MediaStore.MediaColumns.DATA is deprecated, and I want to load images from gallery to my app

Question

I want to load all the pictures from the media provider to my app by using MediaStore API, but this column MediaStore.MediaColumns.DATA is deprecated. So, what can I use as an alternative?

I want to update the following code to get rid of the deprecated MediaStore.MediaColumns.DATA column:

fun ContentResolver.loadImagesPaths(): List<String> {
    val uri = MediaStore.Images.Media.EXTERNAL_CONTENT_URI
    val images = mutableListOf<String>()
    val projection = arrayOf(MediaStore.MediaColumns.DATA)
    query(uri, projection, null, null, null)?.use { cursor ->
        val dataColumn = cursor.getColumnIndexOrThrow(MediaStore.MediaColumns.DATA)
        while (cursor.moveToNext()) {
            images += cursor.getString(dataColumn)
        }
    }
    return images
}

Edit:

Updated code:

fun ContentResolver.loadImagesUris(): List<Uri> {
    val uri = MediaStore.Images.Media.EXTERNAL_CONTENT_URI
    val images = mutableListOf<Uri>()
    val projection = arrayOf(MediaStore.Images.Media._ID)
    query(uri, projection, null, null, null)?.use { cursor ->
        val idColumn = cursor.getColumnIndexOrThrow(MediaStore.Images.Media._ID)
        while (cursor.moveToNext()) {
            images += ContentUris.withAppendedId(uri, cursor.getLong(idColumn))
        }
    }
    return images
}

Check out this link for further details on how to access media files from shared storage: https://developer.android.com/training/data-storage/shared/media

Answer 1

I was able to replace MediaStore.MediaColumns.Data with its own file ID (incredibly, files have IDs) and correctly constructing its URI, like this:

fun getAllShownImagesPath(activity: Activity): MutableList<Uri> {
    val uriExternal: Uri = MediaStore.Images.Media.EXTERNAL_CONTENT_URI
    val cursor: Cursor?
    val columnIndexID: Int
    val listOfAllImages: MutableList<Uri> = mutableListOf()
    val projection = arrayOf(MediaStore.Images.Media._ID)
    var imageId: Long
    cursor = activity.contentResolver.query(uriExternal, projection, null, null, null)
    if (cursor != null) {
        columnIndexID = cursor.getColumnIndexOrThrow(MediaStore.Images.Media._ID)
        while (cursor.moveToNext()) {
            imageId = cursor.getLong(columnIndexID)
            val uriImage = Uri.withAppendedPath(uriExternal, "" + imageId)
            listOfAllImages.add(uriImage)
        }
        cursor.close()
    }
    return listOfAllImages
}

and then with Uri you build it in your Views!

Answer 2

I managed to come up with the following solution, its kind of an addition to the previous answer

but there I still couldn't load images with the obtained Uri. Documentation suggested to use openFileDescriptor() which I did and then decoded images' bitmaps from it:

override fun loadImagesFromStorage(): List<AdapterImage> {

    val uri: Uri = MediaStore.Images.Media.EXTERNAL_CONTENT_URI
    val cursor: Cursor?
    val columnIndexId: Int
    val listOfAllImages = mutableListOf<AdapterImage>()
    val projection = arrayOf(MediaStore.Images.Media._ID)
    cursor = context.contentResolver
        .query( uri, projection, null, null, null)

    if ( cursor != null ){
        columnIndexId = cursor.getColumnIndexOrThrow(MediaStore.Images.Media._ID)
        while (cursor.moveToNext()){

            val contentUri = ContentUris.withAppendedId(uri, cursor.getLong(columnIndexId))

            //here I open FileDescriptor and then decode it into Bitmap
            var image: Bitmap
            context.contentResolver.openFileDescriptor(contentUri, "r").use { pfd ->
                if( pfd != null ){
                    image = BitmapFactory.decodeFileDescriptor(pfd.fileDescriptor)
                    listOfAllImages.add(AdapterImage(image))
                }
            }

        }
        cursor.close()
    }

    return listOfAllImages
}

P.S. My method will return a list of AdapterImage objects that I use later in app but you can put anything you need there at this point