Typical usage

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

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GtkWidget *dialog;
GtkFileChooserAction action = GTK_FILE_CHOOSER_ACTION_OPEN;
gint res;

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

res = gtk_dialog_run (GTK_DIALOG (dialog));
if (res == GTK_RESPONSE_ACCEPT)
  {
    char *filename;
    GtkFileChooser *chooser = GTK_FILE_CHOOSER (dialog);
    filename = gtk_file_chooser_get_filename (chooser);
    open_file (filename);
    g_free (filename);
  }

gtk_widget_destroy (dialog);

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

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GtkWidget *dialog;
GtkFileChooser *chooser;
GtkFileChooserAction action = GTK_FILE_CHOOSER_ACTION_SAVE;
gint res;

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);

gtk_file_chooser_set_do_overwrite_confirmation (chooser, TRUE);

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

res = gtk_dialog_run (GTK_DIALOG (dialog));
if (res == GTK_RESPONSE_ACCEPT)
  {
    char *filename;

    filename = gtk_file_chooser_get_filename (chooser);
    save_to_file (filename);
    g_free (filename);
  }

gtk_widget_destroy (dialog);

Setting up a file chooser dialog

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

Note that old versions of the file chooser’s documentation suggested using gtk_file_chooser_set_current_folder() in various situations, with the intention of letting the application suggest a reasonable default folder. This is no longer considered to be a good policy, as now the file chooser is able to make good suggestions on its own. In general, you should only cause the file chooser to show a specific folder when it is appropriate to use gtk_file_chooser_set_filename(), i.e. when you are doing a Save As command and you already have a file saved somewhere.

Response Codes

GtkFileChooserDialog inherits from GtkDialog, 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 gtk_file_chooser_dialog_new() as follows:

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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 stock response identifiers from GtkResponseType. For most dialog boxes you can use your own custom response codes rather than the ones in GtkResponseType, but GtkFileChooserDialog assumes that its “accept”-type action, e.g. an “Open” or “Save” button, will have one of the following response codes:

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 stock response code when you use GtkFileChooserDialog to ensure proper operation.

gtk_file_chooser_dialog_new ()

GtkWidget *
gtk_file_chooser_dialog_new (const gchar *title,
                             GtkWindow *parent,
                             GtkFileChooserAction action,
                             const gchar *first_button_text,
                             ...);

Creates a new GtkFileChooserDialog. This function is analogous to gtk_dialog_new_with_buttons().

Since: 2.4

struct GtkFileChooserDialog

struct GtkFileChooserDialog;