---

license: Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more contributor license agreements. See the NOTICE file distributed with this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership. The ASF licenses this file to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the “License”); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at

       http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

     Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
     software distributed under the License is distributed on an
     "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
     KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
     specific language governing permissions and limitations
     under the License.

---

FileEntry

Represents a file on a file system, as defined in the W3C Directories and Systems specification.

Properties

• isFile: Always true. (boolean)
• isDirectory: Always false. (boolean)
• name: The name of the FileEntry, excluding the path leading to it. (DOMString)
• fullPath: The full absolute path from the root to the FileEntry. (DOMString)

NOTE: The following attribute is defined by the W3C specification, but is not supported:

• filesystem: The file system on which the FileEntry resides. (FileSystem)

Methods

• getMetadata: Look up metadata about a file.
• setMetadata: Set metadata on a file.
• moveTo: Move a file to a different location on the file system.
• copyTo: Copy a file to a different location on the file system.
• toURL: Return a URL that can be used to locate a file.
• remove: Delete a file.
• getParent: Look up the parent directory.
• createWriter: Creates a FileWriter object that can be used to write to a file.
• file: Creates a File object containing file properties.

Supported Platforms

• Android
• BlackBerry WebWorks (OS 5.0 and higher)
• iOS
• Windows Phone 7 and 8
• Windows 8

getMetadata

Look up metadata about a file.

Parameters:

• successCallback: A callback that is passed a Metadata object. (Function)
• errorCallback: A callback that executes if an error occurs when retrieving the Metadata. Invoked with a FileError object. (Function)

Quick Example

function success(metadata) {
    console.log("Last Modified: " + metadata.modificationTime);
}

function fail(error) {
    alert(error.code);
}

// Request the metadata object for this entry
entry.getMetadata(success, fail);

setMetadata

Set metadata on a file.

Currently works only on iOS.

• this will set the extended attributes of a file.

Parameters:

• successCallback: A callback that executes when the metadata is set. (Function)
• errorCallback: A callback that executes when the metadata is not successfully set. (Function)
• metadataObject: An object that contains the metadata's keys and values. (Object)

Quick Example

function success() {
    console.log("The metadata was successfully set.");
}

function fail() {
    alert("There was an error in setting the metadata");
}

// Set the metadata
entry.setMetadata(success, fail, { "com.apple.MobileBackup": 1});

iOS Quirk

• Only the com.apple.MobileBackup extended attribute is supported. Set the value to 1 to prevent the file from being backed up to iCloud. Set the value to 0 to re-enable the file to be backed up to iCloud.

Quick Example

function setFileMetadata(localFileSystem, filePath, metadataKey, metadataValue)
{
        var onSetMetadataWin = function() {
          console.log("success setting metadata")
        }
    var onSetMetadataFail = function() {
          console.log("error setting metadata")
    }

        var onGetFileWin = function(parent) {
          var data = {};
          data[metadataKey] = metadataValue;
          parent.setMetadata(onSetMetadataWin, onSetMetadataFail, data);
        }
        var onGetFileFail = function() {
          console.log("error getting file")
        }

        var onFSWin = function(fileSystem) {
          fileSystem.root.getFile(filePath, {create: true, exclusive: false}, onGetFileWin, onGetFileFail);
        }

        var onFSFail = function(evt) {
              console.log(evt.target.error.code);
        }

        window.requestFileSystem(localFileSystem, 0, onFSWin, onFSFail);
}

    setFileMetadata(LocalFileSystem.PERSISTENT, "Backups/sqlite.db", "com.apple.MobileBackup", 1);

moveTo

Move a file to a different location on the file system. An error results if the app attempts to:

• move a file into its parent if a name different from its current one isn't provided;
• move a file to a path occupied by a directory;

In addition, moving a file on top of an existing file attempts to delete and replace that file.

Parameters:

• parent: The parent directory to which to move the file. (DirectoryEntry)
• newName: The new name of the file. Defaults to the current name if unspecified. (DOMString)
• successCallback: A callback that is passed the new files FileEntry object. (Function)
• errorCallback: A callback that executes if an error occurs when attempting to move the file. Invoked with a FileError object. (Function)

Quick Example

function success(entry) {
    console.log("New Path: " + entry.fullPath);
}

function fail(error) {
    alert(error.code);
}

function moveFile(entry) {
    var parent = document.getElementById('parent').value,
        parentName = parent.substring(parent.lastIndexOf('/')+1),
        parentEntry = new DirectoryEntry(parentName, parent);

    // move the file to a new directory and rename it
    entry.moveTo(parentEntry, "newFile.txt", success, fail);
}

copyTo

Copy a file to a new location on the file system. An error results if the app attempts to:

• copy a file into its parent if a name different from its current one is not provided.

Parameters:

• parent: The parent directory to which to copy the file. (DirectoryEntry)
• newName: The new name of the file. Defaults to the current name if unspecified. (DOMString)
• successCallback: A callback that is passed the new file's FileEntry object. (Function)
• errorCallback: A callback that executes if an error occurs when attempting to copy the file. Invoked with a FileError object. (Function)

Quick Example

function win(entry) {
    console.log("New Path: " + entry.fullPath);
}

function fail(error) {
    alert(error.code);
}

function copyFile(entry) {
    var parent = document.getElementById('parent').value,
        parentName = parent.substring(parent.lastIndexOf('/')+1),
        parentEntry = new DirectoryEntry(parentName, parent);

    // copy the file to a new directory and rename it
    entry.copyTo(parentEntry, "file.copy", success, fail);
}

toURL

Returns a URL that can be used to locate the file.

Quick Example

// Request the URL for this entry
var fileURL = entry.toURL();
console.log(fileURL);

remove

Deletes a file.

Parameters:

• successCallback: A callback that executes after the file has been deleted. Invoked with no parameters. (Function)
• errorCallback: A callback that executes if an error occurs when attempting to delete the file. Invoked with a FileError object. (Function)

Quick Example

function success(entry) {
    console.log("Removal succeeded");
}

function fail(error) {
    alert('Error removing file: ' + error.code);
}

// remove the file
entry.remove(success, fail);

getParent

Look up the parent DirectoryEntry containing the file.

Parameters:

• successCallback: A callback that is passed the file's parent DirectoryEntry. (Function)
• errorCallback: A callback that executes if an error occurs when attempting to retrieve the parent DirectoryEntry. Invoked with a FileError object. (Function)

Quick Example

function success(parent) {
    console.log("Parent Name: " + parent.name);
}

function fail(error) {
    alert(error.code);
}

// Get the parent DirectoryEntry
entry.getParent(success, fail);

createWriter

Create a FileWriter object associated with the file represented by the FileEntry.

Parameters:

• successCallback: A callback that is passed a FileWriter object. (Function)
• errorCallback: A callback that executes if an error occurs while attempting to create the FileWriter. Invoked with a FileError object. (Function)

Quick Example

function success(writer) {
    writer.write("Some text to the file");
}

function fail(error) {
    alert(error.code);
}

// create a FileWriter to write to the file
entry.createWriter(success, fail);

file

Return a File object that represents the current state of the file that this FileEntry represents.

Parameters:

• successCallback: A callback that is passed a File object. (Function)
• errorCallback: A callback that executes if an error occurs when creating the File object, such as when the file no longer exists. Invoked with a FileError object. (Function)

Quick Example

function success(file) {
    console.log("File size: " + file.size);
}

function fail(error) {
    alert("Unable to retrieve file properties: " + error.code);
}

// obtain properties of a file
entry.file(success, fail);