FileSystemDirectoryEntry

Non-standard
This feature is non-standard and is not on a standards track. Do not use it on production sites facing the Web: it will not work for every user. There may also be large incompatibilities between implementations and the behavior may change in the future.

The FileSystemDirectoryEntry interface of the File and Directory Entries API represents a directory in a file system. It provides methods which make it possible to access and manipulate the files in a directory, as well as to access the entries within the directory.

Because this is a non-standard API, whose specification is not currently on a standards track, it's important to keep in mind that not all browsers implement it, and those that do may implement only small portions of it. Check the Browser compatibility section for details.

Basic concepts

You can create a new directory by calling getDirectory(). If you want to create subdirectories, create each child directory in sequence. If you try creating a directory using a full path that includes parent directories that do not exist yet, an error is returned. So create the hierarchy by recursively adding a new path after creating the parent directory.

Example

In the following code snippet, we create a directory called "Documents."

// Taking care of the browser-specific prefixes.
window.requestFileSystem  = window.requestFileSystem || window.webkitRequestFileSystem; 
window.directoryEntry = window.directoryEntry || window.webkitDirectoryEntry;
...
function onFs(fs){
  fs.root.getDirectory('Documents', {create:true}, function(directoryEntry){
    //directoryEntry.isFile === false
    //directoryEntry.isDirectory === true
    //directoryEntry.name === 'Documents'
    //directoryEntry.fullPath === '/Documents'
    }, onError);
  }
// Opening a file system with temporary storage
window.requestFileSystem(TEMPORARY, 1024*1024 /*1MB*/, onFs, onError);

Properties

This interface has no properties of its own, but inherits properties from its parent interface, FileSystemEntry.

Methods

This interface inherits methods from its parent interface, FileSystemEntry.

createReader(): Creates a FileSystemDirectoryReader object which can be used to read the entries in this directory.
getDirectory(): Returns a FileSystemDirectoryEntry object representing a directory located at a given path, relative to the directory on which the method is called.
getFile(): Returns a FileSystemFileEntry object representing a file located within the directory's hierarchy, given a path relative to the directory on which the method is called.

Obsolete methods

removeRecursively(): Deletes a directory and all of its contents, including the contents of subdirectories. This has been removed from the spec.

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
File and Directory Entries API	Editor's Draft	Draft of proposed API

This API has no official W3C or WHATWG specification.

Feature	Chrome	Edge	Firefox (Gecko)	Internet Explorer	Microsoft Edge	Opera	Safari (WebKit)
Basic support	13 webkit	(Yes)	50 (50)^[2]	No support	No support^[3]	No support	No support
`removeRecursively()`	13 webkit	?	No support^[1]	No support	No support	No support	No support
`getFile()` and `getDirectory()`	13 webkit	?	50 (50)^[2]	No support	No support	No support	No support

Feature	Android	Chrome for Android	Edge	Firefox Mobile (Gecko)	IE Phone	Opera Mobile	Safari Mobile
Basic support	No support	0.16 webkit	(Yes)	50 (50)^[2]	No support	No support	No support
`removeRecursively()`	No support	0.16 webkit	?	No support^[1]	No support	No support	No support
`getFile()` and `getDirectory()`	No support	0.16 webkit	?	50 (50)^[2]	No support	No support	No support

[1] While the removeRecursively() method exists in Firefox 50, all it does is immediately call the error callback with NS_ERROR_DOM_SECURITY_ERR. It has been removed altogether as of Firefox 52, and has been removed from the spec.

[2] In Firefox, the error callback's parameter is a DOMException rather than a FileError object.

[3] Microsoft Edge implements the functionality of this interface within the WebKitEntry interface, which is what it calls FileSystemEntry.