title: Camera description: Take pictures with the device camera.

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cordova-plugin-camera

This plugin defines a global navigator.camera object, which provides an API for taking pictures and for choosing images from the system's image library.

Although the object is attached to the global scoped navigator, it is not available until after the deviceready event.

document.addEventListener("deviceready", onDeviceReady, false);
function onDeviceReady() {
    console.log(navigator.camera);
}

Installation

This requires cordova 5.0+

cordova plugin add cordova-plugin-camera

Older versions of cordova can still install via the deprecated id

cordova plugin add org.apache.cordova.camera

It is also possible to install via repo url directly ( unstable )

cordova plugin add https://github.com/apache/cordova-plugin-camera.git

How to Contribute

Contributors are welcome! And we need your contributions to keep the project moving forward. You can report bugs, improve the documentation, or contribute code.

There is a specific contributor workflow we recommend. Start reading there. More information is available on our wiki.

⚠️ Found an issue? File it on JIRA issue tracker.

Have a solution? Send a Pull Request.

In order for your changes to be accepted, you need to sign and submit an Apache ICLA (Individual Contributor License Agreement). Then your name will appear on the list of CLAs signed by non-committers or Cordova committers.

And don't forget to test and document your code.

This documentation is generated by a tool

⚠️ Run npm install in the plugin repo to enable automatic docs generation if you plan to send a PR.
jsdoc-to-markdown is used to generate the docs.
Documentation consists of template and API docs produced from the plugin JS code and should be regenerated before each commit (done automatically via husky, running npm run gen-docs script as a precommit hook - see package.json for details).

iOS Quirks

Since iOS 10 it's mandatory to provide an usage description in the info.plist if trying to access privacy-sensitive data. When the system prompts the user to allow access, this usage description string will displayed as part of the permission dialog box, but if you didn't provide the usage description, the app will crash before showing the dialog. Also, Apple will reject apps that access private data but don't provide an usage description.

This plugins requires the following usage descriptions:

NSCameraUsageDescription specifies the reason for your app to access the device's camera.
NSPhotoLibraryUsageDescription specifies the reason for your app to access the user's photo library.
NSLocationWhenInUseUsageDescription specifies the reason for your app to access the user's location information while your app is in use. (Set it if you have CameraUsesGeolocation preference set to true)
NSPhotoLibraryAddUsageDescription specifies the reason for your app to get write-only access to the user's photo library

To add these entries into the info.plist, you can use the edit-config tag in the config.xml like this:

<edit-config target="NSCameraUsageDescription" file="*-Info.plist" mode="merge">
    <string>need camera access to take pictures</string>
</edit-config>

<edit-config target="NSPhotoLibraryUsageDescription" file="*-Info.plist" mode="merge">
    <string>need photo library access to get pictures from there</string>
</edit-config>

<edit-config target="NSLocationWhenInUseUsageDescription" file="*-Info.plist" mode="merge">
    <string>need location access to find things nearby</string>
</edit-config>

<edit-config target="NSPhotoLibraryAddUsageDescription" file="*-Info.plist" mode="merge">
    <string>need photo library access to save pictures there</string>
</edit-config>

API Reference

camera
- .getPicture(successCallback, errorCallback, options)
- .cleanup()
- .onError : function
- .onSuccess : function
- .CameraOptions : Object
Camera
- .DestinationType : enum
- .EncodingType : enum
- .MediaType : enum
- .PictureSourceType : enum
- .PopoverArrowDirection : enum
- .Direction : enum
CameraPopoverHandle
CameraPopoverOptions

camera

camera.getPicture(successCallback, errorCallback, options)

Takes a photo using the camera, or retrieves a photo from the device's image gallery. The image is passed to the success callback as a Base64-encoded String, or as the URI for the image file.

The camera.getPicture function opens the device's default camera application that allows users to snap pictures by default - this behavior occurs, when Camera.sourceType equals Camera.PictureSourceType.CAMERA. Once the user snaps the photo, the camera application closes and the application is restored.

If Camera.sourceType is Camera.PictureSourceType.PHOTOLIBRARY or Camera.PictureSourceType.SAVEDPHOTOALBUM, then a dialog displays that allows users to select an existing image.

The return value is sent to the cameraSuccess callback function, in one of the following formats, depending on the specified cameraOptions:

A String containing the Base64-encoded photo image.
A String representing the image file location on local storage (default).

You can do whatever you want with the encoded image or URI, for example:

Render the image in an <img> tag, as in the example below
Save the data locally (LocalStorage, Lawnchair, etc.)
Post the data to a remote server

NOTE: Photo resolution on newer devices is quite good. Photos selected from the device's gallery are not downscaled to a lower quality, even if a quality parameter is specified. To avoid common memory problems, set Camera.destinationType to FILE_URI rather than DATA_URL.

Supported Platforms

Android
BlackBerry
Browser
Firefox
FireOS
iOS
Windows
WP8
Ubuntu

More examples here. Quirks here.

Kind: static method of camera

Param	Type	Description
successCallback	`onSuccess`
errorCallback	`onError`
options	`CameraOptions`	CameraOptions

Example

navigator.camera.getPicture(cameraSuccess, cameraError, cameraOptions);

camera.cleanup()

Removes intermediate image files that are kept in temporary storage after calling camera.getPicture. Applies only when the value of Camera.sourceType equals Camera.PictureSourceType.CAMERA and the Camera.destinationType equals Camera.DestinationType.FILE_URI.

Supported Platforms

Kind: static method of camera
Example

navigator.camera.cleanup(onSuccess, onFail);
 
function onSuccess() {
    console.log("Camera cleanup success.")
}
 
function onFail(message) {
    alert('Failed because: ' + message);
}

camera.onError : `function`

Callback function that provides an error message.

Kind: static typedef of camera

Param	Type	Description
message	`string`	The message is provided by the device's native code.

camera.onSuccess : `function`

Callback function that provides the image data.

Kind: static typedef of camera

Param	Type	Description
imageData	`string`	Base64 encoding of the image data, or the image file URI, depending on `cameraOptions` in effect.

Example

// Show image
//
function cameraCallback(imageData) {
   var image = document.getElementById('myImage');
   image.src = "data:image/jpeg;base64," + imageData;
}

camera.CameraOptions : `Object`

Optional parameters to customize the camera settings.

Quirks

Kind: static typedef of camera
Properties

Name	Type	Default	Description
quality	`number`	`50`	Quality of the saved image, expressed as a range of 0-100, where 100 is typically full resolution with no loss from file compression. (Note that information about the camera's resolution is unavailable.)
destinationType	`DestinationType`	`FILE_URI`	Choose the format of the return value.
sourceType	`PictureSourceType`	`CAMERA`	Set the source of the picture.
allowEdit	`Boolean`	`false`	Allow simple editing of image before selection.
encodingType	`EncodingType`	`JPEG`	Choose the returned image file's encoding.
targetWidth	`number`		Width in pixels to scale image. Must be used with `targetHeight`. Aspect ratio remains constant.
targetHeight	`number`		Height in pixels to scale image. Must be used with `targetWidth`. Aspect ratio remains constant.
mediaType	`MediaType`	`PICTURE`	Set the type of media to select from. Only works when `PictureSourceType` is `PHOTOLIBRARY` or `SAVEDPHOTOALBUM`.
correctOrientation	`Boolean`		Rotate the image to correct for the orientation of the device during capture.
saveToPhotoAlbum	`Boolean`		Save the image to the photo album on the device after capture.
popoverOptions	`CameraPopoverOptions`		iOS-only options that specify popover location in iPad.
cameraDirection	`Direction`	`BACK`	Choose the camera to use (front- or back-facing).

Camera

Camera.DestinationType : `enum`

Defines the output format of Camera.getPicture call. Note: On iOS passing DestinationType.NATIVE_URI along with PictureSourceType.PHOTOLIBRARY or PictureSourceType.SAVEDPHOTOALBUM will disable any image modifications (resize, quality change, cropping, etc.) due to implementation specific.