FileSystemHandle: kind property

Baseline 2023
Newly available

Since March 2023, this feature works across the latest devices and browser versions. This feature might not work in older devices or browsers.

Secure context: This feature is available only in secure contexts (HTTPS), in some or all supporting browsers.

Note: This feature is available in Web Workers.

The kind read-only property of the FileSystemHandle interface returns the type of entry. This is 'file' if the associated entry is a file or 'directory'. It is used to distinguish files from directories when iterating over the contents of a directory.

Value

A string that can be:

Examples

The following function allows the user to choose a file from the file picker and then tests to see whether the handle returned is a file or directory

js
// store a reference to our file handle
let fileHandle;

async function getFile() {
  // open file picker
  [fileHandle] = await window.showOpenFilePicker();

  if (fileHandle.kind === "file") {
    // run file code
  } else if (fileHandle.kind === "directory") {
    // run directory code
  }
}

Specifications

Specification
File System
# ref-for-dom-filesystemhandle-kind①

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser

See also