Web/API/DirectoryReaderSync

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 DirectoryReaderSync interface of the File System API lets you read the entries in a directory.

This interface has been abandonned: it was on a standard track and it proves not a good idea. Do not use it anymore.

About this document

This document was last updated on March 2, 2012 and follows the W3C Specifications (Working Draft) drafted on April 19, 2011.

This specification is pretty much abandoned, having failed to reach any substantial traction.

Basic concepts

Before you call the only method in this interface, readEntries(), create the DirectoryEntrySync object. But DirectoryEntrySync (as well as FileEntrySync) is not a data type that you can pass between a calling app and Web Worker thread. It's not a big deal, because you don't really need to have the main app and the worker thread see the same JavaScript object; you just need them to access the same files. You can do that by passing a list of filesystem: URLs—which are just strings—instead of a list of entries. You can also use the filesystem: URL to look up the entry with resolveLocalFileSystemURL(). That gets you back to a DirectoryEntrySync (as well as FileEntrySync) object.

Example

In the following code snippet from HTML5Rocks, we create Web Workers and pass data from it to the main app.

// Taking care of the browser-specific prefixes.
  window.resolveLocalFileSystemURL = window.resolveLocalFileSystemURL ||
                                     window.webkitResolveLocalFileSystemURL;

// Create web workers
  var worker = new Worker('worker.js');
  worker.onmessage = function(e) {
    var urls = e.data.entries;
    urls.forEach(function(url, i) {
      window.resolveLocalFileSystemURL(url, function(fileEntry) {
        // Print out file's name.
        console.log(fileEntry.name); 
      });
    });
  };

  worker.postMessage({'cmd': 'list'});

The following is Worker.js code that gets the contents of the directory.

// Taking care of the browser-specific prefixes.
self.requestFileSystemSync = self.webkitRequestFileSystemSync ||
                             self.requestFileSystemSync;

// Global for holding the list of entry file system URLs.
var paths = []; 

function getAllEntries(dirReader) {
  var entries = dirReader.readEntries();

  for (var i = 0, entry; entry = entries[i]; ++i) {
    // Stash this entry's filesystem in URL
    paths.push(entry.toURL()); 

    // If this is a directory, traverse.
    if (entry.isDirectory) {
      getAllEntries(entry.createReader());
    }
  }
}

// Forward the error to main app.
function onError(e) {
  postMessage('ERROR: ' + e.toString()); 
}

self.onmessage = function(e) {
  var data = e.data;

  // Ignore everything else except our 'list' command.
  if (!data.cmd || data.cmd != 'list') {
    return;
  }

  try {
    var fs = requestFileSystemSync(TEMPORARY, 1024*1024 /*1MB*/);

    getAllEntries(fs.root.createReader());

    self.postMessage({entries: paths});
  } catch (e) {
    onError(e);
  }
};

Method overview

EntrySync readEntries () raises (FileException);

Method

readEntries()

Returns a lost of entries from a specific directory. Call this method until an empty array is returned.

EntrySync readEntries (
) raises (FileException);

Returns

Parameter

None

Exceptions

This method can raise a FileException with the following codes:

Exception	Description
`NOT_FOUND_ERR`	The directory does not exist.
`INVALID_STATE_ERR`	The directory has been modified since the first call to readEntries was processed.
`SECURITY_ERR`	The browser determined that it was not safe to look up the metadata.

Browser compatibility

Update compatibility data on GitHub

	Desktop						Mobile
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Internet Explorer	Opera	Safari	Android webview	Chrome for Android	Firefox for Android	Opera for Android	Safari on iOS	Samsung Internet
`DirectoryReaderSync` Non-standard'	Chrome Full support 13 Prefixed' Full support 13 Prefixed' Prefixed' Implemented with the vendor prefix: webkit	Edge Full support 79 Prefixed' Full support 79 Prefixed' Prefixed' Implemented with the vendor prefix: webkit	Firefox No support No	IE No support No	Opera No support No	Safari No support No	WebView Android Full support 37 Prefixed' Full support 37 Prefixed' Prefixed' Implemented with the vendor prefix: webkit	Chrome Android Full support 18 Prefixed' Full support 18 Prefixed' Prefixed' Implemented with the vendor prefix: webkit	Firefox Android No support No	Opera Android No support No	Safari iOS No support No	Samsung Internet Android Full support 1.0 Prefixed' Full support 1.0 Prefixed' Prefixed' Implemented with the vendor prefix: webkit

Legend

Full support: Full support
No support: No support
Non-standard. Expect poor cross-browser support.': Non-standard. Expect poor cross-browser support.
Requires a vendor prefix or different name for use.': Requires a vendor prefix or different name for use.