JFileChooser give access to a specific folder and copy a file to it

Question

I want to upload a file into a local folder (on my PC). The user should select a file. Than this file should be loaded into a folder (this folder is hard coded in my Java class). Unfortunately I didn't find a good solution for this. I just found something about a JFileChooser which is nice to open a file, but not to load one.

public static void main(String[] args){
    JFileChooser chooser = new JFileChooser();
    FileNameExtensionFilter filter = new FileNameExtensionFilter(
            "JPG & GIF Images", "jpg", "gif");
    chooser.setFileFilter(filter);
    int returnVal = chooser.showOpenDialog(null);
    if(returnVal == JFileChooser.APPROVE_OPTION) {
        System.out.println("You chose to open this file: " +
                chooser.getSelectedFile().getName());
    }
}

Is it possible to just give the file chooser access to a specific folder? the folder is hard coded like this:

public static String uploadPath = System.getProperty("user.dir") + "/uploads Modul1";

Upload a file - from where? Usually people say "upload" when they want to copy data to a remote system using the network. `JFileChooser` shows you the local file system, not the remote, so what do you want to do exactly? — Joni, Aug 12 '20 at 12:37
right, I want to copy a file and move it into an other directory (all on the same computer). But I am not sure if this is possible with the FileChooser @Joni — CodeIsLaw, Aug 12 '20 at 12:44

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 12 '20 at 12:56

Copying or moving files is independent of how the file is chosen. The easy way to copy a file is with the Files.copy method. Here's how you can add it to your existing code:

    int returnVal = chooser.showOpenDialog(null);
    if(returnVal == JFileChooser.APPROVE_OPTION) {
        File selectedFile = chooser.getSelectedFile();
        System.out.println("You chose to copy this file: " +
            selectedFile.getName());

        Path newPath = Paths.get(uploadPath, selectedFile.getName());
        Files.copy(selectedFile.toPath(), newPath);
    }

The official tutorial has a section on copying files: https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/essential/io/copy.html

If you want to move the file instead of copying it, use Files.move instead of Files.copy.

Thanks for your help, Do you know if it is possible to allow just a specific path? I don't want that the user gets access to the whole file system, can I block some paths? — CodeIsLaw, Aug 12 '20 at 13:26
Yes the solution is to set a custom "file system view" for JFileChooser. You can find a complete implementation in https://stackoverflow.com/questions/32529/how-do-i-restrict-jfilechooser-to-a-directory or here https://stackoverflow.com/questions/8926146/jfilechooser-want-to-lock-it-to-one-directory — Joni, Aug 12 '20 at 13:35

JFileChooser give access to a specific folder and copy a file to it

1 Answers1