When you do a JFileChooser.showOpenDialog it pops up a modal dialog box and returns JFileChooser. APPROVE_OPTION if all went ok. Then you can retrieve the selected file with JFileChooser.getSelectedFile().

Watch out. When you a feed a filter to JFileChooser, it wants as javax.swing.filechooser.FileFilter not a java.io.FilenameFilter. To control whether the user selects a file, directory or either, use setFileSelectionMode( int mode) with JFileChooser. FILES_ONLY, JFileChooser. DIRECTORIES_ONLY or JFileChooser. FILES_AND_DIRECTORIES.

JFileChooser only works in applications, signed JAWS applications and signed Applets. If you intend to distribute your program as an unsigned Java Web Start application, then instead of using JFileChooser you should use the JAWS classes FileOpenService and FileSaveService.

It lets the user create new directories as he navigates. It is embarrassingly slow code. Here is how you use it.

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