Simple File Browser [Open Source]

Hi there,

I have created a simple file browser to show save/load file dialogs for one of my projects. It is available as open source on GitHub. Enjoy!

Asset Store: https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/gui/runtime-file-browser-113006
Also available at: https://github.com/yasirkula/UnitySimpleFileBrowser
FAQ: https://github.com/yasirkula/UnitySimpleFileBrowser#faq
Discord: https://discord.gg/UJJt549AaV
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Features

• Behaves similar to Windows file chooser
• Ability to search by name or filter by type
• Quick links
• Simple user interface
• Draggable and resizable
• Ability to choose folders instead of files
• Can easily be reskinned
• Supports runtime permissions on Android M+
• Optimized using a recycled list view (makes Instantiate calls sparingly)

NOTE: Universal Windows Platform (UWP) and WebGL platforms aren't supported!

 

Update (31.01.2017):

- Optimized the scroll view using a recycled list view
- Added multi-filter feature (more than one extensions (.jpg, .png, etc.) can be assigned to a single filter, see Example Code)

 

hey there i have a question for you, if you are still working on this.
i tried to use your filebrowser and i got it implemented in my unity game.
but the thing is after i select a file i want to do something with that file. i have a script which defines what has to be done.
but i cant get to the path of the selected file
it is kinda imbossible for me to say in my other script. (" take the path from the selected file and use the information in the file")
can u help me out?

 

In your script that defines what has to be done, can't you simply show the file browser using the SimpleFileBrowser.FileBrowser.ShowLoadDialog function and call your own function in the onSuccess delegate, like this:

Code (CSharp):

1. SimpleFileBrowser.FileBrowser.ShowLoadDialog( (path) => { YourFunctionThatNeedsThePathOfTheFile(path); }, null,
2.         false, null, "Select File", "Select" );

P.S: Also you can access the most recently selected file's path using SimpleFileBrowser.FileBrowser.Result property.

 

When I import the package, the using directive doesn't work.
SimpleFileBrowser now is now in the same directory as the other assets,
but Visual Studio says that it cannot find the class or namespace SimpleFileBrowser.
What can I do?

 

That surely is strange. Are there any errors in Unity when you return to Unity? If so, what is your Unity version? Where did you save your script? Is it in Standard Assets folder or another special folder?

 

For some reason the next day it just worked.
I didn't change anything, so I guess it was the restart of Unity and/or Visual Studio.

Now that it's working there is just one thing bothering me a bit,
when the class initializes my application is like ..freezed.. for 2-3 seconds.
I have to investigate a little further into this, because it might be something about my own code.
I have to initialize it in a more isolated environment and see how it behaves.

 

So it seems the SimpleFileBrowser class causes the little freeze.
I tried it in a isolated environment and it's still the same.
It is a bit annoying.

 

I am using this file picker for a long time now, and I am very happy, that you made it more public now

 

Although months have passed since your reply, I was finally able to update the package. Along with some important bugfixes and implementation of runtime permissions on Android platform, I've also added a HideDialog function which can be used to initialize the browser ahead of time, as well. Calling this function when your app starts should eliminate the freeze.

 

Now available on Asset Store! https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/113006

 

Thank you for sharing! 5 stars

 

I appreciate it, thanks.

 

First of all, thank you for sharing this. Now my question:
If I want to clear the FileBrowser.Result upon opening the Load dialog, how can I do that? In my app, there are a few different types of files that users load at different times. If they load one type and then try to load another type, the browser shows the correct files (of desired type) in the browsing portion, but still has the name + extension of the previously loaded file.

 

Oh, I totally forgot to clear that input field. Thanks for catching that! To solve it, you can insert the following line to FileBrowser.Show function (line 750):

Code (CSharp):

1. filenameInputField.text = string.Empty;

 

Thanks for sharing this awesome plugin!
I have a question though, I'm trying to use it on a older version of Unity (5.6.0p2) and while the save and load dialog open, nothing is showed in the FilesContainer (But the gameobjects are there). I tried the same setup in the latest Unity (2017.3.0f3) and all is working as intended.

Maybe there is an old Unity bug in the UI system in the 5.6.0p2 that i'm missing. Any clue on that? It's supposed to work on all versions or there is a minimun requirement?
Besides that it's an amazing plugin!

Unity 5.6.0p2


Unity 2017.3.0f3

 

There is no known minimum requirement; it is supposed to work on a majority of the Unity 5 versions. I'm thinking that the Scroll Rect is not refreshed automatically. I'll look into it.

 

Just to be sure; you have the latest version on the Asset Store/GitHub repo, right?

 

Sorry for the late response.
Yeap I downloaded it yesterday from Github. It's weird to me that in Unity 2017.3.0f3 is working like a charm.

Edit: Just searching for solutions to this problem I found this post: https://answers.unity.com/questions/1344044/scroll-rect-doesnt-display-items-unity-56.html

It seems like it is a problem with the ScrollRect in that version of Unity. I'll look into fixing it without upgrading to 5.6.0p3.

 

I found a way to make it work, but I want to know if it's ok to change this.

If you remove the canvas and graphic raycaster from the Files Scroll Rect, then it shows the content normally.

In the patch notes from Unity 5.6.0p3 there are 2 issues that could be related
(893559) - UI: Fixed NaN issues with ScrollRect when using clamped mode.
(892913) - UI: Fixed nested canvas returning a null world camera after its root canvas had been disabled and then re-enabled.
For now I'll use it like this. I let you know if I found something weird happens after this change.

Thanks for the help! Awesome plugin!

 

Thanks for all the input! I had added Canvas component to Files object primarily for performance concerns but I think that might have been an overkill. Removing it will also reduce the number of SetPass calls and Batches. I may just get rid of it and push an update.

 

Thanks to you for creating this in the first place! That recycled list view is great!

Glad to help!

 

Hey, thank you for the plugin!
It is working fine, I just have some concerns about these messages appearing on the Debug Console saying there are multiple event systems on the scene. Is that normal?

 

It is a harmless warning: SimpleFileBrowserCanvas prefab includes an EventSystem object in case current scene doesn't have any. An EventSystem is mandatory to interact with UI. But if your scene already has an EventSystem, you can safely deactivate the EventSystem child object of the SimpleFileBrowserCanvas prefab. Or, if you won't mind the warnings, you can just leave everything as is.

 

Thanks for the reply

 

could i import a 3d model or 3d object through this project.. file extension could be any!!

 

This plugin will only return the path of the selected file. It is then up to you to process that file. It seems like there are some runtime OBJ importers out there already but you may have a harder time finding an FBX importer. Supporting any extension will be even harder.

 

Hello,
first at all, thank you for this great asset !

But i have a small issue :
When i build my game to android, in development build, the explorer works great ! But if i export it in release build, the file explorer don't shows up...

Thank you in advance,
Best Reguards,
Alexandre Desfontaines.

 

Are you using Mono or IL2CPP? Can you check logcat for error messages?

 

I'm using "Mono" scripting backend and i've got "Object reference not set to an instance of an Object" error in logcat.

Thank you for your fast response !
Best Reguards
Alexandre Desfontaines.

 

I can't reproduce the issue on release Android build so we will have to dig deeper. Can you change the Instance property of FileBrowser.cs like this:

Code (CSharp):

1. private static FileBrowser Instance
2. {
3.     get
4.     {
5.         if( m_instance == null )
6.         {
7.             Debug.Log( "AAAAAA" );
8.             m_instance = Instantiate( Resources.Load<GameObject>( "SimpleFileBrowserCanvas" ) ).GetComponent<FileBrowser>();
9.             Debug.Log( "BBBBBB" );
10.             DontDestroyOnLoad( m_instance.gameObject );
11.             Debug.Log( "CCCCCC" );
12.             m_instance.gameObject.SetActive( false );
13.         }
14.         Debug.Log( "DDDDDD" );
15.         return m_instance;
16.     }
17. }

Which debug lines are logged to logcat?

 

I can see the "DDDDDD" debug.log but i've got the error after the debug.log.

 

I've got something more that could be interesting : http://prntscr.com/jmvg98
Hope that could help.
ExportCoroutine is my coroutine to export a file.

 

If you have a SimpleFileBrowserCanvas instance in your scene, try deleting it and see if it changes anything. If not, insert a Debug.Log to each line of FileBrowser.SetFiltersPostProcessing function to pinpoint the problematic line.

 

Code (CSharp):

1.    
2. for ( int i = 0; i < filters.Count; i++ )
3.             {
4.                 string filterStr = filters[i].ToString();
5.                 dropdownValues.Add( filterStr );
6.  
7.                 maxFilterStrLength = Mathf.Max( maxFilterStrLength, Instance.CalculateLengthOfDropdownText( filterStr ) );
8.             }
9.  

This is the part who crash the script, i don't get logs after, I'll try to isolate the line.

 

string filterStr = filters[i].ToString();

This line is causing the error. I'll try to reimport the asset. Maybe i've touche something...

 

Probably allFilesFilter of the FileBrowser is not initialized (Awake function). But this doesn't make much sense because Awake is called immediately after an object is instantiated or when scene starts. Therefore, my guess is that FileBrowser.Awake throws an exception before allFilesFilter is initialized.

Can you make sure that allFilesFilter is initialized by putting a Debug.Log after that line? Also it may be helpful to see the portion of your script that calls FileBrowser. Finally make sure there is no FileBrowser in your current scene or one of your previous scene(s).

 

Your guess was right, the allFilters doesn't initialize. I don't get the Debug.Log statement.

Here is amore complete screenshot : http://prntscr.com/jmw3dk

 

Does your project use Gradle build system and maybe make use of Proguard?

 

Yep, i need the use of Gradle to keep using the Google Play Service. But nope, i don't use Proguard.
Do i need to switch it back to internal ?

 

It isn't needed. I've tried the plugin with Gradle build system with "Export Project" selected and also with it unselected and file browser worked fine.

The issue is that FileBrowser's native Java interface com.yasirkula.unity.FileBrowser is apparently excluded from your build. If you find a proguard file somewhere in your Unity project (can be inside an .aar file) or Android Studio project, try adding the following line to it:

-keep class com.yasirkula.unity.* { *; }

 

Sorry for the late responde, but IT WORKS ! Thank you for your awesome support ! And your fasts replies !

Best Reguards,
Alexandre Desfontaines.

 

any chance of making an example project/scene for the complete dummies among us.. (like me)..

 

Sure! Did you see the example code, though: https://github.com/yasirkula/UnitySimpleFileBrowser#example-code

 

First of all, this is an amazing plugin! You're amazing for being willing to share this for free! Thanks a ton.

Second of all, I'm trying to see if I can't get this working in VR on an Oculus GO. My first thought would be to reference the Canvas once it's instantiated in the scene and set its Render Mode to World Space. Would this work, or is there some other way I could go about it?

 

You can have an instance of SimpleFileBrowserCanvas in your scene with Render Mode set to World Space, and hide the dialog in Start function:

FileBrowser.HideDialog();

. This way, SimpleFileBrowser will use your instance.

However, there are two possible issues with this setup: I don't think it is possible to double-click files fast enough in VR, and dragging the file browser is simply broken in World Space rendering. I'll try to implement a fix for these issues soon.

 

Thanks for the super quick response! This is just about what I've done so far, and now I'm working on the UI interaction. Can you think of any reason why there may be any weird interactions between SimpleFileBrowser and the OVRRaycast component? I'm not sure if you've worked with the Oculus SDK before, but it's essentially the same as the Standalone Input Module in EventSystem, but it raycasts from the HMD Eye View. Using the OVRInput module or enabling the Standalone Input Module breaks the functionality of all worldspace UI in the scene.

 

@rdunagan I've updated the GitHub repository and added a static FileBrowser.SingleClickMode property while fixing the world space canvas issues.

I don't have any VR experience, but try disabling all Standalone Input Module object(s) in your scene. If that doesn't work, then I'm out of ideas, sorry.

 

Very nice, definitely saved me time.. Thank you!

 

Hi!

If you want to modify the UI of the file browser (object positions, sprites, fonts etc.), then you should indeed modify SimpleFileBrowserCanvas and apply your changes to the prefab. If you don't want to position your canvas in world space, then you can delete the instance in your scene because plugin automatically creates an instance of the prefab.

If you want to modify the properties that are exposed to Scripting API, you should do so in your own scripts (e.g. just before showing the file browser). Don't modify FileBrowser.cs unless you want to extend the plugin's functionality.

To show only folders, you can set the third parameter (folderMode) of the ShowSaveDialog/ShowLoadDialog function to true.