Opening a File for User

Quick question.

I'm writing a program that reads/writes Excel files and whatnot. When the program finishes, I will prompt the user, asking if they would like the Excel File to be opened for them.

How can I open the file for the user?

I know it's possible, but I cant get anything from google b/c everything I have tried searching just gives results concerning reading/writing files instead of actually opening them.

Do you mean open the file in excel? You can make a call to System.exec, or alternatively use the new Desktop (Java Platform SE 6) class and call Desktop.open (you should make sure the file has the appropriate extension so that it is recognizes as an excel file)

Fantastic. Exactly what I needed. Thanks copeg.

You could do something like this.

It's just an example but a JOptionPane will popup with YES and NO. If you click YES, the file will open.

Code Java:

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		String fileName = "file.txt";
 
		// File written. Open?
		JOptionPane pane = new JOptionPane("file saved. Open file?");
		Object[] options = new String[] { "YES", "NO" };
		pane.setOptions(options);
		JDialog dialog = pane.createDialog(new JFrame(), "File Saved");
		dialog.show();
		Object obj = pane.getValue();
 
		int result = -1;
		for (int k = 0; k < options.length; k++)
			if (options[k].equals(obj)){
				result = k;
				String opt = Integer.toString(result);
				// if YES
				if(opt.equals("0")){
					// Open file
					Process p = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("cmd /c \""+fileName+"\"");			
				}else{
					// do nothing
				}
			}

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This opens the file:

Code Java:

---

Process p = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("cmd /c \""+fileName+"\"");

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You will need to import:

javax.swing.JOptionPane;
javax.swing.JDialog;