dialog

Display native system dialogs for opening and saving files, alerting, etc.

Process: Main

An example of showing a dialog to select multiple files:

const { dialog } = require('electron')
console.log(dialog.showOpenDialog({ properties: ['openFile', 'multiSelections'] }))

Methods

The dialog module has the following methods:

dialog.showOpenDialogSync([window, ]options)

• window BaseWindow (optional)
• options Object
  • title string (optional)
  • defaultPath string (optional)
  • buttonLabel string (optional) - Custom label for the confirmation button, when left empty the default label will be used.
  • filters FileFilter[] (optional)
  • properties string[] (optional) - Contains which features the dialog should use. The following values are supported:
    • openFile - Allow files to be selected.
    • openDirectory - Allow directories to be selected.
    • multiSelections - Allow multiple paths to be selected.
    • showHiddenFiles - Show hidden files in dialog.
    • createDirectory macOS - Allow creating new directories from dialog.
    • promptToCreate Windows - Prompt for creation if the file path entered in the dialog does not exist. This does not actually create the file at the path but allows non-existent paths to be returned that should be created by the application.
    • noResolveAliases macOS - Disable the automatic alias (symlink) path resolution. Selected aliases will now return the alias path instead of their target path.
    • treatPackageAsDirectory macOS - Treat packages, such as .app folders, as a directory instead of a file.
    • dontAddToRecent Windows - Do not add the item being opened to the recent documents list.
  • message string (optional) macOS - Message to display above input boxes.
  • securityScopedBookmarks boolean (optional) macOS mas - Create security scoped bookmarks when packaged for the Mac App Store.

Returns string[] | undefined, the file paths chosen by the user; if the dialog is cancelled it returns undefined.

The window argument allows the dialog to attach itself to a parent window, making it modal.

The filters specifies an array of file types that can be displayed or selected when you want to limit the user to a specific type. For example:

{
  filters: [
    { name: 'Images', extensions: ['jpg', 'png', 'gif'] },
    { name: 'Movies', extensions: ['mkv', 'avi', 'mp4'] },
    { name: 'Custom File Type', extensions: ['as'] },
    { name: 'All Files', extensions: ['*'] }
  ]
}

The extensions array should contain extensions without wildcards or dots (e.g. 'png' is good but '.png' and '*.png' are bad). To show all files, use the '*' wildcard (no other wildcard is supported).

Note: On Windows and Linux an open dialog can not be both a file selector and a directory selector, so if you set properties to ['openFile', 'openDirectory'] on these platforms, a directory selector will be shown.

dialog.showOpenDialogSync(mainWindow, {
  properties: ['openFile', 'openDirectory']
})

dialog.showOpenDialog([window, ]options)

• window BaseWindow (optional)
• options Object
  • title string (optional)
  • defaultPath string (optional)
  • buttonLabel string (optional) - Custom label for the confirmation button, when left empty the default label will be used.
  • filters FileFilter[] (optional)
  • properties string[] (optional) - Contains which features the dialog should use. The following values are supported:
    • openFile - Allow files to be selected.
    • openDirectory - Allow directories to be selected.
    • multiSelections - Allow multiple paths to be selected.
    • showHiddenFiles - Show hidden files in dialog.
    • createDirectory macOS - Allow creating new directories from dialog.
    • promptToCreate Windows - Prompt for creation if the file path entered in the dialog does not exist. This does not actually create the file at the path but allows non-existent paths to be returned that should be created by the application.
    • noResolveAliases macOS - Disable the automatic alias (symlink) path resolution. Selected aliases will now return the alias path instead of their target path.
    • treatPackageAsDirectory macOS - Treat packages, such as .app folders, as a directory instead of a file.
    • dontAddToRecent Windows - Do not add the item being opened to the recent documents list.
  • message string (optional) macOS - Message to display above input boxes.
  • securityScopedBookmarks boolean (optional) macOS mas - Create security scoped bookmarks when packaged for the Mac App Store.

Returns Promise<Object> - Resolve with an object containing the following:

• canceled boolean - whether or not the dialog was canceled.
• filePaths string[] - An array of file paths chosen by the user. If the dialog is cancelled this will be an empty array.
• bookmarks string[] (optional) macOS mas - An array matching the filePaths array of base64 encoded strings which contains security scoped bookmark data. securityScopedBookmarks must be enabled for this to be populated. (For return values, see table here.)

The window argument allows the dialog to attach itself to a parent window, making it modal.

The filters specifies an array of file types that can be displayed or selected when you want to limit the user to a specific type. For example:

{
  filters: [
    { name: 'Images', extensions: ['jpg', 'png', 'gif'] },
    { name: 'Movies', extensions: ['mkv', 'avi', 'mp4'] },
    { name: 'Custom File Type', extensions: ['as'] },
    { name: 'All Files', extensions: ['*'] }
  ]
}

The extensions array should contain extensions without wildcards or dots (e.g. 'png' is good but '.png' and '*.png' are bad). To show all files, use the '*' wildcard (no other wildcard is supported).

Note: On Windows and Linux an open dialog can not be both a file selector and a directory selector, so if you set properties to ['openFile', 'openDirectory'] on these platforms, a directory selector will be shown.

dialog.showOpenDialog(mainWindow, {
  properties: ['openFile', 'openDirectory']
}).then(result => {
  console.log(result.canceled)
  console.log(result.filePaths)
}).catch(err => {
  console.log(err)
})

dialog.showSaveDialogSync([window, ]options)

• window BaseWindow (optional)
• options Object
  • title string (optional) - The dialog title. Cannot be displayed on some Linux desktop environments.
  • defaultPath string (optional) - Absolute directory path, absolute file path, or file name to use by default.
  • buttonLabel string (optional) - Custom label for the confirmation button, when left empty the default label will be used.
  • filters FileFilter[] (optional)
  • message string (optional) macOS - Message to display above text fields.
  • nameFieldLabel string (optional) macOS - Custom label for the text displayed in front of the filename text field.
  • showsTagField boolean (optional) macOS - Show the tags input box, defaults to true.
  • properties string[] (optional)
    • showHiddenFiles - Show hidden files in dialog.
    • createDirectory macOS - Allow creating new directories from dialog.
    • treatPackageAsDirectory macOS - Treat packages, such as .app folders, as a directory instead of a file.
    • showOverwriteConfirmation Linux - Sets whether the user will be presented a confirmation dialog if the user types a file name that already exists.
    • dontAddToRecent Windows - Do not add the item being saved to the recent documents list.
  • securityScopedBookmarks boolean (optional) macOS mas - Create a security scoped bookmark when packaged for the Mac App Store. If this option is enabled and the file doesn't already exist a blank file will be created at the chosen path.

Returns string, the path of the file chosen by the user; if the dialog is cancelled it returns an empty string.

The window argument allows the dialog to attach itself to a parent window, making it modal.

The filters specifies an array of file types that can be displayed, see dialog.showOpenDialog for an example.

dialog.showSaveDialog([window, ]options)

• window BaseWindow (optional)
• options Object
  • title string (optional) - The dialog title. Cannot be displayed on some Linux desktop environments.
  • defaultPath string (optional) - Absolute directory path, absolute file path, or file name to use by default.
  • buttonLabel string (optional) - Custom label for the confirmation button, when left empty the default label will be used.
  • filters FileFilter[] (optional)
  • message string (optional) macOS - Message to display above text fields.
  • nameFieldLabel string (optional) macOS - Custom label for the text displayed in front of the filename text field.
  • showsTagField boolean (optional) macOS - Show the tags input box, defaults to true.
  • properties string[] (optional)
    • showHiddenFiles - Show hidden files in dialog.
    • createDirectory macOS - Allow creating new directories from dialog.
    • treatPackageAsDirectory macOS - Treat packages, such as .app folders, as a directory instead of a file.
    • showOverwriteConfirmation Linux - Sets whether the user will be presented a confirmation dialog if the user types a file name that already exists.
    • dontAddToRecent Windows - Do not add the item being saved to the recent documents list.
  • securityScopedBookmarks boolean (optional) macOS mas - Create a security scoped bookmark when packaged for the Mac App Store. If this option is enabled and the file doesn't already exist a blank file will be created at the chosen path.

Returns Promise<Object> - Resolve with an object containing the following:

• canceled boolean - whether or not the dialog was canceled.
• filePath string - If the dialog is canceled, this will be an empty string.
• bookmark string (optional) macOS mas - Base64 encoded string which contains the security scoped bookmark data for the saved file. securityScopedBookmarks must be enabled for this to be present. (For return values, see table here.)

The window argument allows the dialog to attach itself to a parent window, making it modal.

The filters specifies an array of file types that can be displayed, see dialog.showOpenDialog for an example.

Note: On macOS, using the asynchronous version is recommended to avoid issues when expanding and collapsing the dialog.

dialog.showMessageBoxSync([wndow, ]options)

• window BaseWindow (optional)
• options Object
  • message string - Content of the message box.
  • type string (optional) - Can be none, info, error, question or warning. On Windows, question displays the same icon as info, unless you set an icon using the icon option. On macOS, both warning and error display the same warning icon.
  • buttons string[] (optional) - Array of texts for buttons. On Windows, an empty array will result in one button labeled "OK".
  • defaultId Integer (optional) - Index of the button in the buttons array which will be selected by default when the message box opens.
  • title string (optional) - Title of the message box, some platforms will not show it.
  • detail string (optional) - Extra information of the message.
  • icon (NativeImage | string) (optional)
  • textWidth Integer (optional) macOS - Custom width of the text in the message box.
  • cancelId Integer (optional) - The index of the button to be used to cancel the dialog, via the Esc key. By default this is assigned to the first button with "cancel" or "no" as the label. If no such labeled buttons exist and this option is not set, 0 will be used as the return value.
  • noLink boolean (optional) - On Windows Electron will try to figure out which one of the buttons are common buttons (like "Cancel" or "Yes"), and show the others as command links in the dialog. This can make the dialog appear in the style of modern Windows apps. If you don't like this behavior, you can set noLink to true.
  • normalizeAccessKeys boolean (optional) - Normalize the keyboard access keys across platforms. Default is false. Enabling this assumes & is used in the button labels for the placement of the keyboard shortcut access key and labels will be converted so they work correctly on each platform, & characters are removed on macOS, converted to _ on Linux, and left untouched on Windows. For example, a button label of Vie&w will be converted to Vie_w on Linux and View on macOS and can be selected via Alt-W on Windows and Linux.

Returns Integer - the index of the clicked button.

Shows a message box, it will block the process until the message box is closed. It returns the index of the clicked button.

The window argument allows the dialog to attach itself to a parent window, making it modal. If window is not shown dialog will not be attached to it. In such case it will be displayed as an independent window.

dialog.showMessageBox([window, ]options)

• window BaseWindow (optional)
• options Object
  • message string - Content of the message box.
  • type string (optional) - Can be none, info, error, question or warning. On Windows, question displays the same icon as info, unless you set an icon using the icon option. On macOS, both warning and error display the same warning icon.
  • buttons string[] (optional) - Array of texts for buttons. On Windows, an empty array will result in one button labeled "OK".
  • defaultId Integer (optional) - Index of the button in the buttons array which will be selected by default when the message box opens.
  • signal AbortSignal (optional) - Pass an instance of AbortSignal to optionally close the message box, the message box will behave as if it was cancelled by the user. On macOS, signal does not work with message boxes that do not have a parent window, since those message boxes run synchronously due to platform limitations.
  • title string (optional) - Title of the message box, some platforms will not show it.
  • detail string (optional) - Extra information of the message.
  • checkboxLabel string (optional) - If provided, the message box will include a checkbox with the given label.
  • checkboxChecked boolean (optional) - Initial checked state of the checkbox. false by default.
  • icon (NativeImage | string) (optional)
  • textWidth Integer (optional) macOS - Custom width of the text in the message box.
  • cancelId Integer (optional) - The index of the button to be used to cancel the dialog, via the Esc key. By default this is assigned to the first button with "cancel" or "no" as the label. If no such labeled buttons exist and this option is not set, 0 will be used as the return value.
  • noLink boolean (optional) - On Windows Electron will try to figure out which one of the buttons are common buttons (like "Cancel" or "Yes"), and show the others as command links in the dialog. This can make the dialog appear in the style of modern Windows apps. If you don't like this behavior, you can set noLink to true.
  • normalizeAccessKeys boolean (optional) - Normalize the keyboard access keys across platforms. Default is false. Enabling this assumes & is used in the button labels for the placement of the keyboard shortcut access key and labels will be converted so they work correctly on each platform, & characters are removed on macOS, converted to _ on Linux, and left untouched on Windows. For example, a button label of Vie&w will be converted to Vie_w on Linux and View on macOS and can be selected via Alt-W on Windows and Linux.

Returns Promise<Object> - resolves with a promise containing the following properties:

• response number - The index of the clicked button.
• checkboxChecked boolean - The checked state of the checkbox if checkboxLabel was set. Otherwise false.

Shows a message box.

The window argument allows the dialog to attach itself to a parent window, making it modal.

dialog.showErrorBox(title, content)

• title string - The title to display in the error box.
• content string - The text content to display in the error box.

Displays a modal dialog that shows an error message.

This API can be called safely before the ready event the app module emits, it is usually used to report errors in early stage of startup. If called before the app readyevent on Linux, the message will be emitted to stderr, and no GUI dialog will appear.

dialog.showCertificateTrustDialog([window, ]options) macOS Windows

• window BaseWindow (optional)
• options Object
  • certificate Certificate - The certificate to trust/import.
  • message string - The message to display to the user.

Returns Promise<void> - resolves when the certificate trust dialog is shown.

On macOS, this displays a modal dialog that shows a message and certificate information, and gives the user the option of trusting/importing the certificate. If you provide a window argument the dialog will be attached to the parent window, making it modal.

On Windows the options are more limited, due to the Win32 APIs used:

• The message argument is not used, as the OS provides its own confirmation dialog.
• The window argument is ignored since it is not possible to make this confirmation dialog modal.

Bookmarks array

showOpenDialog, showOpenDialogSync, showSaveDialog, and showSaveDialogSync will return a bookmarks array.

Build Type	securityScopedBookmarks boolean	Return Type	Return Value
macOS mas	True	Success	['LONGBOOKMARKSTRING']
macOS mas	True	Error	[''] (array of empty string)
macOS mas	False	NA	[] (empty array)
non mas	any	NA	[] (empty array)

Sheets

On macOS, dialogs are presented as sheets attached to a window if you provide a BaseWindow reference in the window parameter, or modals if no window is provided.

You can call BaseWindow.getCurrentWindow().setSheetOffset(offset) to change the offset from the window frame where sheets are attached.