The file selection widget is a quick and simple way to display a File dialog box. It comes complete with Ok, Cancel, and Help buttons, a great way to cut down on programming time.

To create a new file selection box use:

GtkWidget *gtk_file_selection_new( const gchar *title );

To set the filename, for example to bring up a specific directory, or give a default filename, use this function:

void gtk_file_selection_set_filename( GtkFileSelection *filesel,
                                      const gchar      *filename );

To grab the text that the user has entered or clicked on, use this function:

gchar *gtk_file_selection_get_filename( GtkFileSelection *filesel );

There are also pointers to the widgets contained within the file selection widget. These are:

  dir_list
  file_list
  selection_entry
  selection_text
  main_vbox
  ok_button
  cancel_button
  help_button

Most likely you will want to use the ok_button, cancel_button, and help_button pointers in signaling their use.

Included here is an example stolen from testgtk.c, modified to run on its own. As you will see, there is nothing much to creating a file selection widget. While in this example the Help button appears on the screen, it does nothing as there is not a signal attached to it.

use Glib qw/TRUE FALSE/;
use Gtk2 '-init';

Gtk2->main;

0;