Tauri File System Access: Read, Write & Native Dialogs | Rust + React Tutorial (Lesson 35)

Tauri File System Access: Read, Write & Native Dialogs

Discover how to securely interact with the file system in a Tauri desktop app using Rust and React. This guide covers Tauri’s capability-based permissions, reading and writing files with Rust’s standard library, and implementing native open/save dialogs with the tauri-plugin-dialog plugin.

Code

use std::fs;
use tauri::api::path;
use tauri_plugin_dialog::{open, save};

// Command to read a file's contents as a String
#[tauri::command]
fn read_file(path: String) -> Result {
  fs::read_to_string(&path).map_err(|e| e.to_string())
}

// Command to write contents to a file, creating or overwriting it
#[tauri::command]
fn write_file(path: String, contents: String) -> Result<(), String> {
  fs::write(&path, contents).map_err(|e| e.to_string())
}

// Example React usage (TypeScript):
/*
import { open, save } from 'tauri-plugin-dialog-api';

async function openFile() {
  const selected = await open({
    multiple: false,
    filters: [{ name: 'Text Files', extensions: ['txt', 'md'] }],
  });
  if (selected) {
    // send selected path to backend command read_file
  }
}

async function saveFile(defaultName: string) {
  const savePath = await save({
    defaultPath: defaultName,
    filters: [{ name: 'Text Files', extensions: ['txt'] }],
  });
  if (savePath) {
    // send savePath and contents to backend command write_file
  }
}
*/

// Access standard app directories
fn get_app_dirs() {
  let config_dir = path::config_dir().unwrap(); // e.g. ~/Library/Application Support on macOS
  let data_dir = path::data_dir().unwrap();     // e.g. AppData on Windows
  let cache_dir = path::cache_dir().unwrap();   // e.g. ~/.cache on Linux
  println!("Config: {:?}, Data: {:?}, Cache: {:?}", config_dir, data_dir, cache_dir);
}

Key Points

• Tauri enforces explicit permissions for file system operations using a capability-based security model.
• Use Rust’s std::fs functions like read_to_string and write for safe, idiomatic file reading and writing.
• The tauri-plugin-dialog plugin provides native open and save dialogs that integrate with the OS look and feel.
• Standard app directories (config, data, cache) help your app store files in platform-appropriate locations.
• React frontend communicates with Rust backend commands to perform file operations securely and asynchronously.