Can New Java 7 File API Path Objs Be Used For Windows Virtual Folders

Question

Hello,
I'm trying to duplicate a JFileChooser's drop-down list containing root directories of the file system. For Windows machines, its combobox lists the roots in a nice tree-like layout. For example:
+ Desktop
  + Computer
    + Local Disk (C:)
    + Data (D:)I cannot find an offical way to do this; I ended up using a class called "ShellFolder" to do it. Based on the "File" objects returned by the "ShellFolder" operation, I wanted to use the "toPath" method of the "java.io.File" object to convert the object to a "java.io.file.Path" object. Unfortunately, when I try to convert it, a java.nio.file.InvalidPathException" occurs.
Therefore, is there a way to use the the new Path object (provided by Java7's new File NIO APIs) that can map to Windows special virtual folders (like "My Computer" which is mapped to a CLSID like "::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}")?
Note: It looks like NetBeans suffered from the same problem. See their bug report here: [https://netbeans.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=214011] .
Here's some sample code to reproduce the problem:
static public void main(final String[] asArguments)
     javax.swing.SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
          @Override
          public void run()
               java.io.File homeFile = FileSystemView.getFileSystemView().getHomeDirectory();
               System.out.printf("File obj for home dir = %s\r\n", homeFile.getAbsolutePath());
               java.nio.file.Path homePath = homeFile.toPath();
               System.out.printf("Path obj for home dir = %s\r\n", homePath.toString());
               // get the root directories
               java.io.File[] rootDirs = (java.io.File[]) sun.awt.shell.ShellFolder.get("fileChooserComboBoxFolders");
               for (int nIdx = 0; nIdx < rootDirs.length; nIdx++) {
                    java.io.File nextRoot = rootDirs[nIdx];
                    System.out.printf("File obj for next root dir = %s\r\n", nextRoot.getAbsolutePath());
                    // Is this a bug?
                    //          When we encounter a special Windows folder,
                    //          like "My Computer" which has a filename of "::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}",
                    //          why do we receive a "java.nio.file.InvalidPathException"?  Should it not resolve the path
                    //          to the virtual Windows folder of "My Computer", just like the java.io.File objects do?
                    //          If not, is there an alternative way to get that information using the new Java 7 File APIs?
                    java.nio.file.Path nextRootPath = nextRoot.toPath();
                    System.out.printf("Path obj for next root dir = %s\r\n", nextRootPath.toString());
               } // for
          } // run
} // mainEdited by: RhinoGuy on Aug 10, 2012 11:11 AM

Answer 1

Hmm don't know about special folders but the File object does have a listRoots() method. Perhaps that only returns mapped drives on Windows though, I remember using it to create my own Eclipse type filechooser which I find a lot more user-friendly than the standard JFileChooser.