Can't use Web Share API to share a file in my React typescript App

gsmanganneau

GSManganneau

Posted on December 8, 2021

Can't use Web Share API to share a file in my React typescript App

I am trying to run a WebApp which allows files sharing.
After few google search, I found Web Share API like the standard to do so.
According to the documentation it should works like this using plain JS

This is the code for html page

<p><button>Share MDN!</button></p>
<p class="result"></p>
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The code to share all sort "textbased" metadata:

let shareData = {
  title: 'MDN',
  text: 'Learn web development on MDN!',
  url: 'https://developer.mozilla.org',
}

const resultPara = document.querySelector('.result');

if (!navigator.canShare) {
  resultPara.textContent = 'navigator.canShare() not supported.';
}
else if (navigator.canShare(shareData)) {
  resultPara.textContent = 'navigator.canShare() supported. We can use navigator.share() to send the data.';
} else {
  resultPara.textContent = 'Specified data cannot be shared.';
}
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The code above works fine, the trouble happens when I try to share files.

According to the documentation it should works like this:

// filesArray is an array of files we want to share (audios, images, videos, pdf)
if (navigator.canShare && navigator.canShare({ files: filesArray })) {
  navigator.share({
    files: filesArray,
    title: 'Pictures',
    text: 'Our Pictures.',
  })
  .then(() => console.log('Share was successful.'))
  .catch((error) => console.log('Sharing failed', error));
} else {
  console.log(`Your system doesn't support sharing files.`);
}
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I started my code from this example and I never success to share a file.
My actual code using React and Typescript looks like this:

//some react code here


      const shareNow = async () => {
        let imageResponse = await window.fetch('https://www.google.com/images/branding/googlelogo/2x/googlelogo_color_272x92dp.png', {mode: "no-cors"});
        let imageBuffer = await imageResponse.arrayBuffer();
        let fileArray = [new File([imageBuffer], "File Name", {
          type: "image/png",
          lastModified: Date.now()
        })];


       if (navigator.canShare && navigator.canShare({ files: filesArray })) {
          navigator.share({
            files: filesArray
          }).then(() => {
            console.log('Thanks for sharing!');
          })
          .catch(console.error);
        }


      }

//some react code here too
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At this point, my typescript compiler yell at me.
Apparently, the navigator object has no method canShare()

The compiler yelling

I am new to typescript, but I don't understand how and why the navigator could have less attribute since TypeScript is JavaScript superset.

Anyone has an idea on how to solve that except running normal JS ?

Thank you for your time reading this, and I hope to thank you for your answers.

P.S: I also tried a react-component based solution, but all the component I found in open source which wraps Web Share API does not allow file sharing.

💖 💪 🙅 🚩
gsmanganneau
GSManganneau

Posted on December 8, 2021

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