Xamarin.Forms - File Browser

 In this blog post, you will learn how to pick files from your device, Drive, iCloud in Xamarin.Forms.

Introduction

Xamarin.Forms code runs on multiple platforms - each of which has its own filesystem. This means that reading and writing files is most easily done using the native file APIs on each platform. Alternatively, embedded resources are a simpler solution to distribute data files with an app.

Prerequisites

• Visual Studio 2017 or later (Windows or Mac)

Setting up a Xamarin.Forms Project

 Start by creating a new Xamarin.Forms project. You wíll learn more by going through the steps yourself.

 Create a new or existing Xamarin forms(.Net standard) Project. With Android and iOS Platform. 

Nuget

Install following Nuget from Nuget Manager In your visual studio.

Name.      : Xamarin.Plugin.FilePicker

Version    : 2.1.41

Url           : https://www.nuget.org/packages/Xamarin.Plugin.FilePicker/

Xamarin.Essentials

Xamarin.Essentials also supports File Picker but it's in Preview. Once the FilePicker moved to stable you can update Xamarin.Pulgin.FilePicker to Xamarin.Essentials

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/xamarin/essentials/file-picker

Setup UI

Now, I created simple UI for file browser.

MainPage.xaml

File Browser

Below code for file picker, Here will get two values FileName and FilePath.

File Types

Note, you can define the file types for platform specific.

Reference for other file types.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/41797644/xamarin-ios-filtering-out-the-filetype-show-on-document-picker

MainPage.Xaml.cs

Debug your App

Once select the file you will get the FileName and FilePath.

I hope you have understood you will learn how to browse file in your device and drive in Xamarin.Forms..

Thanks for reading. Please share your comments and feedback. Happy Coding :)