1getOpenFile(3) User Contributed Perl Documentation getOpenFile(3)
2
6 Tk::getOpenFile - pop up a dialog box for the user to select a file to
7 open.
8
10 $widget->getOpenFile(?-option=>value, ...>?)
11 $widget->getSaveFile(?-option=>value, ...>?)
13
15 The methods getOpenFile and getSaveFile pop up a dialog box for the
16 user to select a file to open or save.
17 The getOpenFile method is usually associated with the Open command in
19 the File menu. Its purpose is for the user to select an existing file
20 only. If the user enters an non-existent file, the dialog box gives
21 the user an error prompt and requires the user to give an alternative
22 selection. If an application allows the user to create new files, it
23 should do so by providing a separate New menu command.
24 The getSaveFile method is usually associated with the Save as command
26 in the File menu. If the user enters a file that already exists, the
27 dialog box prompts the user for confirmation whether the existing file
28 should be overwritten or not.
29 If the user selects a file, both getOpenFile and getSaveFile return the
31 full pathname of this file. If the user cancels the operation, both
32 commands return an undefined value.
33 The following option-value pairs are possible as command line arguments
35 to these two commands:
36 -defaultextension => extension
38 Specifies a string that will be appended to the filename if the
39 user enters a filename without an extension. The default value is
40 the empty string, which means no extension will be appended to the
41 filename in any case. This option is ignored on the Macintosh
42 platform, which does not require extensions to filenames, and the
43 UNIX implementation guesses reasonable values for this from the
44 -filetypes option when this is not supplied.
45 -filetypes => [filePattern ?, ...?]
47 If a File types listbox exists in the file dialog on the particular
48 platform, this option gives the filetypes in this listbox. When the
49 user choose a filetype in the listbox, only the files of that type
50 are listed. If this option is unspecified, or if it is set to the
51 empty list, or if the File types listbox is not supported by the
52 particular platform then all files are listed regardless of their
53 types. See "SPECIFYING FILE PATTERNS" below for a discussion on the
54 contents of filePatterns.
55 -initialdir => directory
57 Specifies that the files in directory should be displayed when the
58 dialog pops up. If this parameter is not specified, then the files
59 in the current working directory are displayed. This option may
60 not always work on the Macintosh. This is not a bug. Rather, the
61 General Controls control panel on the Mac allows the end user to
62 override the application default directory.
63 -initialfile => filename
65 Specifies a filename to be displayed in the dialog when it pops up.
66 This option is ignored by the getOpenFile method.
67 -multiple
69 Allows the user to choose multiple files from the Open dialog. On
70 the Macintosh, this is only available when Navigation Services are
71 installed.
72 -message => string
74 Specifies a message to include in the client area of the dialog.
75 This is only available on the Macintosh, and only when Navigation
76 Services are installed.
77 -title => titleString
79 Specifies a string to display as the title of the dialog box. If
80 this option is not specified, then a default title is displayed.
81 This option is ignored on the Macintosh platform.
82
84 The filePatterns given by the -filetypes option are a list of file
85 patterns. Each file pattern is a list of the form
86 typeName [extension ?extension ...?] ?[macType ?macType ...?]?
88 typeName is the name of the file type described by this file pattern
90 and is the text string that appears in the File types listbox.
91 extension is a file extension for this file pattern. macType is a
92 four-character Macintosh file type. The list of macTypes is optional
93 and may be omitted for applications that do not need to execute on the
94 Macintosh platform.
95 Several file patterns may have the same typeName, in which case they
97 refer to the same file type and share the same entry in the listbox.
98 When the user selects an entry in the listbox, all the files that match
99 at least one of the file patterns corresponding to that entry are
100 listed. Usually, each file pattern corresponds to a distinct type of
101 file. The use of more than one file patterns for one type of file is
102 necessary on the Macintosh platform only.
103 On the Macintosh platform, a file matches a file pattern if its name
105 matches at least one of the extension(s) AND it belongs to at least one
106 of the macType(s) of the file pattern. For example, the C Source Files
107 file pattern in the sample code matches with files that have a \.c
108 extension AND belong to the macType TEXT. To use the OR rule instead,
109 you can use two file patterns, one with the extensions only and the
110 other with the macType only. The GIF Files file type in the sample code
111 matches files that EITHER have a \.gif extension OR belong to the
112 macType GIFF.
113 On the Unix and Windows platforms, a file matches a file pattern if its
115 name matches at at least one of the extension(s) of the file pattern.
116 The macTypes are ignored.
117
119 On the Unix and Macintosh platforms, extensions are matched using glob-
120 style pattern matching. On the Windows platforms, extensions are
121 matched by the underlying operating system. The types of possible
122 extensions are: (1) the special extension * matches any file; (2) the
123 special extension "" matches any files that do not have an extension
124 (i.e., the filename contains no full stop character); (3) any character
125 string that does not contain any wild card characters (* and ?).
126 Due to the different pattern matching rules on the various platforms,
128 to ensure portability, wild card characters are not allowed in the
129 extensions, except as in the special extension *. Extensions without a
130 full stop character (e.g, ~) are allowed but may not work on all
131 platforms.
132
134 See "CAVEATS" in Tk::chooseDirectory.
135
137 my $types = [
138 ['Text Files', ['.txt', '.text']],
139 ['TCL Scripts', '.tcl' ],
140 ['C Source Files', '.c', 'TEXT'],
141 ['GIF Files', '.gif', ],
142 ['GIF Files', '', 'GIFF'],
143 ['All Files', '*', ],
144 ];
145 my $filename = $widget->getOpenFile(-filetypes=>$types);
146 if ($filename ne "") {
148 # Open the file ...
149 }
150
152 Tk::FBox, Tk::FileSelect
153
155 file selection dialog
156perl v5.38.0 2023-07-21 getOpenFile(3)