getOpenFile(3pm) User Contributed Perl Documentation getOpenFile(3pm)
NAME
Tk::getOpenFile - pop up a dialog box for the user to select a file to
open.
SYNOPSIS
$widget->getOpenFile(?-option=>value, ...>?)
$widget->getSaveFile(?-option=>value, ...>?)
DESCRIPTION
The methods getOpenFile and getSaveFile pop up a dialog box for the user
to select a file to open or save.
The getOpenFile method is usually associated with the Open command in
the File menu. Its purpose is for the user to select an existing file
only. If the user enters an non-existent file, the dialog box gives the
user an error prompt and requires the user to give an alternative
selection. If an application allows the user to create new files, it
should do so by providing a separate New menu command.
The getSaveFile method is usually associated with the Save as command in
the File menu. If the user enters a file that already exists, the dialog
box prompts the user for confirmation whether the existing file should
be overwritten or not.
If the user selects a file, both getOpenFile and getSaveFile return the
full pathname of this file. If the user cancels the operation, both
commands return an undefined value.
The following option-value pairs are possible as command line arguments
to these two commands:
-defaultextension => extension
Specifies a string that will be appended to the filename if the user
enters a filename without an extension. The default value is the
empty string, which means no extension will be appended to the
filename in any case. This option is ignored on the Macintosh
platform, which does not require extensions to filenames, and the
UNIX implementation guesses reasonable values for this from the
-filetypes option when this is not supplied.
-filetypes => [filePattern ?, ...?]
If a File types listbox exists in the file dialog on the particular
platform, this option gives the filetypes in this listbox. When the
user choose a filetype in the listbox, only the files of that type
are listed. If this option is unspecified, or if it is set to the
empty list, or if the File types listbox is not supported by the
particular platform then all files are listed regardless of their
types. See "SPECIFYING FILE PATTERNS" below for a discussion on the
contents of filePatterns.
-initialdir => directory
Specifies that the files in directory should be displayed when the
dialog pops up. If this parameter is not specified, then the files
in the current working directory are displayed. This option may not
always work on the Macintosh. This is not a bug. Rather, the
General Controls control panel on the Mac allows the end user to
override the application default directory.
-initialfile => filename
Specifies a filename to be displayed in the dialog when it pops up.
This option is ignored by the getOpenFile method.
-multiple
Allows the user to choose multiple files from the Open dialog. On
the Macintosh, this is only available when Navigation Services are
installed.
-message => string
Specifies a message to include in the client area of the dialog.
This is only available on the Macintosh, and only when Navigation
Services are installed.
-title => titleString
Specifies a string to display as the title of the dialog box. If
this option is not specified, then a default title is displayed.
This option is ignored on the Macintosh platform.
SPECIFYING FILE PATTERNS
The filePatterns given by the -filetypes option are a list of file
patterns. Each file pattern is a list of the form
typeName [extension ?extension ...?] ?[macType ?macType ...?]?
typeName is the name of the file type described by this file pattern and
is the text string that appears in the File types listbox. extension is
a file extension for this file pattern. macType is a four-character
Macintosh file type. The list of macTypes is optional and may be omitted
for applications that do not need to execute on the Macintosh platform.
Several file patterns may have the same typeName, in which case they
refer to the same file type and share the same entry in the listbox.
When the user selects an entry in the listbox, all the files that match
at least one of the file patterns corresponding to that entry are
listed. Usually, each file pattern corresponds to a distinct type of
file. The use of more than one file patterns for one type of file is
necessary on the Macintosh platform only.
On the Macintosh platform, a file matches a file pattern if its name
matches at least one of the extension(s) AND it belongs to at least one
of the macType(s) of the file pattern. For example, the C Source Files
file pattern in the sample code matches with files that have a \.c
extension AND belong to the macType TEXT. To use the OR rule instead,
you can use two file patterns, one with the extensions only and the
other with the macType only. The GIF Files file type in the sample code
matches files that EITHER have a \.gif extension OR belong to the
macType GIFF.
On the Unix and Windows platforms, a file matches a file pattern if its
name matches at at least one of the extension(s) of the file pattern.
The macTypes are ignored.
SPECIFYING EXTENSIONS
On the Unix and Macintosh platforms, extensions are matched using glob-
style pattern matching. On the Windows platforms, extensions are matched
by the underlying operating system. The types of possible extensions
are: (1) the special extension * matches any file; (2) the special
extension "" matches any files that do not have an extension (i.e., the
filename contains no full stop character); (3) any character string that
does not contain any wild card characters (* and ?).
Due to the different pattern matching rules on the various platforms, to
ensure portability, wild card characters are not allowed in the
extensions, except as in the special extension *. Extensions without a
full stop character (e.g, ~) are allowed but may not work on all
platforms.
CAVEATS
See "CAVEATS" in Tk::chooseDirectory.
EXAMPLE
my $types = [
['Text Files', ['.txt', '.text']],
['TCL Scripts', '.tcl' ],
['C Source Files', '.c', 'TEXT'],
['GIF Files', '.gif', ],
['GIF Files', '', 'GIFF'],
['All Files', '*', ],
];
my $filename = $widget->getOpenFile(-filetypes=>$types);
if ($filename ne "") {
# Open the file ...
}
SEE ALSO
Tk::FBox, Tk::FileSelect
KEYWORDS
file selection dialog
perl v5.40.1 2025-04-13 getOpenFile(3pm)
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