How do I actually add Filesystem Access API to javascript?

Question

I've found this https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/File_System_Access_API to allow javascript to access the local file system. I feel really dumb, but I can't find anywhere that talks about how to actually add the api. I would really appreciate some help on just getting the first step.

Answer 1

You don't need to add the API; it's already there, or it isn't. There is a chart on the page with information about browsers and support versions.

I am using this with Chrome. Firefox is supposed to support it but it doesn't have it on my local box... My version may be too old.

Answer 2

You can feature-detect the File System Access API like so:

if ('showOpenFilePicker' in window) {
  // The File System Access API is supported.
}

On supporting browsers, this will evaluate to true. In order to use the API, see the MDN docs you linked to in your question and/or check out our article.

We maintain a library that uses the API if it is available and that transparently falls back to previous approaches like <input type="file"> or <a download> on non-supporting browsers. You can read up on ithere if you are interested.