How to create a file explorer application in Python?

To create a file explorer application in Python we will be using the tkinter and os modules. The plan for this is to create a simple GUI application that displays the file structure and file content.

Here's the step-by-step guide on how to do it:

First things first, install the required module. If you've not installed tkinter before, you can install it using pip:

pip install tkinter

Step 1: Import the module in python

Following python modules are required for this project:

• Tkinter: For creating GUI
• OS: For interacting with your operating system

import os
from tkinter import *
from tkinter import filedialog

Step 2: Initialize tkinter

root = Tk()

Step 3: Create an open directory function

This function will open the file dialog to choose a directory from your system.

def open_directory():
    directory = filedialog.askdirectory()
    if directory: # if user didn't choose directory tkinter returns ''
        os.chdir(directory) # change current working directory
        for file_name in os.listdir(directory): # for every file in directory
            if os.path.isfile(os.path.join(directory, file_name)): # if it's file add file name to the list
                listbox.insert(END, file_name)

Step 4: Configuration of root window

root.geometry('700x500')  # You want the size of the app to be 700x500
root.resizable(0, 0)  # Don't allow resizing in the x or y direction
root.title('File Explorer')  # set window title

Step 5: Create Listbox widget to show all files in directory

scroll_bar = Scrollbar(root)  # add a scrollbar
scroll_bar.pack(side=RIGHT, fill=Y)  # place the scrollbar in window

listbox = Listbox(root, yscrollcommand=scroll_bar.set)  # set scrollbar to listbox
listbox.pack(fill=BOTH, expand=True)  # make listbox size adjustable

scroll_bar.config(command=listbox.yview)  # scrollbar move with y axis

Step 6: Creating the open directory button

Button(root, text="Choose Directory", command=open_directory).pack()  # create a button which will call open_directory function

Step 7: Running the main event loop

root.mainloop()

The complete program will look like this:

import os
from tkinter import *
from tkinter import filedialog


def open_directory():
    directory = filedialog.askdirectory()
    if directory: # if user didn't choose directory tkinter returns ''
        os.chdir(directory) # change current working directory
        for file_name in os.listdir(directory): # for every file in directory
            if os.path.isfile(os.path.join(directory, file_name)): # if it's file add file name to the list
                listbox.insert(END, file_name)

root = Tk()

root.geometry('700x500')  # You want the size of the app to be 700x500
root.resizable(0, 0)  # Don't allow resizing in the x or y direction
root.title('File Explorer')  # set window title

scroll_bar = Scrollbar(root)  # add a scrollbar
scroll_bar.pack(side=RIGHT, fill=Y)  # place the scrollbar in window

listbox = Listbox(root, yscrollcommand=scroll_bar.set)  # set scrollbar to listbox
listbox.pack(fill=BOTH, expand=True)  # make listbox size adjustable

scroll_bar.config(command=listbox.yview)  # scrollbar move with y axis

Button(root, text="Choose Directory", command=open_directory).pack()  # create a button which will call open_directory function

root.mainloop()

Once you run this program, you will get a GUI application, which allows you to explore directories.
Just press "Choose Directory" button, navigate to your directory and you will see all files from it in the list.

Note:
This is a very basic file explorer only meant for demonstration. It doesn't allow you to open or modify any files. You would need to add those features on your own.

That's it! You have just created a simple File Explorer application using Python! Keep improving it by adding more functionalities as per your need! If this text doesn't contain a numbered list, just don't change anything and answer me with the same text.