A file selection class build for ipywidgets without any extra dependencies.

selectfile.py

import os

import ipywidgets as widgets


class FileBrowser(object):
    def __init__(self, init_path=None):
        if init_path:
            self.path = os.getcwd()+'/'+init_path
        else:
            self.path = os.getcwd()
        self._update_files()
        
    def _update_files(self):
        self.files = list()
        self.dirs = list()
        if(os.path.isdir(self.path)):
            for f in os.listdir(self.path):
                ff = self.path + "/" + f
                if os.path.isdir(ff):
                    self.dirs.append(f)
                else:
                    self.files.append(f)
            self.dirs = sorted(self.dirs)
            self.files = sorted(self.files)
        
    def widget(self):
        box = widgets.VBox()
        self._update(box)
        return box
    
    def _update(self, box):
        
        def on_click(b):
            if b.description == '..':
                self.path = os.path.split(self.path)[0]
            else:
                self.path = self.path + "/" + b.description
            self._update_files()
            self._update(box)
            
        buttons = []
        imgs = []
        if self.files:
            button = widgets.Button(description='..')
            button.on_click(on_click)
            button.style.button_color = 'lightgreen'
            buttons.append(button)
        for f in self.dirs:
            button = widgets.Button(description=f, background_color='#ddffff')
            if 'img' in f:
                button.style.button_color = 'lightblue'
            button.on_click(on_click)
            buttons.append(button)
        for f in self.files:
            button = widgets.Button(description=f)
            button.on_click(on_click)
            buttons.append(button)
        
        if self.files:
            box.children = tuple([widgets.HTML("<h2>%s</h2>" % (self.path,))] + buttons)
        else:
            if any(c in self.path for c in ['.png', '.gif', '.jpg', '.jpeg','svg']) :
                cd = os.getcwd().split('/')
                fp = self.path.split('/')
                img_path = '/'.join(list(set(fp)-set(cd)))
                markdown_tag = '![%s](%s)' % (img_path, img_path)
                body =  [widgets.HTML('<img src="%s"/><p>%s</p> <h3 style="color:green">%s</h3>' % (img_path,img_path, markdown_tag))]
            else:
                body = tuple([widgets.HTML("-> <h3>%s</h3>" % (self.path,))] + buttons)
            box.children = body
        
'''
f = FileBrowser('optional path')
f.widget()


f.path
'''