FileChooser.Bookmarks (gb.form)

Property Bookmarks As Collection[]

Sets or returns the list of user-defined bookmarks.

The controls FileChooser and DirChooser have their own Bookmark system. To enable it, set the property ShowBookmark to True. The bookmark menu is then visible as a bookmarks MenuButton with a drop-down menu right above the file tree. The drop-down menu might look like this:

The drop-down menu contains 3 types of bookmarks:
  1. Standard bookmarks

  2. Private bookmarks

  3. User bookmarks

The Bookmarks property documented here concerns type 2: private bookmarks.

Standard bookmarks

The standard bookmarks point to Home and System. Note: You can only see the menu entry Desktop if the component gb.desktop is loaded.

Private bookmarks

Private bookmarks are accessed via this property or via the Bookmarks class.
The Bookmarks property is an array of Collections and each bookmark is described by a single Collection object. The Collection must contain a key "Path" that points to the path of the bookmark. Optional keys are "Name" and "Icon" to give the bookmark a name or the path to an icon to display alongside. All other key names are ignored. Private bookmarks are application-specific and are not saved permanently, but created at runtime, e.g.

Adding a Collection (Warning, this method may not work on some older gambas versions)


Public Sub Form_Open()
  Dim cPrivateBookmarks As Collection[]
  Dim cBookmark As Collection

  cPrivateBookmarks = New Collection[]

  ' Create a Collection describing the bookmark
  cBookmark = New Collection
  cBookmark["Path"] = User.Home &/ "Images/Fractals"
  cBookmark["Name"] = "Fractals"
  cBookmark["Icon"] = "icon:/small/plugin"
  cPrivateBookmarks.Add(cBookmark)

  ' Short inline Collection notation
  cPrivateBookmarks.Add(["Path": User.Home &/ "Private/Pictures", "Name": "Pictures", "Icon": "icon:/small/image"])

  Filechooser1.Bookmarks = cPrivateBookmarks
  FileChooser1.ShowBookmark = True
End

Adding private bookmarks as a Collection array as mentioned above may not work in some older versions of gambas.
But you can use the Bookmarks class instead. They will be automatically added to the private bookmarks list.

Note: The Bookmarks class and a Collection are BOTH used and all items will be shown.
So be aware any bookmarks that exist in both will show twice.

With the Bookmarks class you can add bookmarks using the Add function.
The first argument is the Path, then an optional Name and Icon can be given.
Note: there is no need to use the .Bookmarks property of the view as they are added automatically.

Public Sub Form_Open()

  Bookmarks.Add(User.Home &/ "Images/Fractals", "Fractals", "icon:/small/plugin")
  Bookmarks.Add(User.Home &/ "Private/Pictures", "Pictures", "icon:/small/image")
  FileChooser1.ShowBookmark = True

End

User bookmarks

To display user bookmarks, the gb.settings component must be loaded. You can create and edit user bookmarks using the menu items "Bookmark current directory" and "Edit bookmarks". The bookmarks are stored in the file path $HOME/.config/gambas3/gb.form.conf and shared across all your projects using FileChooser and DirChooser (because they belong to the user, not to the project).

Examples

Add an inline Collection array

DirChooser1.Bookmarks = [["Path": "/tmp", "Name": "Temporary directory"], ["Path": "/mnt/floppy", "Name": "Floppy disk", "Icon": "icon:/16/floppy"]]

Add the default GTK-3 bookmarks via Bookmarks.Class


Public Sub Form_Open()

  Dim sLine As String, aVar As String[]

  If Exist("~/.config/gtk-3.0/bookmarks") Then
    For Each sLine In Split(File.Load("~/.config/gtk-3.0/bookmarks"), "\n", Null, True)
      aVar = Split(sLine, " ", Null, True).Insert(["", ""]) ' split and pad the array
      aVar[0] = Replace(FromUrl(aVar[0]), "file://", "") ' remove file://url syntax

      Bookmarks.Add(aVar[0], aVar[1], aVar[2])
    Next
  Endif

End

See also

ShowBookmark