10.13. File Selections

The file selection widget is a quick and simple way to display a File dialog box. It comes complete with Ok, Cancel, and Help buttons, a great way to cut down on programming time.

To create a new file selection box use:

GtkWidget *gtk_file_selection_new( const gchar *title );

To set the filename, for example to bring up a specific directory, or give a default filename, use this function:

void gtk_file_selection_set_filename( GtkFileSelection *filesel,
                                      const gchar      *filename );

To grab the text that the user has entered or clicked on, use this function:

gchar *gtk_file_selection_get_filename( GtkFileSelection *filesel );

There are also pointers to the widgets contained within the file selection widget. These are:

  dir_list
  file_list
  selection_entry
  selection_text
  main_vbox
  ok_button
  cancel_button
  help_button

Most likely you will want to use the ok_button, cancel_button, and help_button pointers in signaling their use.

Included here is an example stolen from testgtk.c, modified to run on its own. As you will see, there is nothing much to creating a file selection widget. While in this example the Help button appears on the screen, it does nothing as there is not a signal attached to it.

#include <gtk/gtk.h>

/* Get the selected filename and print it to the console */
static void file_ok_sel( GtkWidget        *w,
                         GtkFileSelection *fs )
{
    g_print ("%s\n", gtk_file_selection_get_filename (GTK_FILE_SELECTION (fs)));
}

int main( int   argc,
          char *argv[] )
{
    GtkWidget *filew;
    
    gtk_init (&argc, &argv);
    
    /* Create a new file selection widget */
    filew = gtk_file_selection_new ("File selection");
    
    g_signal_connect (G_OBJECT (filew), "destroy",
	              G_CALLBACK (gtk_main_quit), NULL);
    /* Connect the ok_button to file_ok_sel function */
    g_signal_connect (G_OBJECT (GTK_FILE_SELECTION (filew)->ok_button),
		      "clicked", G_CALLBACK (file_ok_sel), (gpointer) filew);
    
    /* Connect the cancel_button to destroy the widget */
    g_signal_connect_swapped (G_OBJECT (GTK_FILE_SELECTION (filew)->cancel_button),
	                      "clicked", G_CALLBACK (gtk_widget_destroy),
			      G_OBJECT (filew));
    
    /* Lets set the filename, as if this were a save dialog, and we are giving
     a default filename */
    gtk_file_selection_set_filename (GTK_FILE_SELECTION(filew), 
				     "penguin.png");
    
    gtk_widget_show (filew);
    gtk_main ();
    return 0;
}