Develop Reference

Cannot select folders as directories using JFileChooser

I am currently trying to use JFileChooser to return the path of a file or directory as a string. However, I found that I cannot choose a folder as my selection until I choose a file first. While this isn't a major issue it is by far frustrating to solve.
Gfycat of what is happening: https://gfycat.com/DeadlyDeliriousAzurevase
Code:
public static String openFileChooser()
{
int returnValue = fileChoose.showOpenDialog(null);
if(returnValue == JFileChooser.APPROVE_OPTION)
{
fileChoose.setFileSelectionMode(JFileChooser.FILES_AND_DIRECTORIES);
return (fileChoose.getSelectedFile().getAbsoluteFile().toString());
}
else
{
return "null";
}
}
Help would be absolutely appreciated, thank you!

You're setting the file selection mode after you've shown the dialog and the user has clicked the button. It won't have any effect at that point. You need to set it before you show the file chooser dialog.
The line you need to move up to be the first line in your method is:
fileChoose.setFileSelectionMode(JFileChooser.FILES_AND_DIRECTORIES);

You should change your code to
JFileChooser fileChooser = new JFileChooser();
fileChooser.setFileSelectionMode(JFileChooser.FILES_AND_DIRECTORIES);
int returnValue = fileChooser.showOpenDialog(null);
if (returnValue == JFileChooser.APPROVE_OPTION) {
System.out.println(fileChooser.getSelectedFile().getAbsoluteFile().toString());
} else {
System.out.println("Empty");
}
make sure invoke
fileChooser.setFileSelectionMode(JFileChooser.FILES_AND_DIRECTORIES);
before you open your dialog

How to Search All the Files in a Folder with JFileChooser

I have a program that (so far) searches through a file for certain keywords and prints all the lines that have that keyword in it. The problem is it can only search one text file at a time. How can I make it so it searches every text file inside of a folder?
This is the code for the Find File Button that opens just a text file
findFileButton.addActionListener(new ActionListener()
{
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e)
{
JFileChooser fileChoice = new JFileChooser();
fileChoice.setFileSelectionMode(JFileChooser.FILES_ONLY);
int returnVal = fileChoice.showOpenDialog(AdminPanel.this);
if (returnVal == JFileChooser.APPROVE_OPTION)
{
File file = fileChoice.getSelectedFile();
wantedFile = file.getAbsolutePath();
}
}
});
I tried switching the fileSelectionMode to FILES_AND_DIRECTORIES but when i clicked on a folder it would trigger my try/catch for a file wasn't found/specified.
Any help?
Thanks,
~Zmyth

To start with, when using FILES_AND_DIRECTORIES, you will either get a file OR directory. You need to check the type using File.isDirectory to determine what you should do. If it's a directory, then you need to list all the files within it and process them as required, if it's a file, you just need to process it as normal.
If you only want the user to be able to select directories, you could use DIRECTORIES_ONLY
To search the directory...
You could...
Use one of the File#listFiles methods to list all the files from within the selected directory.
This will only list the files for the current directory, if you want to do a recursive search, you need to implement this yourself, but's not to hard
You could...
Use Files#walkFileTree which can be used to walk the current directory and sub directories, depending how you code the FileVisitor
See Walking the File Tree for more details

Sorry if I was unclear in my original question, I wasn't sure how to go about searching for the files in a folder instead of just a file. I was able to get it eventually though with the help of the one answer. I would up vote it but I don't have enough reputation yet. This is what I was looking for:
findFileButton.addActionListener(new ActionListener()
{
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e)
{
JFileChooser fileChoice = new JFileChooser();
fileChoice.setFileSelectionMode(JFileChooser.DIRECTORIES_ONLY);
int returnVal = fileChoice.showOpenDialog(Panel.this);
if (returnVal == JFileChooser.APPROVE_OPTION)
{
File folder = fileChoice.getCurrentDirectory();
File[] listOfFiles = folder.listFiles();
for (int i = 0; i < listOfFiles.length; i++)
{
if (listOfFiles[i].isFile())
{
wantedFilesList.add(listOfFiles[i].getAbsolutePath());
currentFilesList.add(listOfFiles[i].getName());
}
else if (listOfFiles[i].isDirectory())
{
// Blerg
}
}
}
}
});

JFileChooser to pick a directory or a single file

is it possible to make a JFileChooser which can choose a file or a directory?
Because, if I use a filefilter in my chooser it is only possible to choose the files included the filter option, but I am no longer able to choose a directory.
this is my JFileChooser
JFileChooser ch = new JFileChooser();
ch.setAcceptAllFileFilterUsed(false);
ch.setFileFilter(new FileFilter() {
public boolean accept(File f) {
if (f != null && f.isDirectory()) {
return true;
}
if (f == null || !f.getName().toUpperCase().endsWith(".PROPERTIES")) {
return false;
}
return true;
}
public String getDescription() {
return "Property Files" + " (*.properties)";
}
});
ch.setCurrentDirectory(new File("."));
ch.showOpenDialog(this);
if (ch.getSelectedFile() != null) {
ressource = ch.getSelectedFile();
}
else {
return;
}
txtRessource.setText(ressource.getAbsolutePath());

Just call
ch.setFileSelectionMode(JFileChooser.FILES_AND_DIRECTORIES);
And that way you will be able to select either a file or a directory. This works with combination of your filter.
Btw you don't have to implement the file filter too, there is a FileNameExtensionFilter which does exactly what you want (it also accepts folders):
ch.setFileFilter(new FileNameExtensionFilter("Properties file", "properties"));

To select files and directories try this
file_chooser.setFileSelectionMode(JFileChooser.FILES_AND_DIRECTORIES);
And to choose only directories try this
dir_chooser.setFileSelectionMode(JFileChooser.DIRECTORIES_ONLY);
REASON
As the name suggests, adding a file filter will only filter out a ceratin types of files and will allow you to choose only particular type of file like .jpg,.png etc if you want to select only image files. But to select a directory or only a file you have to set the file selection mode of the JFileChooser instance. Set the mode according to your requirements.

Dude was looking for the answer of this as well. I think its too late to tell you, but for anyone looking I think adding file.isDirectory() == true on the filter work. So in this case if you are looking to choose files ending with .Properties then
public boolean accept(File f) {
if (f.isDirectory() || f.getName().toUpperCase().endsWith(".PROPERTIES")) {
return true;
}
So in this case if its either a file directory or something that ends with a properties extension

Program to check whether extension of a file is .txt

I wrote a java code having an awt text field and a button, where if I click on the button, I can browse a file using JFileChooser. It needs to check whether the file has ".txt" extension or not.I wrote the code below, but it is not getting verified.
Where am I going wrong? Please help to determine where I am wrong.
try{
final JFileChooser chooser = new JFileChooser();
chooser.showOpenDialog(null);
chooser.addChoosableFileFilter(new FileFilter() {
public String getDescription() {
return "*.txt";
}
public boolean accept(File filename)
{
if(filename.getName().endsWith(".txt")){
return true;
}
else{
System.out.println("Browsed dest file extension must be .txt");
return false;
}}
});
catch(Exception ex)
{
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(f,"Exception occurred");
}

Your problem is that:
chooser.showOpenDialog(null);
stop execution of code until user select a file. Add this line after adding FileFilter and eveyrthing should work ok.
Little explanation:
Method showOpenDialog(Component c) blockexecution of current thread until user action and next line of your code will be executed after the user choose a file. If you invoke after adding a FileFilter once again showOpenDialog it will work as you expect.

I would suggest using the #Override annotation for the accept method - see this link #Override explained in Oracle Documentation.
Plus, it would be best to use filename.getName().toLowerCase().endsWith(".txt") instead filename.getName().endsWith(".txt") to ensure that files with the extension .TXT will pass the filter as well.

Get all file names in directory using JFileChooser?

I'm using this bit of code:
fileBrowser() {
String toReturn = null;
JFileChooser Chooser = new JFileChooser();
int choosen = Chooser.showOpenDialog(fileBrowser.this);
if (choosen == JFileChooser.APPROVE_OPTION) {
System.out.println(Chooser.getCurrentDirectory().toString()+"\\"+Chooser.getSelectedFile().getName());
}
}
To get the selected file name and location, which is all working fine. I was wondering as an addition, is there also a way to get all the filenames in that directory as well? something like .getAllFiles() I've had a search around and can't find one?
Thanks in Advance.

Sure, use
File[] filesInDirectory = chooser.getCurrentDirectory().listFiles();
Then you can iterate over that array:
for ( File file : filesInDirectory ) {
System.out.println(file.getName());
}

Well, there's File.list(). This will list all files by their name from the specified directory (i.e. File). But this will also return directory names. In order to circumvent that, use the other File.list(FilenameFilter filter) method that will enable you to filter out directories from the listing.