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ycomp

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Using JFileChooser

Hi,

I do not do GUI programming in Java. However, I have a simple class that I run all the time (it simply spits output to System.out) but it works on different files.

I want to implement the ability to choose a file from the file system.

I found some code on JFileChooser at:
http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.3/docs/api/javax/swing/JFileChooser.html

but it won't compile because it requires some parent "Component" object. I think maybe I need to create AWT somehow. But I know nothing about AWT.

So if someone could please show me some code that can open a file from the file system from a regular java class then it would help me a lot.

Actually I would prefer to use the Windows Open File Dialog but I suspect that is more difficult to do.  But if you know how to use that instead of JFileChooser then feel free to demonstrate that approach. Otherwise I would be happy to know how JFileChooser works.

thanks!
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bvanderveen

JFileChooser will be similar to the Windows Open dialog.  Calling this would involve some JNI programming, which I think is more complex than you want.

Where are you calling from?  It would be pretty unusual to open a dialog from a CLI, so I assume there is some application at work here.  Is this AWT/Swing, or a web app?

I got the demo to work (with a warning - it is looking for a file that doesn't exist on my FS).   What error do you get if you run the demo source directly?  (You are on JDK 1.4.x?)
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ASKER

I couldn't get it to run because I didn't know what a Compoonent Class was (the parent object it uses as a parameter).

JFileChooser is ok if Windows Open is too difficult. I just need to select a file.

I just have a normal java app. there is no gui stuff in it. No AWT/Swing, etc. It is just a test app that tests part of the library I'm building. I also know nothing about AWT, Swing, etc.

I am using JDK 1.3.1
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bvanderveen

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ASKER

cool, exactly what I wanted. Thanks!