File and Class Choosers

Edit pageLast modified: 08 April 2024

File Choosers

Via Dialog

To let a user choose a file, directory or multiple files, use the FileChooser.chooseFiles() method. This method has multiple overloads. The best method to use is the one which returns void and takes a callback receiving the list of selected files as a parameter. This is the only overload which will display a native file open dialog on macOS.

The FileChooserDescriptor class allows you to control which files can be selected. The constructor parameters specify whether files and/or directories can be selected, and whether multiple selection is allowed (see FileChooserDescriptorFactory for common variants).

For more fine-grained control over the allowed selection, you can overload the isFileSelectable() method. You can also customize the presentation of files by overriding getIcon(), getName() and getComment() methods. Note that the native macOS file chooser does not support most of the customizations, so if you rely on them, you need to use an overload of chooseFiles() which displays the standard IntelliJ Platform dialog.

Via Text Field

A very common way of using file choosers is to use a text field for entering the path with an ellipsis button (...) for showing the file chooser. To create such a control, use the TextFieldWithBrowseButton component and call the addBrowseFolderListener() method on it to set up the file chooser. As an added bonus, this will enable filename completion when entering paths in the text box.

Via Tree

An alternative UI for selecting files, which works best when the most common way of selecting a file is by typing its name, is available through the TreeFileChooserFactory class.

The dialog shown by this API has two tabs:

  • One shows the project structure

  • Another shows a list of files similar to the one used by the Navigate | File popup.

To show the dialog, call showDialog() on the chooser returned from createFileChooser(), and then call getSelectedFile() to retrieve the user's selection.

Class and Package Choosers

If you want to offer the user a possibility to select a Java class, you can use the TreeClassChooserFactory class. Its different methods allow you to specify the scope from which the classes are taken, to restrict the choice to descendants of a specific class or implementations of an interface, and to include or exclude inner classes from the list.

For choosing a Java package, you can use the PackageChooserDialog class.

note

To use Java-specific components, an explicit dependency on the Java plugin is required. See Java for details.