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Variable: FileChooserDialog

const FileChooserDialog: "FileChooserDialog"

Defined in: react/src/generated/jsx.ts:12360

GtkFileChooserDialog is a dialog suitable for use with “File Open” or “File Save” commands.

This widget works by putting a [class@Gtk.FileChooserWidget] inside a [class@Gtk.Dialog]. It exposes the [iface@Gtk.FileChooser] interface, so you can use all of the [iface@Gtk.FileChooser] functions on the file chooser dialog as well as those for [class@Gtk.Dialog].

Note that GtkFileChooserDialog does not have any methods of its own. Instead, you should use the functions that work on a [iface@Gtk.FileChooser].

If you want to integrate well with the platform you should use the [class@Gtk.FileChooserNative] API, which will use a platform-specific dialog if available and fall back to GtkFileChooserDialog otherwise.

Typical usage

In the simplest of cases, you can the following code to use GtkFileChooserDialog to select a file for opening:

static void
on_open_response (GtkDialog *dialog,
int response)
{
if (response == GTK_RESPONSE_ACCEPT)
{
GtkFileChooser *chooser = GTK_FILE_CHOOSER (dialog);

g_autoptr(GFile) file = gtk_file_chooser_get_file (chooser);

open_file (file);
}

gtk_window_destroy (GTK_WINDOW (dialog));
}

// ...
GtkWidget *dialog;
GtkFileChooserAction action = GTK_FILE_CHOOSER_ACTION_OPEN;

dialog = gtk_file_chooser_dialog_new ("Open File",
parent_window,
action,
_("_Cancel"),
GTK_RESPONSE_CANCEL,
_("_Open"),
GTK_RESPONSE_ACCEPT,
NULL);

gtk_window_present (GTK_WINDOW (dialog));

g_signal_connect (dialog, "response",
G_CALLBACK (on_open_response),
NULL);

To use a dialog for saving, you can use this:

static void
on_save_response (GtkDialog *dialog,
int response)
{
if (response == GTK_RESPONSE_ACCEPT)
{
GtkFileChooser *chooser = GTK_FILE_CHOOSER (dialog);

g_autoptr(GFile) file = gtk_file_chooser_get_file (chooser);

save_to_file (file);
}

gtk_window_destroy (GTK_WINDOW (dialog));
}

// ...
GtkWidget *dialog;
GtkFileChooser *chooser;
GtkFileChooserAction action = GTK_FILE_CHOOSER_ACTION_SAVE;

dialog = gtk_file_chooser_dialog_new ("Save File",
parent_window,
action,
_("_Cancel"),
GTK_RESPONSE_CANCEL,
_("_Save"),
GTK_RESPONSE_ACCEPT,
NULL);
chooser = GTK_FILE_CHOOSER (dialog);

if (user_edited_a_new_document)
gtk_file_chooser_set_current_name (chooser, _("Untitled document"));
else
gtk_file_chooser_set_file (chooser, existing_filename);

gtk_window_present (GTK_WINDOW (dialog));

g_signal_connect (dialog, "response",
G_CALLBACK (on_save_response),
NULL);

Setting up a file chooser dialog

There are various cases in which you may need to use a GtkFileChooserDialog:

  • To select a file for opening, use %GTK_FILE_CHOOSER_ACTION_OPEN.

  • To save a file for the first time, use %GTK_FILE_CHOOSER_ACTION_SAVE, and suggest a name such as “Untitled” with [method@Gtk.FileChooser.set_current_name].

  • To save a file under a different name, use %GTK_FILE_CHOOSER_ACTION_SAVE, and set the existing file with [method@Gtk.FileChooser.set_file].

  • To choose a folder instead of a file, use %GTK_FILE_CHOOSER_ACTION_SELECT_FOLDER.

In general, you should only cause the file chooser to show a specific folder when it is appropriate to use [method@Gtk.FileChooser.set_file], i.e. when you are doing a “Save As” command and you already have a file saved somewhere.

Response Codes

GtkFileChooserDialog inherits from [class@Gtk.Dialog], so buttons that go in its action area have response codes such as %GTK_RESPONSE_ACCEPT and %GTK_RESPONSE_CANCEL. For example, you could call [ctor@Gtk.FileChooserDialog.new] as follows:

GtkWidget *dialog;
GtkFileChooserAction action = GTK_FILE_CHOOSER_ACTION_OPEN;

dialog = gtk_file_chooser_dialog_new ("Open File",
parent_window,
action,
_("_Cancel"),
GTK_RESPONSE_CANCEL,
_("_Open"),
GTK_RESPONSE_ACCEPT,
NULL);

This will create buttons for “Cancel” and “Open” that use predefined response identifiers from [enum@Gtk.ResponseType]. For most dialog boxes you can use your own custom response codes rather than the ones in [enum@Gtk.ResponseType], but GtkFileChooserDialog assumes that its “accept”-type action, e.g. an “Open” or “Save” button, will have one of the following response codes:

  • %GTK_RESPONSE_ACCEPT
  • %GTK_RESPONSE_OK
  • %GTK_RESPONSE_YES
  • %GTK_RESPONSE_APPLY

This is because GtkFileChooserDialog must intercept responses and switch to folders if appropriate, rather than letting the dialog terminate — the implementation uses these known response codes to know which responses can be blocked if appropriate.

To summarize, make sure you use a predefined response code when you use GtkFileChooserDialog to ensure proper operation.

CSS nodes

GtkFileChooserDialog has a single CSS node with the name window and style class .filechooser.