Native dialog boxes

[Genie23]

Hello,

I have just started to develop in Kotlin with this framework a software project that requires some native dialog boxes. After searching on Google and in the main README, I understand that this framework does not include system dialogs (messages, confirmations, file selection, ...).

So I'm here to suggest to integrate them, because for a desktop application, but even for a mobile application, it can be useful in many cases. In my case, to select files as input, then save the result to the output file, with a confirmation before overwriting an existing file.

[russellbanks]

I would suggest using LWJGL and either use Java bindings to Native File Dialog or Tiny File Dialogs. These libraries can guarantee that you are getting the truly native apis provided by the operating systems themselves.

Below is the code that I use in my Compose for Desktop application to open a native file dialog and return a file (using Tiny File Dialogs):

/**
 * Displays a file open dialog.
 *
 * @param title                   the dialog title or {@code NULL}
 * @param defaultPathAndFile      the default path and/or file or {@code NULL}
 * @param filterPatterns          an array of file type patterns ({@code NULL} or {"*.jpg","*.png"}
 * @param singleFilterDescription {@code NULL} or "image files"
 * @param allowMultipleSelects    if true, multiple selections are allowed
 *
 * @return the file(s) selected or {@code NULL} on cancel. In case of multiple files, the separator is '|'.
 */
@NativeType("char const *")
fun openTinyFileDialog(
    @NativeType("char const *") title: CharSequence?,
    @NativeType("char const *") defaultPathAndFile: CharSequence?,
    @NativeType("char const * const *") filterPatterns: PointerBuffer?,
    @NativeType("char const *") singleFilterDescription: CharSequence?,
    @NativeType("int") allowMultipleSelects: Boolean
): String? {
    val stack = stackGet()
    val stackPointer = stack.pointer
    return try {
        stack.nUTF8Safe(title, true)
        val titleEncoded = if (title == null) NULL else stack.pointerAddress
        stack.nUTF8Safe(defaultPathAndFile, true)
        val defaultPathAndFileEncoded = if (defaultPathAndFile == null) NULL else stack.pointerAddress
        stack.nUTF8Safe(singleFilterDescription, true)
        val singleFilterDescriptionEncoded = if (singleFilterDescription == null) NULL else stack.pointerAddress
        val result = ntinyfd_openFileDialog(
            titleEncoded,
            defaultPathAndFileEncoded,
            remainingSafe(filterPatterns),
            memAddressSafe(filterPatterns),
            singleFilterDescriptionEncoded,
            if (allowMultipleSelects) 1 else 0
        )
        memUTF8Safe(result)
    } finally {
        stack.pointer = stackPointer
    }
}

fun openFileDialogAndGetResult(): File? {
    openTinyFileDialog(
        title = "Open",
        defaultPathAndFile = null,
        filterPatterns = null,
        singleFilterDescription = null,
        allowMultipleSelects = false
    ).also {
        return if (it != null) File(it) else null
    }
}

[russellbanks]

How do you add dependency to the tinyFileDialogs? I looked at your project and it has different library

I recently moved to Native File Dialogs because of the Native File Dialog Extended fork. I'd recommend trying both and seeing what works best for your project.

[russellbanks]

what is the value of NULL?

NULL is the value of null in C.

[hooksw]

File Chooser should be provided officially as it is a so common component, there is no neccessary to let each user make their own wheels.

[shalva97]

check out https://github.com/Wavesonics/compose-multiplatform-file-picker

[russellbanks]

https://github.com/WonderzGmbH/nativefiledialog-java has recently been made available! It's an idiomatic way of using Native File Dialog, which fallbacks to using the Java AWT file picker if that fails.