index.md 6.7 KB


title: "Getting Started" type: docs permalink: docs/ alias: api/

order: 0

Uppy is a sleek and modular file uploader. It fetches files from local disk, Google Drive, Instagram, remote urls, cameras etc, and then uploads them to the final destination. It’s fast, easy to use and lets you worry about more important problems than building a file uploader.

Uppy consists of a core module and various plugins for selecting, manipulating and uploading files.

Here’s the simplest example html page with Uppy (it uses a CDN bundle, while we recommend to use a bundler, see Installation):

<!doctype html>
<html>
  <head>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <title>Uppy</title>
    <link href="https://transloadit.edgly.net/releases/uppy/v0.30.4/uppy.min.css" rel="stylesheet">
  </head>
  <body>
    <div id="drag-drop-area"></div>

    <script src="https://transloadit.edgly.net/releases/uppy/v0.30.4/uppy.min.js"></script>
    <script>
      var uppy = Uppy.Core()
        .use(Uppy.Dashboard, {
          inline: true,
          target: '#drag-drop-area'
        })
        .use(Uppy.Tus, {endpoint: 'https://master.tus.io/files/'})

      uppy.on('complete', (result) => {
        console.log('Upload complete! We’ve uploaded these files:', result.successful)
      })
    </script>
  </body>
</html>

Try it live

Drag and drop, webcam, basic file manipulation (adding metadata), uploading via tus-resumable uploads or XHR/Multipart is all possible using just the Uppy client module.

Adding Companion to the mix enables remote sources such as Instagram, Google Drive, Dropbox, and remote URLs. Uploads from remote sources are handled server-to-server, so a 5 GB video won’t be eating into your mobile data plan. Files are removed from Companion after an upload is complete, or after a reasonable timeout. Access tokens also don’t stick around for long, for security reasons.

Installation

Uppy can be used with a module bundler such as Webpack or Browserify, or by including it in a script tag.

You may need polyfills if your application supports Internet Explorer or other older browsers. See Browser Support.

With a module bundler

Install the @uppy/core package from npm:

$ npm install @uppy/core

And install the plugins you need separately. The documentation pages for plugins in the sidebar show the necessary npm install commands. You can then import Uppy like so:

npm install @uppy/core @uppy/xhr-upload @uppy/dashboard
// Import the plugins
const Uppy = require('@uppy/core')
const XHRUpload = require('@uppy/xhr-upload')
const Dashboard = require('@uppy/dashboard')

// And their styles (for UI plugins)
require('@uppy/core/dist/style.css')
require('@uppy/dashboard/dist/style.css')
 
const uppy = Uppy()
  .use(Dashboard, {
    trigger: '#select-files'
  })
  .use(XHRUpload, { endpoint: 'https://api2.transloadit.com' })
 
uppy.on('complete', (result) => {
  console.log('Upload complete! We’ve uploaded these files:', result.successful)
})

Many plugins include a CSS file for the necessary styles in their dist/ folder. The plugin documentation pages will tell you which to use and when. When using multiple plugin CSS files, some code is duplicated. A CSS minifier like clean-css is recommended to remove the duplicate selectors.

You can also use the combined uppy package, which includes all plugins that are maintained by the Uppy team. Only use it if you have tree-shaking set up in your module bundler, otherwise you may end up sending a lot of unused code to your users.

$ npm install uppy

Then you can import Uppy and plugins like so:

import Uppy, { XHRUpload, DragDrop } from 'uppy'

And add the uppy/dist/uppy.min.css file to your page.

With a script tag

You can also use a pre-built bundle from Transloadit's CDN: Edgly. Uppy will attach itself to the global window.Uppy object.

⚠️ The bundle consists of all plugins maintained by the Uppy team. This method is therefore not recommended for production, as your users will have to download all plugins, even if you are only using a few of them.

1. Add a script at the bottom of the closing </body> tag:

<script src="https://transloadit.edgly.net/releases/uppy/v0.30.4/uppy.min.js"></script>

2. Add CSS to <head>:

<link href="https://transloadit.edgly.net/releases/uppy/v0.30.4/uppy.min.css" rel="stylesheet">

3. Initialize at the bottom of the closing </body> tag:

<script>
  var uppy = Uppy.Core()
  uppy.use(Uppy.DragDrop, { target: '#drag-drop-area' })
  uppy.use(Uppy.Tus, { endpoint: 'https://master.tus.io/files/' })
</script>

Documentation

  • Uppy — full list of options, methods and events.
  • Plugins — list of Uppy plugins and their options.
  • Server — setting up and running a Companion instance, which adds support for Instagram, Dropbox, Google Drive, direct links, and other remote sources.
  • React — components to integrate Uppy UI plugins with React apps.
  • Writing Plugins — how to write a plugin for Uppy [documentation in progress].

Browser Support

Sauce Test Status

We currently aim to support IE10+ and recent versions of Safari, Edge, Chrome, Firefox and Opera.

Polyfills

Uppy heavily uses Promises. If your target environment does not support Promises, use a polyfill like es6-promise before initialising Uppy.

When using remote providers like Google Drive or Dropbox, the Fetch API is used. If your target environment does not support the Fetch API, use a polyfill like whatwg-fetch before initialising Uppy. The Fetch API polyfill must be loaded after the Promises polyfill, because Fetch uses Promises.

With a module bundler, you can use the required polyfills like so:

npm install es6-promise whatwg-fetch
require('es6-promise/auto')
require('whatwg-fetch')
const Uppy = require('@uppy/core')

If you're using Uppy via a script tag, you can load the polyfills from JSDelivr like so:

<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/es6-promise@4.2.5/dist/es6-promise.auto.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/whatwg-fetch@3.0.0/dist/fetch.umd.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://transloadit.edgly.net/releases/uppy/v0.30.4/uppy.min.js"></script>