File browse and select or upload using PnP File Picker in the SharePoint Framework (SPFx) webpart

This article provide steps to implement the PnP File Picker in the SharePoint Framework (SPFx), generally File picker control allows to browse and select a file from various places. Currently supported locations – Recent files – tab allows to select a file from recently modified files based on the search results. – Web search – tab uses Bing cognitive services to look for a file. (Only images) – OneDrive – tab allows to select a file from the user’s One Drive. – Site document libraries – tab allows to select a file from the existing site document libraries. – Upload – tab allows to upload a file from local drive. – From a link – tab allows to paste a link to the document.

Create a new web part project

Open power shell and run following comment to create a new web part by running the Yeoman SharePoint Generator

yo @microsoft/sharepoint

When prompted:

Enter the webpart name as your solution name, and then select Enter.
Select Create a subfolder with solution name for where to place the files.
Select Y to allow the solution to be deployed to all sites immediately.
Select N on the question if solution contains unique permissions.
Select WebPart as the client-side component type to be created.

The next set of prompts ask for specific information about your web part:

Enter your web part name, and then select Enter.
Enter your web part description, and then select Enter.
Select React framework as the framework you would like to use, and then select Enter.

Start Visual Studio Code (or your favorite code editor) within the context of the newly created project folder.

cd .\web part name\
code .

Install the library and required dependencies

npm install @pnp/sp --save
npm install @pnp/spfx-controls-react --save --save-exact

Import the library into your application, update constructor, and access the root sp object in render for PnPjs libraries.

sp.setup({spfxContext: this.props.spcontect});

Configure the custom properties

Create a new source code file under the src\webparts\spfxPnpDatetimepicker\components\ folder of the solution. Call the new file <Interface name>State.ts and use it to create a TypeScript Interface

export interface ISpfxPnpFilepickerState {
  ImageURL: string;
}

In addition, you need to update the render method of the client-side web part to create a properly configured instance of the React component for rendering. The following code shows the updated method definition.

  public render(): void {
    const element: React.ReactElement<ISpfxPnpFilepickerProps> = React.createElement(
      SpfxPnpFilepicker,
      {
        description: this.properties.description,
        context:this.context
      }
    );
    ReactDom.render(element, this.domElement);
  }

Update the SpfxPnpDatetimepicker.tsx file. First, add some import statements to import the types you defined earlier. Notice the import for <interface default name>Props and <interface default name>State. There are also some imports for the PnP components used to render the UI of the PnP React component and pnp sp imports.

import * as React from 'react';
import styles from './SpfxPnpFilepicker.module.scss';
import { ISpfxPnpFilepickerProps } from './ISpfxPnpFilepickerProps';
import { ISpfxPnpFilepickerState } from './ISpfxPnpFilepickerState';
import { sp } from "@pnp/sp";
import { FilePicker, IFilePickerResult } from '@pnp/spfx-controls-react/lib';
import { autobind } from 'office-ui-fabric-react/lib/Utilities';
import "@pnp/sp/webs";
import "@pnp/sp/files";
import "@pnp/sp/folders";

Replace this render function with the following code.

  public render(): React.ReactElement<ISpfxPnpFilepickerProps> {
    return (
      <div className={styles.spfxPnpFilepicker}>
        <img src={this.state.ImageURL} height={'150px'} width={'150px'}></img>
        <br></br>
        <br></br>
        <FilePicker
          label={'Select or upload image'}
          buttonClassName={styles.button}
          buttonLabel={'Images'}
          accepts={[".gif", ".jpg", ".jpeg", ".bmp", ".dib", ".tif", ".tiff", ".ico", ".png", ".jxr", ".svg"]}
          buttonIcon="FileImage"
          onSave={this.saveIntoSharePoint}
          onChanged={this.saveIntoSharePoint}
          context={this.props.context}
        />
      </div>
    );
  }

Update the React component type declaration and add a constructor, as shown in the following example.

export default class SpfxPnpFilepicker extends React.Component<ISpfxPnpFilepickerProps, ISpfxPnpFilepickerState> {
  constructor(props: ISpfxPnpFilepickerProps, state: ISpfxPnpFilepickerState) {
    super(props);
    sp.setup({
      spfxContext: this.props.context
    });
    this.state = {
      ImageURL: 'https://via.placeholder.com/150'
    }
  }

place the below code inside the react component code, these functions using PnPjs to upload file to the SharePoint Document library

  @autobind
  private async saveIntoSharePoint(file: IFilePickerResult) {
    if (file.fileAbsoluteUrl == null) {
      file.downloadFileContent()
        .then(async r => {
          let fileresult = await sp.web.getFolderByServerRelativeUrl("/sites/TheLanding/Shared%20Documents/").files.add(file.fileName, r, true);
          this.setState({ ImageURL: document.location.origin + fileresult.data.ServerRelativeUrl });
        });
    }
    else {
      this.setState({ ImageURL: file.fileAbsoluteUrl });
    }
  }

Deploy the solution

You’re now ready to build, bundle, package, and deploy the solution.

Run the gulp commands to verify that the solution builds correctly.

gulp build

Use the following command to bundle and package the solution.

gulp bundle --ship
gulp package-solution --ship

Browse to the app catalog of your target tenant and upload the solution package. You can find the solution package under the sharepoint/solution folder of your solution. It is the .sppkg file. After you upload the solution package in the app catalog. you can find and the web part anywhere across the tenant.

Sharing is caring!

If you have any questions, feel free to let me know in the comments section.
Happy coding!!!

8 thoughts on “File browse and select or upload using PnP File Picker in the SharePoint Framework (SPFx) webpart

  1. Thank you for sharing this guide. How can I modify this code so that it only allows file upload from a local drive to the document library.

    Like

  2. Hi Ravichandran,
    Using File Picker control, can we upload multiple files at a time? I am using SPFX react framework and trying to select multiple files at a time and attach it to SharePoint list item on item creation. Please suggest how we can do this.
    Thanks,
    Lalitha

    Liked by 1 person

  3. Do you know what the difference between the onChange and onSave properties is? According to the documentation, onChange is fired off ‘…when the file selection has been changed.’ and onSave is fired off ‘..when the file has been selected and picker has been closed.

    I’m trying to construct an example where one of the event handlers does not fire off when the other does. So far, simply selecting a new file in the picker does nothing, but once I hit ‘Insert’, both events fire off.

    Cheers!
    Chas

    Liked by 1 person

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