Directory chooser dialog does not show anything meaningful on Linux

[sschuberth]

After clicking on "Add build" I get this:

So that's not really meaningful 😉

Running on Fedora Linux 40, KDE spin, with Wayland.

[eskatos]

Arg, not useful at all indeed.
We simply use JFileChooser and don't have any Swing customisation in the code so I wonder what is causing this.
Could you try changing your KDE/GTK theme to see if it does change something?

[sschuberth]

Alternatively, as I was looking into a solution for https://github.com/oss-review-toolkit/ort-workbench which has similar problems, consider checking any of these:

• https://github.com/vinceglb/FileKit
• https://github.com/Wavesonics/compose-multiplatform-file-picker
• https://github.com/jakobkmar/pacmc/blob/main/pacmc-gui/src/jvmMain/kotlin/net/axay/pacmc/gui/util/FileChooser.kt

[eskatos]

Thanks!
FileKit uses the AWT file dialog on Linux and it is quite awful. The other two require lwjgl which is a huge library for that purpose. It feels wrong that this is that complicated to show a file dialog.
I'll give these a try and see

[sschuberth]

FileKit uses the AWT file dialog on Linux and it is quite awful.

And using FileKit also does not solve the problem, as I've just verified.

For the record, this seems to be the upstream issue.

[eskatos]

compose-multiplatform-file-picker repository has been archived yesterday.

Currently this project is unmaintained. If you want an alternative I will recommend FileKit

🤷

[eskatos]

This looked like the right solution to this problem but it looks abandoned.

• ✨ Native desktop picker on Windows and MacOS / Remove lwjgl library Wavesonics/compose-multiplatform-file-picker#123

[sschuberth]

Another option could be https://github.com/WonderzGmbH/nativefiledialog-java

[eskatos]

I gave it a try today but

• it fails on silicon macs Unable to load library on silicon mac WonderzGmbH/nativefiledialog-java#20
• it can't show hidden files which is useful for picking the Gradle user home Show hidden files btzy/nativefiledialog-extended#141

[sschuberth]

Thanks for reporting those issues upstream, though!

[vinceglb]

Hi! I'm a contributor of FileKit.

We have just released a new version improving support for Linux on JVM target. Now FileKit uses:

• XDG Desktop Portal on Linux to select files and folders and save files. You can see the implementation here. AWT File Dialog is used as a fallback if XdgFilePickerPortal is not available.
• On Windows, FileKit uses JNA to access the native file dialog. Here is the implementation.
• Same on macOS, we use JNA for accessing the native file dialog. The implementation here.

FileKit contains all the modifications proposed in this PR Wavesonics/compose-multiplatform-file-picker#123

We're still working on improving support on all the platforms. JVM one is probably the most complex to implement 😅

If you decide to give FileKit a try and encounter any issues, don't hesitate to create an issue 👌

I hope it helps!

[sschuberth]

Great stuff @vinceglb, that new FileKit version actually works for me!

[eskatos]

Great stuff indeed @vinceglb!
I was able to make use of FileKit in #26

[eskatos]

Actually, I get Directory picker is not supported on Linux yet if XDG Portal is not installed (i.e. no fallback) and picking directories is the only thing we're interested in for this project 😿

I guess we would need at least vinceglb/FileKit#81 before we can adopt this, or do the fallback ourselves which I'm not ready for Today :)

[eskatos]

I ended up changing #26 to only use FileKit on Mac and Windows. It's already nicer on these systems.

This doesn't fix this issue though.

A workaround for now is to type or paste a path directly in the field of the file picker if it shows up as in the OP screenshot or in the Gradle Client UI fields of the next screen.

[vinceglb]

I published a new version 0.8.0 of FileKit:

• This PR is merged Swing (JFileChooser) (fallback for Linux) vinceglb/FileKit#81: now on Linux we try to use XDG Portal, then awt.FileDialog. JFileChooser is used as fallback
• There are also big improvements on Windows for dialogs UI consistencies (including folder picker dialog)

[eskatos]

Thank you @vinceglb !

This is working nicely according to my tests on Linux

• Use native directory pickers on Linux #27