Re: Gtk::FileChooserButton

[John Stebbins <stebbins jetheaddev com>]

On 05/01/2011 04:15 AM, John Emmas wrote:
> ** GTK+ (almost) exonerated **
>
> I've spent quite a bit of time delving into the problems I encountered with Gtk::FileChooserButton.  I 
> started by writing a minimal app using a main window with a child button.  The button launched a modal dialog 
> box which contained a Gtk::FileChooserButton.  I built the app for Windows (using VC++ and gtk-win32) and 
> then for Linux (using gcc and gtk-x11).  It behaved exactly as expected (and pretty much identically) on both 
> OS's.
>
> The only problem with the above was that I couldn't find am obvious way to preselect a startup folder for the 
> FileChooser dialog.  The only way I found was to create a Gtk::FileChooser dialog separately, then attach it 
> to a button using gtk_file_chooser_new_with_dialog().  However, when I do that I see some marked differences 
> in the Linux behaviour compared to the Windows behaviour.
>
> The main difference is that under Windows there seems to be an inherent link between the FileChooser dialog and its 
> associated FileChooserButton.  e.g. if I choose a particular file then press "Open", the chosen filename 
> appears automatically in the associated FileChooserButton.  This doesn't work when I build under Linux with gcc.  
> Likewise, with this new strategy I can preselect a startup folder using gtk_file_chooser_set_filename() (see the code 
> below).  This works every time in my Windows build but almost never works in the Linux build.
>
> I've listed the code below on the assumption that I've maybe missed out an important step somewhere.  Can 
> anyone see any obvious mistakes with my approach?
>
> John
>
>
> static void
> button_clicked (GtkWidget *window, gpointer data)
> {
> gsize bytes_written, bytes_read;
> GtkWidget *vbox;
> GtkWidget *dialog;
> GtkWidget *file_chooser_button;
> GError *error = 0;
>
>      dialog = gtk_dialog_new_with_buttons("File Chooser", (GtkWindow*)data,
>                          GTK_DIALOG_MODAL | GTK_DIALOG_DESTROY_WITH_PARENT,
>                          GTK_STOCK_CANCEL, GTK_RESPONSE_REJECT,
>                          NULL);
>
>      if (dialog)
>      {
> // Choose an arbitrary file for pre-selection which is known to exist on both OS's
> #ifdef WIN32
>          const gchar* home = "C:\\Users\\johne53\\.jackdrc";
> #else
>          const gchar* home = "/home/johne53/.jackdrc";
> #endif
>
>          GtkWidget* file_chooser_dialog = gtk_file_chooser_dialog_new ("Choose a file", GTK_WINDOW(dialog),
>                          GTK_FILE_CHOOSER_ACTION_OPEN,
>                          GTK_STOCK_CANCEL, GTK_RESPONSE_CANCEL,
>                          GTK_STOCK_OPEN, GTK_RESPONSE_OK,
>                          NULL);
>
>          if (file_chooser_dialog)
>          {
>              file_chooser_button = gtk_file_chooser_button_new_with_dialog (file_chooser_dialog);
>
>              if (file_chooser_button)
>              {
>                  // This always works
>                  printf ("Initializing FileChooser file to:- %s\n", home);
>
>                  // This works in the Win32 build but not in the Linux build
>                  gtk_file_chooser_set_filename((GtkFileChooser*)file_chooser_dialog,
>                          g_filename_to_utf8(home, strlen(home),&bytes_read,&bytes_written,&error))
>
>                  vbox = gtk_dialog_get_content_area (GTK_DIALOG (dialog));
>                  gtk_box_pack_start (GTK_BOX(vbox), file_chooser_button, TRUE, TRUE, 0);
>                  gtk_widget_show_all (dialog);
>              }
>          }
>
>          gtk_dialog_run((GtkDialog*)dialog);
>          gtk_widget_destroy(dialog);
>      }
> }

I know this is an old thread, but I just discovered a solution to a problem I've been having that I believe is the same 
issue.  gtk_file_chooser_set_filename and gtk_file_chooser_select_filename do not behave correctly under certain 
circumstances.  If you have enabled the display of hidden files in any app (right click popup menu in any file chooser 
dialog) AND you do not set a filter on your file chooser dialog with gtk_file_chooser_set_filter, then 
set/select_filename do not work.  Simply setting a filter with "*" as the glob works around the issue.

gtk 2.22 definitely still has the problem (fedora 15).  A quick read of the code indicates 2.24 still has the problem.  
git head looks like it's fixed.  Problem code is in gtkfilechooserdefault.c:show_and_select_files().  It only walks the 
file list and selects an item if can_have_hidden || can_have_filtered.