File Downloading In Flutter

Abhishek Rathore

11 December 2023

In this blog, we are going to learn about File Downloading In Flutter. Downloading a file can serve different purposes for application development. You can make offline applications by saving your files into local storage, as well as enhancing the user experience, etc.

Let’s start the implementation of the File Downloading In Flutter project and get to know how we improvise the user experience of the Flutter application.

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1 . Add the Flutter Downloader Package Into Pubsec.Yaml Folder

  flutter_downloader: ^1.6.1
  permission_handler: ^8.1.4+2
  path_provider: ^2.0.2

flutter_downloader: ^1.6.1

permission_handler: ^8.1.4+2

path_provider: ^2.0.2

I have added the “flutter_downloader” latest version, you can add any of the versions according to your compatibility from the Flutter Dev.

I have also added the “permission_handler” package for managing the permissions and “path_provider” for getting the root directory path of the application.

2. Add Path Provider In Manifest

To open the file after downloading it, we need to add some additional changes in the Android Manifest file:

<provider
           android:name="androidx.core.content.FileProvider"
           android:authorities="com.example.untitled.flutter_downloader.provider"
           android:exported="false"
           android:grantUriPermissions="true">
           <meta-data
               android:name="android.support.FILE_PROVIDER_PATHS"
               android:resource="@xml/file_paths"/>
       </provider>

<provider

android:name="androidx.core.content.FileProvider"

android:authorities="com.example.untitled.flutter_downloader.provider"

android:exported="false"

android:grantUriPermissions="true">

<meta-data

android:name="android.support.FILE_PROVIDER_PATHS"

android:resource="@xml/file_paths"/>

</provider>

3. Create A Downloading Task

 task.taskId = await FlutterDownloader.enqueue(
        url: // add your file URL here,
        headers: {"auth": "test_for_sql_encoding"},
        savedDir: _localPath, // file directory where you want to store it
        showNotification: true,
        openFileFromNotification: true);

// I am using following URL --->https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/60/The_Organ_at_Arches_National_Park_Utah_Corrected.jpg

// use this in the initState method to initialize

FlutterDownloader.registerCallback(downloadCallback);

task.taskId = await FlutterDownloader.enqueue(

url: // add your file URL here,

headers: {"auth": "test_for_sql_encoding"},

savedDir: _localPath, // file directory where you want to store it

showNotification: true,

openFileFromNotification: true);

// I am using following URL --->https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/60/The_Organ_at_Arches_National_Park_Utah_Corrected.jpg

// use this in the initState method to initialize

FlutterDownloader.registerCallback(downloadCallback);

4. Load The Downloading Task

 final tasks = await FlutterDownloader.loadTasks();

1	final tasks = await FlutterDownloader.loadTasks();

5. Open The file After downloading

  Future<bool> _openDownloadedFile(_TaskInfo? task) {
    if (task != null) {
      return FlutterDownloader.open(taskId: task.taskId!);
    } else {
      return Future.value(false);
    }
  }

Future<bool> _openDownloadedFile(_TaskInfo? task) {

if (task != null) {

return FlutterDownloader.open(taskId: task.taskId!);

} else {

return Future.value(false);

}

Important NOTES:

-> Add the following permissions to your Android manifest file

<strong>&lt;uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE" /&gt;</strong>
<strong>
&lt;uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" /&gt;</strong>
<strong>
&lt;uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" /&gt;</strong>
<strong>
&lt;uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" /&gt;</strong>

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE" />

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />

-> Steps added here are for Android, but you can check out the steps for iOS as well on the site

Output:

Conclusion:

I hope this blog helps you to understand the basic uses of File Downloading In Flutter as well as the use of the Flutter_downloader package.

Thank you for reading!!

For more information, you can visit the Dev Console.