67.1 The Storage Access Framework

From the perspective of the user, the Storage Access Framework provides an intuitive user interface that allows the user to browse, select, delete and create files hosted by storage services (also referred to as document providers) from within Android applications. Using this browsing interface (also referred to as the picker), users can, for example, browse through the files (such as documents, audio, images and videos) hosted by their chosen document providers. Figure 67-1, for example, shows the picker user interface displaying a collection of files hosted by a document provider service:

Figure 67-1

Document providers can range from cloud-based services to local document providers running on the same device as the client application. At the time of writing, the most prominent document providers compatible with the Storage Access Framework are Box and, unsurprisingly, Google Drive. It is highly likely that other cloud storage providers...