Modern File Manager Component

Feature Requests
1

Hey Glide Team and Community,

I’d like to suggest a new File Manager component, something that goes beyond the current File Picker.

Right now, the File Picker lets us upload files, but it’s very limited from a user experience standpoint. Once files are uploaded, there’s no simple, built-in way to view or open them. You either have to create separate buttons for each file or create custom Java Script etc. (see more here Better way to handle multiple file uploads?) all of which feel more like hacks than proper solutions.

What I’m envisioning is a dedicated File Manager component that allows users to:
• Upload multiple files directly
• View uploaded files in a clean, unified list or gallery
• Clearly see file types (PDF, Word, Excel, JPG, etc.)
• Open or download any file with a single tap
• Optionally delete or replace files

In short, something similar to how files work in most modern business software (ClickUp, Notion, Airtable, etc.), where you can upload and manage files all in one neat, intuitive interface.

Files are such an essential part of business tools, I think Glide would really benefit from a native component that handles them elegantly.

2

+1 for a file explorer! Make files reusable without taking more storage space.

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3

You could use the file picker and then trigger a workflow that loops over the multiple file array and then adds them as separate rows to a “File” table. With that you can:

  • upload multiple files directly (Wait for few seconds on workflow, suggestion: use big tables, workflows work better/faster on them in my experience)
  • View uploaded files in any collection type you like.
  • Open the file with an “Open link” action.
  • You can replace/delete rows (Files)

Other:

  • Filtetypes: you could probably extract it with reading the uploaded link, the last integers represent the file type, so if you split the link by ., and then a column single value the last one, you get the extension type like “pdf”, “csv”, “jpg”
  • Download files: Right now glide storage doesn’t support this, if you upload it from Glide to Google Drive, you can use a template of that Google Drive link that triggers a download when clicked. Maybe other solutions would also work.

Extra benefits: by saving them as rows, you can do way more complex features, like rollup of extracted numbers of the pdf’s you’ve uploaded and a lot more other stuff, like timestamp each one, and by who. In short: if you handle files like rows, you can harness the full power of Glide to do the most things with them.

Suggestion: closely watch glide YouTube videos, they reveal a lot of powerful ways to use the platform. Like this video about processing multiple files, in which they explain the exact way to do this thing I explained above about treating files as rows. Good luck😁

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4

Thank you very much. @Rien_Dumore

There are multiple workarounds to handle files but I still think a specific component would be very useful

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