elFinder Picker

Enable your website users to select files using elFinder File Browser. You can also use this tool as a file picker module for tinyMCE editor.

Version 2.0 brings modern ESM support, removes jQuery dependency, eliminates global variables, and auto-injects CSS styles for a cleaner integration experience.

Looking for v1.x? If you need the legacy version with jQuery and global variables, see the v1.1.2 documentation on npm.

Demo

Coming soon

Dependencies

• elFinder

Installation

npm

npm i -s elfinder-picker

Yarn

yarn add elfinder-picker

Browser ESM (CDN)

<script type="module">
  import ElFinderPicker from 'https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/elfinder-picker@2/dist/index.mjs';
  // Use the picker
</script>

Usage

Basic Example

import ElFinderPicker from 'elfinder-picker';

// Create a new instance (styles are auto-injected!)
const picker = new ElFinderPicker({
  url: '/path/to/elfinder.html'
});

// Open the picker with a callback that receives the file object
picker.open((file) => {
  console.log('Selected file:', file);
  // file = { url: '...', name: '...', mime: 'image/jpeg' }

  document.getElementById('myInput').value = file.url;
  document.getElementById('fileName').textContent = file.name;
});

// Or open with an initial value (navigates to that file in elFinder)
const currentFile = document.getElementById('myInput').value;
picker.open((file) => {
  document.getElementById('myInput').value = file.url;
}, currentFile);

Configure elFinder

Step 1: Setup Your Main Application

Create your picker instance and use it:

import ElFinderPicker from 'elfinder-picker';

const picker = new ElFinderPicker({ url: '/path/to/elfinder.html' });

// Open the picker and handle file selection
document.getElementById('selectFileBtn').addEventListener('click', () => {
  picker.open((file) => {
    console.log('Selected file:', file.url, file.name, file.mime);
    document.getElementById('fileInput').value = file.url;
  });
});

Step 2: Setup Your elFinder Page

Import and use the provided helper callback (minimal code required):

import { filePickerCallback } from 'elfinder-picker';

// Configure elFinder with the helper
$('#elfinder').elfinder({
  url: '/path/to/elfinder/connector.php',
  getFileCallback: filePickerCallback  // That's it!
});

The helper automatically handles everything for you:

• ✅ Detects if running in picker mode
• ✅ Sends file data (URL, name, MIME type) back to the picker
• ✅ Zero configuration needed

Production Security (Optional)

Restrict postMessage to your specific domain:

import { createFilePickerCallback } from 'elfinder-picker';

const callback = createFilePickerCallback({
  origin: 'https://yourdomain.com'  // Only allow messages to your domain
});

$('#elfinder').elfinder({
  url: '/path/to/elfinder/connector.php',
  getFileCallback: callback
});

TinyMCE Integration

TinyMCE needs different response formats depending on which dialog is open. Use the MIME type to determine how to format the response:

import ElFinderPicker from 'elfinder-picker';

const picker = new ElFinderPicker({ url: '/path/to/elfinder.html' });

tinymce.init({
  selector: '.text-editor',
  height: 350,
  plugins: ['link', 'image', 'media'],
  file_picker_callback: (callback, value, meta) => {
    picker.open((file) => {
      // Format response based on TinyMCE dialog type
      if (meta.filetype === 'image') {
        callback(file.url, { alt: file.name });
      } else if (meta.filetype === 'media') {
        callback(file.url);
      } else {
        // For links/files
        callback(file.url, { text: file.name, title: file.name });
      }
    });
  },
});

You can also use the file's MIME type to make decisions:

file_picker_callback: (callback, value, meta) => {
  picker.open((file) => {
    // Use MIME type to determine file category
    if (file.mime.startsWith('image/')) {
      callback(file.url, { alt: file.name });
    } else if (file.mime.startsWith('video/') || file.mime.startsWith('audio/')) {
      callback(file.url);
    } else {
      callback(file.url, { text: file.name, title: file.name });
    }
  });
}

API Reference

ElFinderPicker Class

Constructor

new ElFinderPicker(config)

• config.url (string): URL to your elFinder instance

Methods

open(callback, value, meta)

Open the file picker modal

Parameters:

• callback (Function): Called when a file is selected. Receives a file object:

  {
    url: string,   // Normalized file URL
    name: string,  // File name
    mime: string   // MIME type (e.g., 'image/jpeg', 'application/pdf')
  }

• value (string, optional): Initial file path to navigate to in elFinder
• meta (Object, optional): Metadata for TinyMCE compatibility

Example:

// Basic usage
picker.open((file) => {
  console.log(file.url, file.name, file.mime);
});

// With initial value (navigate to specific file)
picker.open((file) => {
  document.getElementById('input').value = file.url;
}, '/uploads/images/current-file.jpg');

// Check file type
picker.open((file) => {
  if (file.mime.startsWith('image/')) {
    // Handle image
  }
});

config(config)

Update picker configuration

• config.url (string): URL to your elFinder instance

close()

Close the picker modal

destroy()

Remove the picker from DOM and clean up resources

Helper Functions

filePickerCallback(file, fm, options)

Ready-to-use callback for elFinder's getFileCallback. Automatically sends file data (URL, name, MIME type) to the parent picker.

Parameters:

• file (Object): File object from elFinder
• fm (Object): elFinder instance
• options (Object): Optional configuration
  • options.origin (string): Target origin for postMessage (default: '*')

Example:

import { filePickerCallback } from 'elfinder-picker';

$('#elfinder').elfinder({
  url: '/connector.php',
  getFileCallback: filePickerCallback
});

createFilePickerCallback(options)

Creates a configured file picker callback with custom origin for production security

Parameters:

• options (Object): Configuration options
  • options.origin (string): Target origin for postMessage

Returns: Function compatible with elFinder's getFileCallback

Example:

import { createFilePickerCallback } from 'elfinder-picker';

const callback = createFilePickerCallback({
  origin: 'https://yourdomain.com'
});

$('#elfinder').elfinder({
  url: '/connector.php',
  getFileCallback: callback
});

License

MIT