React-native-android - How to save an image to the Android file system and view in the phone's 'Gallery' - filesystems

Question

Is it possible to save an image to the android's local file system so it can be viewed from the phone's 'Gallery' and in a folder??
I found this react-native-fs library but after studying the documentation and working through an example I am still unsure if it is possible.
Thanks

Answer 1

For anyone having the same problem, here is the solution.
Solution
I am using the File System API from the react-native-fetch-blob library. This is because I tought it was way better documented and easier to understand than the 'react-native-fs' library.
I request an image from the server, receive a base64 and I then save it to the Pictures directory in the android fs.
I save the image like this:
var RNFetchBlob = require('react-native-fetch-blob').default;
const PictureDir = RNFetchBlob.fs.dirs.PictureDir;
getImageAttachment: function(uri_attachment, filename_attachment, mimetype_attachment) {
return new Promise((RESOLVE, REJECT) => {
// Fetch attachment
RNFetchBlob.fetch('GET', config.apiRoot+'/app/'+uri_attachment)
.then((response) => {
let base64Str = response.data;
let imageLocation = PictureDir+'/'+filename_attachment;
//Save image
fs.writeFile(imageLocation, base64Str, 'base64');
console.log("FILE CREATED!!")
RNFetchBlob.fs.scanFile([ { path : imageLocation, mime : mimetype_attachment } ])
.then(() => {
console.log("scan file success")
})
.catch((err) => {
console.log("scan file error")
})
}).catch((error) => {
// error handling
console.log("Error:", error)
});
},
The following code that is in the above method refreshes the Gallery otherwise the images would not display untill the phone is turned off and back on again.
RNFetchBlob.fs.scanFile([ { path : imageLocation, mime : mimetype_attachment } ])
.then(() => {
console.log("scan file success")
})
.catch((err) => {
console.log("scan file error")
})
Enjoy!

Answer 2

You can absolutely do this with react-native-fs. There's a PicturesDirectoryPath constant which isn't mentioned in the README for the project; if you save a file into there it should appear in the Gallery app. If you want it to appear in your own album, just make a new directory in that folder and save the file into there, eg
const myAlbumPath = RNFS.PicturesDirectoryPath + '/My Album'
RNFS.mkdir(myAlbumPath)
.then(/* write/copy/download your image file into myAlbumPath here */)
I don't have full example code anymore sorry, because I ended storing images in my app's private cache directory instead. Hope this helps anyway!