Convert URL to File or Blob for FileReader.readAsDataURL

Reference: FileReader.readAsDataURL

Considering the following example:

function previewFile(file) {

  var reader  = new FileReader();

  reader.onloadend = function () {
    console.log(reader.result);
  }
  reader.readAsDataURL(file);
}

It states:

instanceOfFileReader.readAsDataURL(blob);

blob: The Blob or File from which to read.

1. How can a local file URL like: 'file:///C:/path-to/root.png' be passed to the readAsDataURL()

2. Is FileReader() available in a Firefox Addon?

To convert a URL to a Blob for FileReader.readAsDataURL() do this:

var request = new XMLHttpRequest();
request.open('GET', MY_URL, true);
request.responseType = 'blob';
request.onload = function() {
    var reader = new FileReader();
    reader.readAsDataURL(request.response);
    reader.onload =  function(e){
        console.log('DataURL:', e.target.result);
    };
};
request.send();

Expanding on Felix Turner s response, here is how I would use this approach with the fetch API.

async function createFile(){
  let response = await fetch('http://127.0.0.1:8080/test.jpg');
  let data = await response.blob();
  let metadata = {
    type: 'image/jpeg'
  };
  let file = new File([data], "test.jpg", metadata);
  // ... do something with the file or return it
}
createFile();

The suggested edit queue is full for @tibor-udvari's excellent fetch answer, so I'll post my suggested edits as a new answer.

This function gets the content type from the header if returned, otherwise falls back on a settable default type.

async function getFileFromUrl(url, name, defaultType = 'image/jpeg'){
  const response = await fetch(url);
  const data = await response.blob();
  return new File([data], name, {
    type: data.type || defaultType,
  });
}

// `await` can only be used in an async body, but showing it here for simplicity.
const file = await getFileFromUrl('https://example.com/image.jpg', 'example.jpg');

Try this I learned this from @nmaier when I was mucking around with converting to ico: Well i dont really understand what array buffer is but it does what we need:

function previewFile(file) {

  var reader  = new FileReader();

  reader.onloadend = function () {
    console.log(reader.result); //this is an ArrayBuffer
  }
  reader.readAsArrayBuffer(file);
}

notice how i just changed your readAsDataURL to readAsArrayBuffer.

Here is the example @nmaier gave me: https://stackoverflow.com/a/24253997/1828637

it has a fiddle

if you want to take this and make a file out of it i would think you would use file-output-stream in the onloadend

This information is outdated as of now, but cannot be deleted.

1. You can create File instances just by specifying a path when your code is chrome-privileged:

   new File("/path/to/file");
   

   File is a sub-class of Blob, so all File instances are also valid Blobs. Please note that this requires a platform path, and not a file URL.

2. Yes, FileReader is available to addons.

File and FileReader are available in all windows. If you want to use them in a non-window scope (like bootstrap.js or a code module), you may use nsIDOMFile/nsIDOMFileReader.