Reimplement file picker on macOS with method channels

[orestesgaolin]

This PR:

• closes Reimplement macos file picker using native APIs in the app rather than calling out to osascript #1492
• closes pickFiles dialog does not receive focus on macOS #1445
• closes [suggestion] make lockParentWindow work on MacOS #1674
• closes FilePicker.platform.getDirectoryPath() returns on MacOS path containing symbolic links #1685

It is still somewhat prone to #1680 - if the picked file contains / then it's replaced by :

I was wondering if I should address #1582 but figured it would be better to migrate both iOS and macOS later. I'll try if I find some time.

Now we can also address #1105 but that would require public API change.

Can someone confirm if this addresses #1685?

Here's a demo of this plugin on macOS 15.1.1 (24B91)

file-picker-demo.mp4

Feel free to add the note below to https://github.com/miguelpruivo/flutter_file_picker/wiki/Setup

On macOS it's necessary to enable "Read" User Selected File entitlement for selecting files and "Read/Write" for saving.

[navaronbracke]

Overall this looks great! Just some minor feedback around deprecations & docs.

[navaronbracke]

@orestesgaolin We can add SPM support for MacOS/iOS as a follow-up PR.

[navaronbracke]

I will check if this fixes #1685 with symbolic links.
If not, then we should probably do the resolution internally.

[navaronbracke]

@orestesgaolin For #1105 we could add a new method, that allows picking both files and directories?

But we also need to pay attention to the feedback in #1469

[orestesgaolin]

@navaronbracke I applied all suggestions and responded to comments, marked them as resolved -- hope you don't mind. Feel free to unresolve any pending issues or questions.

[orestesgaolin]

Btw I can bump the version and update the changelog here too, should I bump it to 8.2.0 or 8.1.8?

[navaronbracke]

LGTM. Can you update the version to 8.2.0 and update the changelog? Then this can be released when the PR is merged :)

[navaronbracke]

I still need to check if this handles symlinks, so I'll probably do that before we merge this.

[navaronbracke]

The analysis failure is unrelated to this PR. I'll look into that as well.

[navaronbracke]

Btw I can bump the version and update the changelog here too, should I bump it to 8.2.0 or 8.1.8?

Version 8.2.0 is fine.

The analysis failure is unrelated to this PR. I'll look into that as well.

The analysis reports 3 switch cases where the default clause can be removed, since it is unreachable.
Maybe you can address this, too?

warning • lib/src/linux/kdialog_handler.dart:68:7 • This default clause is covered by the previous cases. Try removing the default clause,
          or restructuring the preceding patterns. • unreachable_switch_default
warning • lib/src/linux/qarma_and_zenity_handler.dart:60:7 • This default clause is covered by the previous cases. Try removing the default
          clause, or restructuring the preceding patterns. • unreachable_switch_default
warning • lib/src/windows/file_picker_windows.dart:230:7 • This default clause is covered by the previous cases. Try removing the default
          clause, or restructuring the preceding patterns. • unreachable_switch_default

3 issues found.

[navaronbracke]

@orestesgaolin I was wrong about the minimum MacOS version. When I run the example app with your branch, I get

/Users/navaronbracke/Desktop/flutter_file_picker-implement-on-macos-method-channel/example/macos/Pods/Pods.xcodeproj: warning: The macOS deployment target 'MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET' is set to 10.11, but the range of supported deployment target versions is 10.13 to 15.2.99. (in target 'file_picker-file_picker_privacy' from project 'Pods')

So the minimum should be 10.13 and not 10.11.

[navaronbracke]

@orestesgaolin This does seem to fix the symlink bug!

I did the following to test:

1. cd ~/Desktop && mkdir test_folder && cd test_folder && mkdir test_folder_2 && cd test_folder_2
2. I then created some file in nested_folder, i.e. Untitled.rtf
3. Make a symlink: ln -s "/Users/navaronbracke/Desktop/test_folder/nested_folder" /Users/navaronbracke/Desktop/test_folder_2, so that the nested_folder is hidden by the symlink
4. run the example app
5. In the file picker dialog, go into the test_folder_2 (has an arrow icon, so it's the symlink folder)
6. Select the Untitled.rtf file
7. The result path is /Users/navaronbracke/Desktop/test_folder/nested_folder/Untitled.rtf, so without the symlink (test_folder_2)

Edit: Updated the OP to reflect this.

[orestesgaolin]

Updated min version and proposed a changelog. Also tweaked list items in few recent releases to look nicer ;)

[navaronbracke]

@orestesgaolin Did you manage to look into the analysis failures on the Dart side? (i.e. dart analyze .)
As I said before, these aren't your fault, but since you are making a big contribution, I'd love to get this fixed also :)

You can remove the following default switch cases, as these are now reported as unreachable. Sadly, this isn't yet supported by dart fix, so you'll have to do it manually.

https://github.com/orestesgaolin/flutter_file_picker/blob/implement-on-macos-method-channel/lib/src/linux/kdialog_handler.dart#L68-L69

https://github.com/orestesgaolin/flutter_file_picker/blob/implement-on-macos-method-channel/lib/src/linux/qarma_and_zenity_handler.dart#L60-L61

https://github.com/orestesgaolin/flutter_file_picker/blob/implement-on-macos-method-channel/lib/src/windows/file_picker_windows.dart#L230-L231

These prevent the updated tests to run in CI. I can do this later, but in case you want to address this still.

[navaronbracke]

@orestesgaolin I went ahead and put out a patch for the lint fixes (on my corp account, but hey)
Once that is done I'll rebase your PR and then this can land!

[orestesgaolin]

Sorry, was doing some of my corp stuff too ;) you were quicker!

[navaronbracke]

No worries! I'll get it sorted real quick!

[navaronbracke]

Tree is green! I'll check in with pub in a moment. Thanks!

[stephane-archer]

@navaronbracke @orestesgaolin thank you for your amazing work! I can't wait to ship with the new package

[navaronbracke]

This should be available on Pub now.

[orestesgaolin]

🕺