Ionic 5 Upload Image From Gallery And Camera
If you are a developer working on a mobile application, you must have come across the need to upload images from the gallery or camera. In this article, we will discuss how to achieve this functionality in Ionic 5, a popular framework for building cross-platform mobile applications. With the help of Ionic 5, we can easily upload images from either the camera or the gallery using a simple API call. Let's dive in and explore the details.
Prerequisites
Before we proceed, you should have a basic understanding of Ionic 5 and Angular, as we will be using Angular's HttpClient module to make HTTP requests to the server. You should also have the Ionic environment set up on your machine. If you haven't done that yet, you can follow the official documentation on installing Ionic and setting up a new project.
Uploading Images from the Gallery in Ionic 5
The first step to upload an image from the gallery in Ionic 5 is to install the Cordova plugin for accessing the device's photo gallery. You can install this plugin using the following command:
ionic cordova plugin add cordova-plugin-photo-librarynpm install @ionic-native/photo-libraryAfter installing the plugin, we can access the gallery using the PhotoLibrary plugin provided by Ionic. Import the PhotoLibrary module in the component where you want to access the gallery:
import { PhotoLibrary } from '@ionic-native/photo-library/ngx';Then, inject the PhotoLibrary into the constructor:
constructor(private photoLibrary: PhotoLibrary) { }Now, you can use the getLibrary method provided by the PhotoLibrary module to access the photo gallery:
this.photoLibrary.getLibrary().subscribe({next: library => {library.forEach(libraryItem => {console.log(libraryItem.id); // Print the ID of the photo});},error: err => {console.log('Error accessing photo library', err);},complete: () => {console.log('Library access completed');}});This code will log the IDs of all the photos in the gallery to the console. You can modify this code to upload a selected image to the server. First, add a button to the component's HTML template:
<button (click)="uploadFromGallery()">Upload from Gallery</button>Then, add the following code to the component's TypeScript file:
uploadFromGallery() {this.photoLibrary.getLibrary().subscribe({next: library => {library.forEach(libraryItem => {if (libraryItem.id === selectedId) {this.uploadImage(libraryItem);}});},error: err => {console.log('Error accessing photo library', err);},complete: () => {console.log('Library access completed');}});}uploadImage(image) {const formData = new FormData();formData.append('file', image.fileUrl);this.http.post('https://example.com/upload', formData).subscribe({next: data => {console.log('Image uploaded successfully', data);},error: err => {console.log('Error uploading image', err);}});}This code will upload the selected image from the gallery to the specified URL using the HTTP POST method.
Uploading Images from the Camera in Ionic 5
Uploading images from the camera in Ionic 5 is similar to uploading images from the gallery. The only difference is that instead of accessing the photo library, we need to open the camera and capture an image. Once the image is captured, we can upload it to the server using the same API call.
The first step to upload an image from the camera is to install the Cordova plugin for accessing the device's camera. You can install this plugin using the following command:
ionic cordova plugin add cordova-plugin-cameranpm install @ionic-native/cameraAfter installing the plugin, we can access the camera using the Camera plugin provided by Ionic. Import the Camera module in the component where you want to access the camera:
import { Camera, CameraOptions } from '@ionic-native/camera/ngx';Then, inject the Camera into the constructor:
constructor(private camera: Camera) { }Now, you can use the getPicture method provided by the Camera module to capture an image:
captureImage() {const options: CameraOptions = {quality: 100,destinationType: this.camera.DestinationType.FILE_URI,encodingType: this.camera.EncodingType.JPEG,mediaType: this.camera.MediaType.PICTURE};this.camera.getPicture(options).then(imageUri => {this.uploadImage(imageUri);}, error => {console.log('Error capturing image', error);});}This code will open the camera and allow the user to capture an image. Once the image is captured, it will be uploaded to the server using the same uploadImage method we used earlier.
Conclusion
In this article, we discussed how to upload images from the gallery and camera in Ionic 5. We learned how to access the device's photo library and camera using Cordova plugins provided by Ionic. We also learned how to upload images to the server using Angular's HttpClient module. By following these steps, you can easily implement the image upload functionality in your Ionic 5 mobile application.
