Calling ubuntu file browser (explorer) in python

Question

I'm trying to develop a python GUI that allows the user to select a file using the native file browser (I'm using Ubuntu 12.04) and display it on the interface.

First: how can I call the native file explorer using a python script and get the returned file.

Also, I'm using Qt4 designer to design the interface. Is there an easier GUI dev tool to display images and brows files?

Thanks for reading!

Answer 1

I just found this script that does exactly what I want:

from gi.repository import Gtk

class FileChooserWindow(Gtk.Window):

    def __init__(self):
        Gtk.Window.__init__(self, title="FileChooser Example")

        box = Gtk.Box(spacing=6)
        self.add(box)

        button1 = Gtk.Button("Choose File")
        button1.connect("clicked", self.on_file_clicked)
        box.add(button1)

        button2 = Gtk.Button("Choose Folder")
        button2.connect("clicked", self.on_folder_clicked)
        box.add(button2)

    def on_file_clicked(self, widget):
        dialog = Gtk.FileChooserDialog("Please choose a file", self,
            Gtk.FileChooserAction.OPEN,
            (Gtk.STOCK_CANCEL, Gtk.ResponseType.CANCEL,
             Gtk.STOCK_OPEN, Gtk.ResponseType.OK))

        self.add_filters(dialog)

        response = dialog.run()
        if response == Gtk.ResponseType.OK:
            print("Open clicked")
            print("File selected: " + dialog.get_filename())
        elif response == Gtk.ResponseType.CANCEL:
            print("Cancel clicked")

        dialog.destroy()

    def add_filters(self, dialog):
        filter_text = Gtk.FileFilter()
        filter_text.set_name("Text files")
        filter_text.add_mime_type("text/plain")
        dialog.add_filter(filter_text)

        filter_py = Gtk.FileFilter()
        filter_py.set_name("Python files")
        filter_py.add_mime_type("text/x-python")
        dialog.add_filter(filter_py)

        filter_any = Gtk.FileFilter()
        filter_any.set_name("Any files")
        filter_any.add_pattern("*")
        dialog.add_filter(filter_any)

    def on_folder_clicked(self, widget):
        dialog = Gtk.FileChooserDialog("Please choose a folder", self,
            Gtk.FileChooserAction.SELECT_FOLDER,
            (Gtk.STOCK_CANCEL, Gtk.ResponseType.CANCEL,
             "Select", Gtk.ResponseType.OK))
        dialog.set_default_size(800, 400)

        response = dialog.run()
        if response == Gtk.ResponseType.OK:
            print("Select clicked")
            print("Folder selected: " + dialog.get_filename())
        elif response == Gtk.ResponseType.CANCEL:
            print("Cancel clicked")

        dialog.destroy()

win = FileChooserWindow()
win.connect("delete-event", Gtk.main_quit)
win.show_all()
Gtk.main()