[Feature request] Fetching and Grouping Album Assets by Date

[HenrikH96]

Platforms

dart, Android, iOS

Description

Currently, the albumAssetCount method provides only the total count of assets within an album. While useful, it is insufficient for scenarios where grouping assets by date (e.g., by month) is required — a common feature in many modern image pickers.

I was able to achieve this functionality by combining multiple SQL requests and leveraging asset counts to create custom groupings. However, this approach is not very efficient and may result in performance issues for larger datasets.

Any suggestion on a better way ?

My workaround:

var firstAsset = await album.getAssetListRange(start: 0, end: 1);
var lastAsset =
    await album.getAssetListRange(start: assetCount - 1, end: assetCount);

var startDateTime = firstAsset.first.modifiedDateTime;
var endDateTime = lastAsset.first.modifiedDateTime;

int differenceInMonths = (startDateTime.year * 12 + startDateTime.month) -
    (endDateTime.year * 12 + endDateTime.month);
DateTime currentDate = startDateTime;

int lastIndex = 0;
for (int i = 0; i <= differenceInMonths; i++) {
  DateTime startDate = DateTime(currentDate.year, currentDate.month, 1);
  DateTime endDate = DateTime(currentDate.year, currentDate.month + 1, 0,
      23, 59, 59);

  var filter = CustomFilter.sql(
    where: '''
      ${CustomColumns.android.width} IS NOT NULL
      AND ${CustomColumns.base.modifiedDate} >= ${CustomColumns.utils.convertDateTimeToSql(startDate)}
      AND ${CustomColumns.base.modifiedDate} <= ${CustomColumns.utils.convertDateTimeToSql(endDate)}
    ''',
    orderBy: [OrderByItem.desc(CustomColumns.android.modifiedDate)],
  );

  var newAlbum = album.copyWith(filterOption: filter);
  var monthlyAssetCount = await newAlbum.assetCountAsync;
  String monthKey =
      "${startDate.year}-${startDate.month.toString().padLeft(2, '0')}";
  albumStatistics[monthKey] = AlbumStatistics(
      startIndex: lastIndex, endIndex: lastIndex + monthlyAssetCount);

  lastIndex += monthlyAssetCount;

  currentDate = DateTime(currentDate.year, currentDate.month - 1);
}

Why

Reason:
This feature would make it easier to rebuild common image pickers like those found in WhatsApp or built-in photo libraries. Many popular apps use this kind of grouping to improve user experience. Adding this capability directly to the library would align it with such widely adopted use cases.

Feature Request:
Introduce a built-in way to fetch assets grouped by timeframes (e.g., months), reducing the need for multiple SQL queries and manual calculations. This feature would enhance the library's usability for developers implementing custom image pickers and similar features.

[fluttercandies-dev]

AI Summary: The user requests a built-in feature to group album assets by date (e.g., monthly), as the current method of combining multiple SQL requests is inefficient for large datasets and common image picker UIs.