Add Custom Components to JFileChooser

Let me show you how to add custom components to JFileChooser in Swing. This is very easy and even you have a method for that. In this post, i will be showing you how to use that method to use your own components and enjoy! Here we go!

import javax.swing.*;

import java.awt.*;

import java.awt.event.*;

class CustomJFileChooser extends JFrame

{

private JButton jb;

private JFileChooser jf;

private JPanel jp;

private JLabel jl;



 public CustomJFileChooser()

 {

 createAndShowGUI();

 }

 

 private void createAndShowGUI()

 {

 

 // Set frame properties

 setTitle("Custom JFileChooser");

 setSize(400,400);

 setLayout(new FlowLayout());

 setLocationRelativeTo(null);

 setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);

 setVisible(true);

 

 // Create JButton

 jb=new JButton("Open JFileChooser");

 

 // Add ActionListener to JButton

 jb.addActionListener(new ActionListener(){

  public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent ae)

  {

  // Create JFileChooser

  jf=new JFileChooser();



  // Create JPanel

  jp=new JPanel();

 

  // Create JLabel

  jl=new JLabel("I am a label on custom JFileChooser");

 

  // Add JLabel to the JPanel

  jp.add(jl); 



  // This is that method, do it before showOpenDialog!

  jf.setAccessory(jp);

  

  // Show Open Dialog

  jf.showOpenDialog(null);

   }

 });

 

 // Add JButton to the JFrame

 add(jb);

 }

 

 public static void main(String args[])

 {

 new CustomJFileChooser();

 }

}

Output of the CustomJFileChooser

Custom JFileChooser Screenshot

This is not a hack, it is just a feature provided. This is the way you can add your own custom components to JFileChooser. You don't actually need the JPanel, I just added it, you can directly add JLabel to it. But in order to have a layout of the components we added i added JPanel. Good to know if we can add components in a certain layout to the JFileChooser without JPanel and without disturbing the layout of the JFileChooser's by-birth components.