Android – using action_ GET_ Content the correct way to select the file path

I implemented a file selector in my application, as follows:

Intent intent = new Intent();
intent.setType("*/*");
intent.setAction(Intent.ACTION_GET_CONTENT);
startActivityForResult(Intent.createChooser(intent, "Title"), FILE_PICK);

This is a well-known problem. You can't easily get the actual file location in this way, because intent will return some strange URIs that you can't really use to create file objects

I am using this method to get the actual file path:

/**
 * Get a file path from a Uri. This will get the the path for Storage Access
 * Framework Documents, as well as the _data field for the MediaStore and
 * other file-based ContentProviders.
 *
 * @param context The context.
 * @param uri The Uri to query.
 * @author paulburke
 */
public static String getPath(final Context context, final Uri uri) {

    final boolean isKitKat = Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.KITKAT;

    // DocumentProvider
    if (isKitKat && DocumentsContract.isDocumentUri(context, uri)) {
        // ExternalStorageProvider
        if (isExternalStorageDocument(uri)) {
            final String docId = DocumentsContract.getDocumentId(uri);
            final String[] split = docId.split(":");
            final String type = split[0];

            if ("primary".equalsIgnoreCase(type)) {
                return Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory() + "/" + split[1];
            }

            // TODO handle non-primary volumes
        }
        // DownloadsProvider
        else if (isDownloadsDocument(uri)) {

            final String id = DocumentsContract.getDocumentId(uri);
            final Uri contentUri = ContentUris.withAppendedId(
                    Uri.parse("content://downloads/public_downloads"), Long.valueOf(id));

            return getDataColumn(context, contentUri, null, null);
        }
        // MediaProvider
        else if (isMediaDocument(uri)) {
            final String docId = DocumentsContract.getDocumentId(uri);
            final String[] split = docId.split(":");
            final String type = split[0];

            Uri contentUri = null;
            if ("image".equals(type)) {
                contentUri = MediaStore.Images.Media.EXTERNAL_CONTENT_URI;
            } else if ("video".equals(type)) {
                contentUri = MediaStore.Video.Media.EXTERNAL_CONTENT_URI;
            } else if ("audio".equals(type)) {
                contentUri = MediaStore.Audio.Media.EXTERNAL_CONTENT_URI;
            }

            final String selection = "_id=?";
            final String[] selectionArgs = new String[] {
                    split[1]
            };

            return getDataColumn(context, contentUri, selection, selectionArgs);
        }
    }
    // MediaStore (and general)
    else if ("content".equalsIgnoreCase(uri.getScheme())) {

        // Return the remote address
        if (isGooglePhotosUri(uri))
            return uri.getLastPathSegment();

        return getDataColumn(context, uri, null, null);
    }
    // File
    else if ("file".equalsIgnoreCase(uri.getScheme())) {
        return uri.getPath();
    }

    return null;
}

This applies to some files, but not others. Now I notice that it doesn't work when I select a file from the "downloads" folder. It skips all the if statements above and returns null

What is the correct method to obtain the actual selected file path will be more reliable?

resolvent:

That's not a file selector. This is a content selector

Well, it depends a lot on your literal meaning in this sentence

ACTION_ GET_ Content is generally not a problem. However, what you get is not necessarily files. However, you can still upload them, assuming that any content you use to upload allows you to upload from InputStream. If so, please use openinputstream() on contentresolver to pass in URI to get the InputStream to be used

If you really need it as an actual file, you can implement the file selector UI directly in your application. There are libraries for this. However, you will not be able to access all files - in particular, you cannot use this file to upload files from removable storage on Android 4.4