# \[IGN-15929\]Trouble with system.vision.openFiles **URL:** \ **Category:** Ignition\ **Tags:** vision\ **Created:** [April 9, 2026, 10:49am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/ign-15929-trouble-with-system-vision-openfiles/114977 "2026-04-09T10:49:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bob-the\_old\_one](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8edcca/32.png) [@bob-the\_old\_one](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/bob-the_old_one)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2026, 10:49am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/ign-15929-trouble-with-system-vision-openfiles/114977/1 "2026-04-09T10:49:21Z")
Hi everybody, I’m very new to Ignition but I’m loving it so far! I have, however, ran into a weird problem. I’ve got a button I want to use to open up a specific folder to list the files that the folder contains. I’ve been testing with the system.vision.openFile function, this seems to work well but does not open a folder, it opens a specific file (as it should). I wanted to use the system.vision.openFiles function but I can’t get it to work at all, according to the Vision User Manual it should work the same as the system.vision.openFile function but I keep getting hit with an argument error: caused by IllegalArgumentException: extension is not a valid keyword for openFiles. Does anybody know why this is? Thanks in advance! ---
**Author:** ![Greyship](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/898d66/32.png) [@Greyship](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Greyship)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2026, 11:27am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/ign-15929-trouble-with-system-vision-openfiles/114977/2 "2026-04-09T11:27:19Z")
Can we see the function call with the arguments you are supplying? ---
**Author:** ![pturmel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/pturmel/32/3295_2.png) [@pturmel](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/pturmel)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2026, 11:41am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/ign-15929-trouble-with-system-vision-openfiles/114977/3 "2026-04-09T11:41:53Z")
Don't use keyword arguments except where support is explicit. ---
**Author:** ![bob-the\_old\_one](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8edcca/32.png) [@bob-the\_old\_one](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/bob-the_old_one)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2026, 11:49am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/ign-15929-trouble-with-system-vision-openfiles/114977/4 "2026-04-09T11:49:12Z")
Hi Greyship, thank you for responding. The function and arguments: paths = system.vision.openFiles("xlsx") This returns Traceback (most recent call last): File "event:actionPerformed", line 5, in java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: extension is not a valid keyword for openFiles ```python caused by IllegalArgumentException: extension is not a valid keyword for openFiles ``` And when I use the function without arguments it returns Traceback (most recent call last): File "event:actionPerformed", line 5, in java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: extension is not a valid keyword for openFiles ```python caused by IllegalArgumentException: extension is not a valid keyword for openFiles ``` Thanks for your help. ---
**Author:** ![bob-the\_old\_one](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8edcca/32.png) [@bob-the\_old\_one](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/bob-the_old_one)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2026, 11:54am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/ign-15929-trouble-with-system-vision-openfiles/114977/5 "2026-04-09T11:54:10Z")
Hi pturmel, Maybe I misunderstood (English is not my first language) but in the User Manual for both functions it would seem like I can use the same arguments. Is this maybe a mistake in the User Manual or am I simply not understanding the text? openFile: [system.vision.openFile | Ignition User Manual](https://docs.inductiveautomation.com/docs/8.3/appendix/scripting-functions/system-vision/system-vision-openFile) openFiles: [system.vision.openFiles | Ignition User Manual](https://docs.inductiveautomation.com/docs/8.3/appendix/scripting-functions/system-vision/system-vision-openFiles) Thanks in advance. ---
**Author:** ![Greyship](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/898d66/32.png) [@Greyship](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Greyship)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2026, 12:02pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/ign-15929-trouble-with-system-vision-openfiles/114977/6 "2026-04-09T12:02:15Z")
This looks like a bug, the keyword is “extensions” in the function prototype, but the back-end is trying to validate the keyword as “extension” and failing. Both of these calls fail: ```python system.vision.openFiles("xlsx") system.vision.openFiles(extensions="xlsx") ``` ---
**Author:** ![bob-the\_old\_one](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8edcca/32.png) [@bob-the\_old\_one](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/bob-the_old_one)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2026, 12:03pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/ign-15929-trouble-with-system-vision-openfiles/114977/7 "2026-04-09T12:03:01Z")
Gentlemen, thank you for your time and help. I decided to use a depricated function: paths = system.file.openFiles("xlsx") This function is old but does work. Thank you both. ---
**Author:** ![bob-the\_old\_one](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8edcca/32.png) [@bob-the\_old\_one](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/bob-the_old_one)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2026, 12:07pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/ign-15929-trouble-with-system-vision-openfiles/114977/8 "2026-04-09T12:07:32Z")
Should this be reported to Inductive Automation? ---
**Author:** ![Greyship](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/898d66/32.png) [@Greyship](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Greyship)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2026, 12:13pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/ign-15929-trouble-with-system-vision-openfiles/114977/9 "2026-04-09T12:13:09Z")
I would open a support ticket, yes. ---
**Author:** ![pturmel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/pturmel/32/3295_2.png) [@pturmel](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/pturmel)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2026, 2:58pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/ign-15929-trouble-with-system-vision-openfiles/114977/10 "2026-04-09T14:58:13Z")
IIRC, a number of documented `system.vision.*` functions for v8.3 aren't actually ready. ---
**Author:** ![paul-griffith](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/paul-griffith/32/37249_2.png) [@paul-griffith](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/paul-griffith)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2026, 3:40pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/ign-15929-trouble-with-system-vision-openfiles/114977/11 "2026-04-09T15:40:07Z")
This is indeed just a bug. The workaround, calling `system.file.openFiles`, is absolutely valid. That's all `system.vision.openFiles` is supposed to do anyways. I've opened an internal ticket to get this fixed. > [@pturmel](#): > > IIRC, a number of documented `system.vision.*` functions for v8.3 aren't actually ready. This is stronger than I'd expect the reality to be. There have been more than the acceptable number (zero) issues with `system.vision` in particular, but everything that's in the software/documented should be fine. There were some issues with documentation existing for other planned deprecations/replacements in 8.3 that didn't actually get implemented, but I think those were in `system.db`.