Edge Chromium vs UWP: OpenFile dialog with integrated camera feature seams not implemented (pressing a Html5 fileupload button)

Question

Edge Chromium vs UWP: OpenFile dialog with integrated camera feature seams not implemented (pressing a Html5 fileupload button)

Alexander Dexler 21

Hello, perhaps better in short:

A few weeks ago: Edge UWP => Win-Settings => Camera store-app access for Edge

=> Click on Html5-Button <input type=file...>
=> FileOpen dialog with integrated (UWP-App-) camera comes up.

Now: Edge Chromium => No integrated camera

Does anybody know the status quo of this feature? And if it's currently not supported or deprecated at all, is it possible to extend the FileOpen dialog by a chrome extension?

Many thanks in advance!!!

Anonymous

2021-01-29T08:37:25.953+00:00

Hi @Alexander Dexler

For better understanding your issue, I want to confirm something with you:
What do you mean Edge UWP? Do you mean Edge Legacy browser?
I'm a little confused about what you're trying to do. Are you developing a UWP app or a webpage?
Do you want to open the camera by clicking a button in Edge Chromium?
Correct me if I'm wrong and please explain more detailed about what's the issue and what you want to achieve.
Alexander Dexler 21 Reputation points

2021-01-29T13:16:53.993+00:00

Hello @Anonymous ,

thank you for your response, correct, the target is to open the camera by clicking a button in Edge Chromium.

With Edge legacy (i have learned this is the proper denotation) this was possible within a standard html5 input element.
This is the resulting file open dialog:

In the left panel you have the choice to use your internal camera.

From my opinion this is incredible smooth cause my html5 application is totally free from any addon and nevertheless compatible with all target platforms.

Our round about 100 distribution partners worked with this at least 1 year without any trouble.
Alexander Dexler 21 Reputation points

2021-01-30T02:54:53.867+00:00
In case that the project setup is interesting:

Backend: Tomee EE 7 / FreeMarker / iText

Web part:

EE7 Web Project / Html5 / SinglePage App

Overall Framework Knockout.js / JQuery

Currently using Web Cache with Simple ServiceWorker

That's all. The project targets gathering online contracts, all contract partners have to sign several parts including data protection rules. In the latter context it's mandatory to upload camera shots of passports etc.. After a plausibility check the user and our distribution partner get a email with all the finished contract formulars including legally bound signatures in pdf form.

Since we - and i think the most other companies - have microsoft based server and client infrastructure, it's basically enough to run the application in Windows contexts. In this form (except the described issue) it is successfully running on android, ios and especially windows clients.

Accepted answer

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Anonymous

2021-01-29T08:37:25.953+00:00

Hi @Alexander Dexler

For better understanding your issue, I want to confirm something with you:
What do you mean Edge UWP? Do you mean Edge Legacy browser?
I'm a little confused about what you're trying to do. Are you developing a UWP app or a webpage?
Do you want to open the camera by clicking a button in Edge Chromium?
Correct me if I'm wrong and please explain more detailed about what's the issue and what you want to achieve.
Alexander Dexler 21 Reputation points

2021-01-29T13:16:53.993+00:00

Hello @Anonymous ,

thank you for your response, correct, the target is to open the camera by clicking a button in Edge Chromium.

With Edge legacy (i have learned this is the proper denotation) this was possible within a standard html5 input element.
This is the resulting file open dialog:

In the left panel you have the choice to use your internal camera.

From my opinion this is incredible smooth cause my html5 application is totally free from any addon and nevertheless compatible with all target platforms.

Our round about 100 distribution partners worked with this at least 1 year without any trouble.
Alexander Dexler 21 Reputation points

2021-01-30T02:54:53.867+00:00

In case that the project setup is interesting:

Backend: Tomee EE 7 / FreeMarker / iText

Web part:

EE7 Web Project / Html5 / SinglePage App

Overall Framework Knockout.js / JQuery

Currently using Web Cache with Simple ServiceWorker

That's all. The project targets gathering online contracts, all contract partners have to sign several parts including data protection rules. In the latter context it's mandatory to upload camera shots of passports etc.. After a plausibility check the user and our distribution partner get a email with all the finished contract formulars including legally bound signatures in pdf form.

Since we - and i think the most other companies - have microsoft based server and client infrastructure, it's basically enough to run the application in Windows contexts. In this form (except the described issue) it is successfully running on android, ios and especially windows clients.

Answer 1

Hi @Alexander Dexler

The way you used in Edge Legacy is called HTML Media Capture. It has bad support in desktop browsers. Of course, Edge Chromium doesn't support it.

The widely supported way to access camera in desktop browser is using getUserMedia(). You can refer to this article for more information.
FYI, there're some examples about using getUserMedia().

If the response is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and upvote it.
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Regards,
Yu Zhou

Answer 2

Eric Lawrence 16 Microsoft Employee

The accepted answer here isn't quite right-- Basically, the story here is that UWP apps like Edge Legacy use a version of the file picker control that support UWP File Picker contracts (including the Camera and Photos apps). Win32 Apps (like Chrome and the new Edge) do not have access to the picker contracts. You'll see the same thing when looking at the file open dialogs for Paint (Win32) vs. Paint3D (UWP).

The suggested workaround (use getUserMedia to access the camera directly from JavaScript) seems fine though.

Alexander Dexler 21 Reputation points

2021-02-24T16:50:11.37+00:00

Yeah, consent! The only clean solution should be answered. We use Delphi XE7 for Windows Applications, all other tech stacks are based on commonly available technologies/frameworks. So i think i have not the proper means to come to a running solution.

One idea is to write an edge plugin which communicates through localhost with an UWP backend task reimplementing the picker's api. As far i could see it's not possible to write UWPs with Studio Code and XE7 isn't prepared. So i stopped at that point and implemented the needed functionality as recommended (but with massive loss of convencience, ui quality and got a further dependency to camera's autofocus and so on. It's just annoying).

Currently i'm testing Cordova without using platform dependencies to force using the web cam plugin. I hope it is reasonably professional. Beyond that i have Edge's webview2 in mind which can hopefully used within Cordova at a later time (if not now).

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Edge Chromium vs UWP: OpenFile dialog with integrated camera feature seams not implemented (pressing a Html5 fileupload button)

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