This tutorial will show how to open a file selection dialog in LibreOffice, OpenOffice using Macro.
File selection dialog is used to select single/multiple file(s) in various automation activities e.g. opening an OpenOffice, LibreOffice workbook, importing a text/csv file etc.
Table of Contents
Create Objects
Lets define a function which can be used from any macro to open a file picker dialog.
Function open_file() As String
' open file picker dialog here and return the path of the chosen file
End Function
To open a file selection dialog, use FilePicker service of module com.sun.star.ui.dialogs and SimpleFileAccess service of module com.sun.star.ucb. These two service will provide necessary handles to open a file selection dialog.
Declare and create two objects to these services.
Dim file_dialog as Object
Dim ucb as object
GlobalScope.BasicLibraries.LoadLibrary("Tools")
file_dialog = CreateUnoService("com.sun.star.ui.dialogs.FilePicker")
ucb = createUnoService("com.sun.star.ucb.SimpleFileAccess")
The object ucb a.k.a Universal Content Broker provides a way to access various contents via UCP (Universal Content Providers).
Formatting the Dialog
Before opening the file picker dialog, we need to provide some informations for the dialog. Such as, the file types/extensions (*.jpg, *.png etc) that would be available as filters. Along with file types we will set the default directory to be selected when the dialog is executed.
Define an array containing the file extensions to be loaded in type dropdown. Once defined and filled up, pass it to AddFiltersToDialog function with the dialog object.
Dim filterNames(3) as String
filterNames(0) = "*.*"
filterNames(1) = "*.png"
filterNames(2) = "*.jpg"
AddFiltersToDialog(FilterNames(), file_dialog)
To set the default directory which would be opened by dialog, use the SetDisplayDirectory method of dialog object. The ConvertToUrl function transforms the Linux path to a file system path. Say the path /usr to be converted to file:///usr.
init_path = ConvertToUrl("/usr")
If ucb.Exists(init_path) Then
file_dialog.SetDisplayDirectory(init_path)
End If
Open the Dialog
Now its time to open the file selection dialog and return the file name. File selection dialog will open when file dialog’s Execute function is executed. It returns two value 0 and 1 based on user actions. If you select a file and press OK, it returns 1. If you press CANCEL in the dialog, it returns 0. When user selects a file or multiple files, it is returned as an array. For this example, lets select one file and return the file name.
And finally execute Dispose to release all the resources.
open_status = file_dialog.Execute()
If open_status = 1 Then
file_path = file_dialog.Files(0)
open_file = file_path
End If
file_dialog.Dispose()
Now call the function open_file() from another procedure and let’s show the selected file path in a message box.
Sub pick_a_file()
Dim fName As String
fName = open_file()
MsgBox fName & chr(10) & ConvertFromUrl(fName)
End Sub
Run
After running the function pick_a_file() the dialog can be seen and the message box with selected file path.
Complete Macro
Sub pick_a_file()
Dim fName As String
fName = open_file()
MsgBox fName & chr(10) & ConvertFromUrl(fName)
End Sub
Function open_file() as String
Dim file_dialog as Object
Dim status as Integer
Dim file_path as String
Dim init_path as String
Dim ucb as object
Dim filterNames(3) as String
filterNames(0) = "*.*"
filterNames(1) = "*.png"
filterNames(2) = "*.jpg"
GlobalScope.BasicLibraries.LoadLibrary("Tools")
file_dialog = CreateUnoService("com.sun.star.ui.dialogs.FilePicker")
ucb = createUnoService("com.sun.star.ucb.SimpleFileAccess")
AddFiltersToDialog(FilterNames(), file_dialog)
'Set your initial path here!
init_path = ConvertToUrl("/usr")
If ucb.Exists(init_path) Then
file_dialog.SetDisplayDirectory(init_path)
End If
status = file_dialog.Execute()
If status = 1 Then
file_path = file_dialog.Files(0)
open_file = file_path
End If
file_dialog.Dispose()
End Function
Multiple File Selection
One of reader asked in this article’s comment, how to select multiple files and get the names of selected multiple files. So, I have modified above complete macro a bit and it would return the list of file names (full path) that is selected. Only difference is the funtion is defined as Variant and use of file dialog property file_dialog.setMultiSelectionMode(True) and the method file_dialog.getSelectedFiles().
Complete macro for selecting and getting the names of multiple files is present below:
Sub pick_a_file()
Dim fName() As Variant
fName = open_file()
for i = 0 to Ubound(fName)
str1 = str1 & fName(i) & chr(10)
next
MsgBox str1
End Sub
Function open_file() as Variant
Dim file_dialog as Object
Dim status as Integer
Dim init_path as String
Dim ucb as object
Dim filterNames(3) as String
filterNames(0) = "*.*"
filterNames(1) = "*.png"
filterNames(2) = "*.jpg"
GlobalScope.BasicLibraries.LoadLibrary("Tools")
file_dialog = CreateUnoService("com.sun.star.ui.dialogs.FilePicker")
ucb = createUnoService("com.sun.star.ucb.SimpleFileAccess")
AddFiltersToDialog(FilterNames(), file_dialog)
'Set your initial path here!
init_path = ConvertToUrl("/usr")
file_dialog.setMultiSelectionMode(True)
If ucb.Exists(init_path) Then
file_dialog.SetDisplayDirectory(init_path)
End If
status = file_dialog.Execute()
If status = 1 Then
file_path = file_dialog.getSelectedFiles()
open_file = file_path
End If
file_dialog.Dispose()
End Function
Function References – Used in this article
- FilePicker
- SimpleFileAccess
- AddFiltersToDialog [Refer in dialog editor: LibreOffice Macros & Dialogs -> Tools -> ModuleControls ]
- SetDisplayDirectory
- LoadLibrary
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