JFileChooser set focus to specific directory

Question

Is it possible to set the JFileChooser to grab focus on the previous selected directory in directory only mode from the textfield containing the selected file name?
The behavior I am seeking is to show the chooser with a directory already selected and or highlighted. I have tried the set selected file method and that does not highlight the file as if the user selected the file. I keep getting various behaviors where I set the selected folder. In the file name text component it shows upper level directories at times instead of the directory I specified. The focus is typically located on the file name text component and I would rather have the focus on the directory entry specified in the file name text. Is that possible with JFileChooser?

Answer 1

Hello,
I've tried to work something out. I hope it doesn't seem overkill :import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.WindowFocusListener;
import java.awt.event.WindowEvent;
import java.awt.*;
import java.io.File;
* Date: 9 mai 2008
* @author: Pierre Le Lannic
public class FileChooserTest {
     private File _dir;
     private JLabel _fileNameLabel;
     private JPanel _mainPanel;
     private JList _filePane;
     private JFileChooser _fileChooser;
     public FileChooserTest() {
          _mainPanel = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());
          _fileNameLabel = new JLabel();
          _fileNameLabel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createLineBorder(Color.BLACK));
          _mainPanel.add(_fileNameLabel, BorderLayout.CENTER);
          _mainPanel.add(new JButton(new AbstractAction() {
               public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
                    prepareFileChooser();
                    _fileChooser.setSelectedFile(_dir);
                    int returnOption = _fileChooser.showSaveDialog(_mainPanel);
                    if (returnOption == JFileChooser.APPROVE_OPTION) {
                         setDir(_fileChooser.getSelectedFile());
          }), BorderLayout.EAST);
          setDir(new File(System.getProperty("user.home")));
     private void setDir(File aDirectory) {
          _dir = aDirectory;
          _fileNameLabel.setText(_dir == null ? " " : _dir.getAbsolutePath());
     private void prepareFileChooser() {
          if (_fileChooser == null) {
               _fileChooser = new JFileChooser() {
                    protected JDialog createDialog(Component parent) throws HeadlessException {
                         JDialog dialog = super.createDialog(parent);
                         dialog.addWindowFocusListener(new WindowFocusListener() {
                              public void windowGainedFocus(WindowEvent e) {
                                   requestFocusForList();
                              public void windowLostFocus(WindowEvent e) {}
                         return dialog;
               _fileChooser.setFileSelectionMode(JFileChooser.DIRECTORIES_ONLY);
               _filePane = recursiveFindList(_fileChooser);
     private void requestFocusForList() {
          SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
               public void run() {
                    _filePane.requestFocus();
     private JList recursiveFindList(Container parent) {
          if (parent == null) return null;
          int n = parent.getComponentCount();
          for (int i = 0; i < n; i++) {
               Component child = parent.getComponent(i);
               if (child instanceof JList) return (JList)child;
               if (child instanceof Container) {
                    JList test = recursiveFindList((Container)child);
                    if (test != null) return test;
          return null;
     public void start() {
          SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
               public void run() {
                    JFrame f = new JFrame();
                    f.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
                    f.setContentPane(_mainPanel);
                    f.setSize(400, 50);
                    f.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
                    f.setVisible(true);
     public static void main(String[] args) {
          new FileChooserTest().start();
}