canChooseFiles

canChooseFiles is a boolean property of the NSOpenPanel class in macOS AppKit. It controls whether the user is allowed to select files when an open panel is presented. The property is typically used alongside canChooseDirectories to tailor what the user can pick in the dialog.

Behavior and semantics: If canChooseFiles is true, the panel permits selecting files. If false, the user cannot select individual files. Directories can still be selected if canChooseDirectories is true. If both canChooseFiles and canChooseDirectories are true, both files and directories are selectable. The property often works in concert with allowsMultipleSelection to determine whether multiple items can be chosen in a single operation. You can also restrict selection further with allowedFileTypes or allowedContentTypes.

Usage examples: In Swift, you would configure an NSOpenPanel as follows:

let panel = NSOpenPanel()

panel.canChooseFiles = true

panel.canChooseDirectories = false

panel.allowsMultipleSelection = true

In Objective-C:

NSOpenPanel *panel = [NSOpenPanel openPanel];

panel.canChooseFiles = YES;

panel.canChooseDirectories = NO;

panel.allowsMultipleSelection = YES;

Related properties and considerations: canChooseDirectories is the complementary setting that enables directory selection. allowedFileTypes or allowedContentTypes can further restrict the kinds of files that can be selected. canCreateDirectories controls whether new folders can be created within the panel. The default values may vary by platform and OS version, but the common pattern is that canChooseFiles is enabled to allow file selection.

Platform specificity: canChooseFiles is part of macOS AppKit and is not available on iOS. On iOS, file selection is handled by UIDocumentPickerViewController, which uses different properties to configure selection behavior.