ui_helpers.rst

User Interface Helpers

JupyterLab comes with helpers to show or request simple information to user. Those speed up development and ensure a common look & feel.

Dialogs

File Dialogs

Two helper functions to ask a user to open a file or a directory are available in the filebrowser package under the namespace FileDialog.

Here is an example to request a file.

const dialog = FileDialog.getExistingDirectory({
  manager, // IDocumentManager
  filter: model => model.type == 'notebook' // optional (model: Contents.IModel) => boolean
});

const result = await dialog;

if(result.button.accept){
  let files = result.value;
}

And for a folder.

const dialog = FileDialog.getExistingDirectory({
  manager // IDocumentManager
});

const result = await dialog;

if(result.button.accept){
  let folders = result.value;
}

Note

The document manager can be obtained in a plugin by requesting IFileBrowserFactory service. The manager will be accessed through factory.defaultBrowser.model.manager.