name of the event. | No |
callback | Callback<Titanium.Event> | Callback function to remove. Must be the same function passed to addEventListener. | No |
rename #
Renames the file identified by this file object.
Returns true if the file was successfully renamed.
Fails if the destination is in a different directory than the current file.
Use move to move a file to a different directory.
Note that this method renames the stored file, but doesn't update this
file object to point to the new path. To access the file after renaming it,
you must call getFile using the destination
path to obtain a new file handle.
| Name | Type | Summary | Optional |
|---|---|---|---|
newname | String | New name for the file. | No |
Returns: Boolean
resolve #
Returns the fully-resolved native path associated with this file object.
On iOS, the path returned by this method is a plain file path, not a URL. It is suitable
for use in native modules that need to access the file using native APIs.
On Android, the return value of resolve is a file:// URL, identical to the
nativePath property.
Returns: String
setProtectionKey #
Sets the protection key as an attribute to the file identified by this file object.
Returns true if successfully set. Returns false if failed.
| Name | Type | Summary | Optional |
|---|---|---|---|
fileProtectionType | String | File protection type. | No |
Returns: Boolean
spaceAvailable #
Returns the amount of free space available on the device where the file identified by this file object is stored.
Free space is returned in bytes.
Important: When developing for the Apple ecosystem, using this API requires the NSPrivacyAccessedAPICategoryDiskSpace
property set in the privacy manifest that was introduced in iOS 17. You can learn more about it here.
Returns: Number
write #
Writes the specified data to the file identified by this file object.
If the append parameter is false or not specified, any existing data in
the file is overwritten.
If append is true, the specified data is appended to the end of the file.
| Name | Type | Summary | Optional |
|---|---|---|---|
data | String, Titanium.Filesystem.File, Titanium.Blob | Data to write, as a String, Blob or File object. | No |
append | Boolean | If true, append the data to the end of the file. | Yes |
Returns: Boolean
Examples #
Reading a File
Data files shipped with the application are stored in the resources directory. This example reads string data from a text file.
// resourcesDirectory is actually the default location, so the first
// argument could be omitted here.
file = Ti.Filesystem.getFile(Ti.Filesystem.resourcesDirectory, "textfile.txt");
var blob = file.read();
var readText = blob.text;
// dispose of file handle & blob.
file = null;
blob = null;Creating a Subdirectory
Files that the application writes to need to be stored outside of the resources directory, since that directory is read-only. This example creates a subdirectory to store downloaded images. The example assumes that two variables are defined elsewhere in the code: myImageID, a string containing some kind of ID for the downloaded image, and myImageData, a `Blob` containing JPEG image data.
var imageDir = Ti.Filesystem.getFile(Ti.Filesystem.applicationDataDirectory,
'downloaded_images');
if (! imageDir.exists()) {
imageDir.createDirectory();
}
// .resolve() provides the resolved native path for the directory.
var imageFile = Ti.Filesystem.getFile(imageDir.resolve(), myImageID + '.jpg');
Ti.API.info("ImageFile path is: " + imageFile.resolve());
if (imageFile.write(myImageData)===false) {
// handle write error
}
// dispose of file handles
imageFile = null;
imageDir = null;