Non-standard
This feature is non-standard and is not on a standards track. Do not use it on production sites facing the Web: it will not work for every user. There may also be large incompatibilities between implementations and the behavior may change in the future.
The FileSystemDirectoryEntry
interface of the File and Directory Entries API represents a directory in a file system. It provides methods which make it possible to access and manipulate the files in a directory, as well as to access the entries within the directory.
Because this is a non-standard API, whose specification is not currently on a standards track, it's important to keep in mind that not all browsers implement it, and those that do may implement only small portions of it. Check the Browser compatibility section for details.
Basic concepts
You can create a new directory by calling getDirectory()
. If you want to create subdirectories, create each child directory in sequence. If you try creating a directory using a full path that includes parent directories that do not exist yet, an error is returned. So create the hierarchy by recursively adding a new path after creating the parent directory.
Example
In the following code snippet, we create a directory called "Documents."
// Taking care of the browser-specific prefixes. window.requestFileSystem = window.requestFileSystem || window.webkitRequestFileSystem; window.directoryEntry = window.directoryEntry || window.webkitDirectoryEntry; ... function onFs(fs){ fs.root.getDirectory('Documents', {create:true}, function(directoryEntry){ //directoryEntry.isFile === false //directoryEntry.isDirectory === true //directoryEntry.name === 'Documents' //directoryEntry.fullPath === '/Documents' }, onError); } // Opening a file system with temporary storage window.requestFileSystem(TEMPORARY, 1024*1024 /*1MB*/, onFS, onError);
Properties
This interface has no properties of its own, but inherits properties from its parent interface, FileSystemEntry
.
Methods
This interface inherits methods from its parent interface, FileSystemEntry
.
createReader()
- Creates a
FileSystemDirectoryReader
object which can be used to read the entries in this directory. getDirectory()
- Returns a
FileSystemDirectoryEntry
object representing a directory located at a given path, relative to the directory on which the method is called. getFile()
- Returns a
FileSystemFileEntry
object representing a file located within the directory's hierarchy, given a path relative to the directory on which the method is called. removeRecursively()
- Deletes a directory and all of its contents, including the contents of subdirectories.
Specifications
Specification | Status | Comment |
---|---|---|
File and Directory Entries API | Editor's Draft | Draft of proposed API |
This API has no official W3C or WHATWG specification.
Browser compatibility
Feature | Chrome | Firefox (Gecko) | Internet Explorer | Microsoft Edge | Opera | Safari (WebKit) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Basic support | 13 webkit | 50 (50)[2] | No support | No support[3] | No support | No support |
removeRecursively() |
13 webkit | No support[1] | No support | No support | No support | No support |
getFile() and getDirectory() |
13 webkit | 50 (50)[2] | No support | No support | No support | No support |
Feature | Android | Chrome for Android | Firefox Mobile (Gecko) | IE Phone | Opera Mobile | Safari Mobile |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Basic support | No support | 0.16 webkit | 50 (50)[2] | No support | No support | No support |
removeRecursively() |
No support | 0.16 webkit | No support[1] | No support | No support | No support |
getFile() and getDirectory() |
No support | 0.16 webkit | 50 (50)[2] | No support | No support | No support |
[1] While the removeRecursively()
method exists in Firefox 50, all it does is immediately call the error callback with NS_ERROR_DOM_SECURITY_ERR
.
[2] In Firefox, the error callback's parameter is a DOMError
rather than a FileError
object.
[3] Microsoft Edge implements the functionality of this interface within the WebKitEntry
interface, which is what it calls FileSystemEntry
.