Swing Hacks

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Chapter 4, File Choosers

#29 Display Shortcuts in the JFileChooser

HACK

H A C K

#29

Display Shortcuts in the JFileChooser

Hack #29

This hack will customize the JFileChooser to recognize shortcut (linked)

folders and overlay them with a link graphic, mimicking the native Windows

File Explorer.

Another of JFileChooser’s glaring bugs is the lack of any support for linked

directories. This is hardly surprising, as Java itself has no understanding of

linked directories. Most operating systems support linked files, however,

and often indicate to the user that a file is linked—for example, by drawing

an arrow overlaid on top of the folder or directory icon. Compare the typi-

cal

JFileChooser in Figure 4-2 to the standard Windows file chooser in

Figure 4-3. There’s more than a small difference! No wonder it’s hard to get

folks to move to Swing.

Like every Swing component, the look of the

JFileChooser is controlled by

the installed Look and Feel (L&F). However, the

JFileChooser also uses a

custom class similar to a table cell renderer for drawing the actual files and

folders. That class,

FileView, is the best place to start hacking the

JFileChooser’s display.

The

FileView contains five methods that determine the names, icons, and

other attributes that are actually displayed in a

JFileChooser. By overriding

these methods, you can change the look or text of any file. To draw shortcuts

as linked folders, you just ne ...