Newbie fileBrowserDialog question

[gangie81]

Hi,

I am currently trying to let a user file to a directory and I then want to store the directory. To do so I use the fileBrowserDialog. I had difficulty with saving the actual path itself in a string until I came across this code on this site here by user called PythonBoy and I also saw the same tip in other places. Everything works perfectly now but I am a bit cofused and I hope someone can explain the following to me...How does browseForFolderFeedback get the variable $result? How does the fileBrowserDialog save the path??

---

global proc browseForFolder( string $startFolder )
{
string $mayaFolder;

// Get current directory.. we'll restore this when we're done
$mayaFolder = workspace -q -dir;

// Set the current directory to our own. Note that this will set Maya's workspace folder even if the specified folder does not exist.
workspace -dir $startFolder;

// Present the user with a folder-selection dialog. It will default to $startFolder. The $mayaFolder is included as the first argument for
// the callback.
fileBrowserDialog -mode 4
-fileCommand ( "browseForFolderCallback \"" + $mayaFolder + "\"" )
-actionName "Pick Your Folder";
}

global proc browseForFolderCallback( string $mayaFolder, string $result, string $type )
{
// Do whatever you need to with the $result
print ( "Folder selection: " + $result + "\n" );

// Restore the original folder path
workspace -dir $mayaFolder;
}

Example:

browseForFolder( "C:/projects/gameData/" );

I would appreciate any clarification on this...am I just overlooking a simple programming
principle here or something??

Thanks!!!!

[urbnctzn]

Hi Gangie81,

Not sure I am that less of a newbie than you, but I think I know how to adress your issue:

fileBrowserDialog returns the choosen path, so you want to capture it implicitly by using the action to define the variable $result:

$result=fileBrowserDialog -mode 4
-fileCommand ( "browseForFolderCallback \"" + $mayaFolder + "\"" )
-actionName "Pick Your Folder";

You can then indeed do whatever you want with $result (aka the choosen path) !

[gangie81]

Hi UrbnCTZn,

Thank you for your reply.Actually when doing that I get $return = 1 (as in I think that the command was successful). The odd thing is the code I quoted works perfectly and $return gives me the correct path... I am just wondering how! Cause I am not really catching $result anywhere, as far as I can see.

Thank you again...I am just a little confused on the inner workings.

[daagom]

fileBrowserDialog automatically catches the folder/file and the type and sends it to the procedure you declare, which in this case is "browseForFolderCallback". It will append the two variables (folder/file and type) to whatever you put in the "-fileCommand" flag.

Hope that makes sense!

[mcatg6k]

Hey I know this post is old but I have an issue with trying to get a maya 2013 python script to work in Maya2010 and I was hoping to replace the FileDialog2 command with a FileBrowserDialog. This is the closest I've gotten to a solution. Somebody told me to use the old FileDialog but that doesn't let you pick folder (I think?).

The script writes presets into xml files and you need to specify a folder.

I tried to convert the above example script to python to then work on incorporating in the bigger script but I failed at this part : -fileCommand ( "browseForFolderCallback \"" + $mayaFolder + "\"" ), at least I think so because I managed to get it to open the dialogue window but then it says syntax error as soon as I click ok. Unless the error lies in the second function ? I'm totally a newbie at scripting...

Here is what I tried using

import maya.cmds as cmds
def browseFolder(startFolder):
    mayaFolder = cmds.workspace( q=True, dir=True )
    ##   Set the current directory to our own.
    ##   Note that this will set Maya's workspace folder even
    ##   if the specified folder does not exist.
    cmds.workspace (dir=startFolder)
    ##   Present the user with a folder-selection dialog.
    ##   It will default to startFolder.
    ##   The mayaFolder is included as the first argument for the callback.
    cmds.fileBrowserDialog(mode=4, fileCommand="browseForFolderCallback(%s)" %mayaFolder, actionName = "Pick your folder")
def browseForFolderCallback(mayaFolder, result, fileType): # Define 3 parameters
    print "Folder selected is: " + str(result)
browseFolder("C:/")

Anyway feedback would be awesome, ideally I don't need it to print my path out but want it to store the path in a global variable called folder_path (which works with the rest of the script)

Thanks in advance!

[jeroen-hoolmans]

Hi Jessica,

The fileBrowserDialog is deprecated according to  the documentation, however it still shows an example using the fileCommand callback http://download.autodesk.com/global/docs/maya2012/en\_us/CommandsPython/fileBrowserDialog.html 
It also shows you the recommended way of doing things.

import maya.cmds as cmds
 
# Old way:
def importImage( fileName, fileType):
   cmds.file( fileName, i=True );
   return 1
 
cmds.fileBrowserDialog( m=0, fc=importImage, ft='image', an='Import_Image', om='Import' )
 
# Recommended way:
filename = cmds.fileDialog2(fileMode=1, caption="Import Image")
cmds.file( filename[0], i=True );

It is not really neccesary to use callbacks since the code will pause while choosing a directory. When it continues you can check the input and call the needed functions.

So to fix your code above:

import maya.cmds as cmds
#
#old way:
#
def browseForFolderCallback(mayaFolder, fileType = None):
	# fileType is None because we won't be needing it anyway and is there for compatibility
    print "Folder selected is: %s" % str(mayaFolder)
 
def browseFolder(startFolder):
    mayaFolder = cmds.workspace( q=True, dir=True )
    cmds.workspace (dir=startFolder)
    cmds.fileBrowserDialog(mode=4, fileCommand=browseForFolderCallback, actionName = "Pick your folder")
 
browseFolder("C:/")
 
#
#new way:
#
def browseFolder2(startFolder):
	mayaFolder = cmds.workspace(q=True, dir=True)
	cmds.workspace (dir=startFolder)
	mayaFolder = cmds.fileDialog2(fm=3, caption = "Pick your folder")
 
	# When you press cancel or close, mayaFolder would be None and not running this code.
	if mayaFolder:
		browseForFolderCallback(mayaFolder[0])
 
browseFolder2("C:/")