Bringing JFileChooser on top of all windows

I seem to have a problem with my very simple implementation of a file chooser dialogue that requires me to minimize Netbeans each time in order to get to it, and it gets pretty frustrating specially now with testing.

I have seen a few solutions online including SO yet none seem to do the trick, while some other seem very lengthy and complicated for my curre开发者_JAVA技巧nt level.

private void fileSearch() {

    JFileChooser fileSelect = new JFileChooser();
    int returnVal = fileSelect.showOpenDialog(null);
    String pathToFile;

    if (returnVal == JFileChooser.APPROVE_OPTION) {
        File file = fileSelect.getSelectedFile();
        pathToFile = file.getAbsolutePath();
        try {
            P.binaryFileToHexString(pathToFile);
        } catch (Exception e) {
            System.out.print("Oops! there was an error there..." + e);
        }
        System.out.println("\nYou chose to open this file: " + file.getName());
    }
}

Some of my try's include using;

.requestFocus();
.requestFocusInWindow();
.setVisible();

Is there a particular attribute/method I can set in order to solve the problem?

The API for showOpenDialog() refers to showDialog(), which says, "If the parent is null, then the dialog depends on no visible window, and it's placed in a look-and-feel-dependent position such as the center of the screen."

The example below positions the chooser in the center of the screen on my L&F. You might see how it compares to yours.

package gui;

import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.Dimension;
import java.awt.EventQueue;
import java.awt.Graphics;
import java.awt.Toolkit;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.KeyEvent;
import java.awt.image.BufferedImage;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;
import javax.imageio.ImageIO;
import javax.swing.AbstractAction;
import javax.swing.Action;
import javax.swing.JFileChooser;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JMenu;
import javax.swing.JMenuBar;
import javax.swing.JMenuItem;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.JPopupMenu;
import javax.swing.JScrollPane;
import javax.swing.KeyStroke;

/**
 * @see http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8507521
 * @see http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5129294
 */
public class ImageApp extends JPanel {

    private static final int MASK =
        Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getMenuShortcutKeyMask();
    private JFileChooser chooser = new JFileChooser();
    private Action openAction = new ImageOpenAction("Open");
    private Action clearAction = new ClearAction("Clear");
    private JPopupMenu popup = new JPopupMenu();
    private BufferedImage image;

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {

            @Override
            public void run() {
                new ImageApp().create();
            }
        });
    }

    public void create() {
        JFrame f = new JFrame();
        f.setTitle("Title");
        f.add(new JScrollPane(this), BorderLayout.CENTER);
        JMenuBar menuBar = new JMenuBar();
        JMenu menu = new JMenu("File");
        menu.setMnemonic('F');
        menu.add(new JMenuItem(openAction));
        menu.add(new JMenuItem(clearAction));
        menuBar.add(menu);
        f.setJMenuBar(menuBar);
        f.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        f.pack();
        f.setSize(new Dimension(640, 480));
        f.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
        f.setVisible(true);
    }

    public ImageApp() {
        this.setComponentPopupMenu(popup);
        popup.add("Popup Menu");
        popup.add(new JMenuItem(openAction));
        popup.add(new JMenuItem(clearAction));
    }

    @Override
    public Dimension getPreferredSize() {
        if (image == null) {
            return new Dimension();
        } else {
            return new Dimension(image.getWidth(), image.getHeight());
        }
    }

    @Override
    public void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
        super.paintComponent(g);
        g.drawImage(image, 0, 0, null);
    }

    private class ClearAction extends AbstractAction {

        public ClearAction(String name) {
            super(name);
            this.putValue(Action.MNEMONIC_KEY, KeyEvent.VK_C);
            this.putValue(Action.ACCELERATOR_KEY,
                KeyStroke.getKeyStroke(KeyEvent.VK_C, MASK));
        }

        @Override
        public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
            image = null;
            revalidate();
            repaint();
        }
    }

    private class ImageOpenAction extends AbstractAction {

        public ImageOpenAction(String name) {
            super(name);
            this.putValue(Action.MNEMONIC_KEY, KeyEvent.VK_O);
            this.putValue(Action.ACCELERATOR_KEY,
                KeyStroke.getKeyStroke(KeyEvent.VK_O, MASK));
        }

        @Override
        public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
            int returnVal = chooser.showOpenDialog(chooser);
            if (returnVal == JFileChooser.APPROVE_OPTION) {
                File f = chooser.getSelectedFile();
                try {
                    image = ImageIO.read(f);
                    revalidate();
                    repaint();
                } catch (IOException ex) {
                    ex.printStackTrace(System.err);
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

I'm not sure what your problem actually is (it's probably your Netbeans.... who knows), but have you tried overriding the createDialog method?

Example:

JFileChooser fc = new JFileChooser() {
   @Override
   protected JDialog createDialog(Component parent) throws HeadlessException {
       // intercept the dialog created by JFileChooser
       JDialog dialog = super.createDialog(parent);
       dialog.setModal(true);  // set modality (or setModalityType)
       return dialog;
   }
};

This is merely a hack solution, you should not need to do that ordinarily.

fileSelect.showOpenDialog(this)

Of course, this must be a Component of some sort (the JFrame or JPanel of your main interface). All dialogs need to have a parent component if you wish them to come to the front.