How to use the default file chooser for the operating system?

Question

I was just wondering: how does Gmail use the Windows/Mac file chooser to upload files? Is there any way to do this in Java?

Personally, I don't like the way that the JFileChooser looks like, and I thought it would be better for my users to be able to use something that they're more used to. Tips anyone?

Mccammon

Take a look at AWT's FileDialog – Reptile

Answer 1

Use the old java.awt.FileDialog instead:

new java.awt.FileDialog((java.awt.Frame) null).setVisible(true);

Sheikdom

Thank you! I will use this! I never really thought about components from java.awt.*. – Mccammon

Well we used to think about them a lot back in the day, before swing existed. :) – Sheikdom

Although this answer is quite old: I wouldn't recommend using the Awt file dialog. It's broken on Linux and Mac, and Oracle is not going to fix it any more. So, unless you are only targeting Window users, this is not a good idea. Besides, JFileChooser with the native look and feel looks almost identically on Windows. – Towhee

While that's true @Aru the JFileChooser even with native look is pretty far from the native file chooser in looks and functionality and slower (at least used to be). I fair compromise in some circumstances can be to use check for windows and use that. – Sheikdom

This implementation doesn't allow you to provide file filter on Windows. For example, you cannot force the dialog to show only *.jpg files. As far as I can see from Java 9 docs, it's still not implemented. Do you know any other APIs for that? – Clown

No unfortunately no file filters etc, very plain api. The JavaFX FileDialog is much better than the swing one IMO though and it's simple to mix them (different ui thread though) but it is supported to mix JavaFX and swing fairly well. SWT would be another option. – Sheikdom

This looks way better: https://mcmap.net/q/514599/-how-to-use-filedialog – Burschenschaft

This answer is outdated. FileDialog now provides an outdated file chooser on Windows, not the one used by the current OS. – Symphonia

Answer 2

You can try using JFileChooser but setting the look and feel to be the platform look and feel:

    try {
        UIManager.setLookAndFeel(UIManager.getSystemLookAndFeelClassName());
    }catch(Exception ex) {
        ex.printStackTrace();
    }

And that would make all the swing components look nicer!

Dumfound

It has plenty of other problems outside of the look and feel though, it doesn't give access to your "Quick access" directories in windows and just isn't convenient to navigate with – Mccue

Answer 3

GMail is a web application that eventually relies on the browser to show this component. Now a good solution is to use the Native Look&Feel of the system which provides a JFileChooser quite similar to what you show:

UIManager.setLookAndFeel(UIManager.getSystemLookAndFeelClassName());

EDIT: Pulsar's solution is even better since it provides the exact dialog you are looking for. I am not sure that it provides all the features of the JFileChooser.

Tertia

Answer 4

The SWT components have always looked the same styles that are in the running OS. You can see some examples:

• File Dialog Example : Dialog « SWT JFace Eclipse « Java
• eclipse.platform.swt.git - Eclipse SWT

It was assumed that from version 7 of Java, Swing styles would be more like that of operating systems, but may see it in Java 8.

Lenora