Provided by: tk8.6-doc_8.6.13-2_all bug

NAME

       tk_getOpenFile, tk_getSaveFile - pop up a dialog box for the user to select a file to open
       or save.

SYNOPSIS

       tk_getOpenFile ?option value ...?
       tk_getSaveFile ?option value ...?
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

DESCRIPTION

       The procedures tk_getOpenFile and tk_getSaveFile pop up a  dialog  box  for  the  user  to
       select  a  file to open or save. The tk_getOpenFile command 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  a  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  tk_getSaveFile  command  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.

       The  following  option-value  pairs  are  possible  as command line arguments to these two
       commands:

       -command string
              Specifies the prefix of a Tcl command to invoke when the  user  closes  the  dialog
              after  having  selected  an item. This callback is not called if the user cancelled
              the dialog. The actual command consists of string followed by a space and the value
              selected by the user in the dialog. This is only available on Mac OS X.

       -confirmoverwrite boolean
              Configures  how  the  Save dialog reacts when the selected file already exists, and
              saving would overwrite  it.   A  true  value  requests  a  confirmation  dialog  be
              presented  to  the  user.   A  false  value  requests that the overwrite take place
              without confirmation.  Default value is true.

       -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  Mac  OS  X,  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 filePatternList
              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
              the section SPECIFYING FILE PATTERNS below for a  discussion  on  the  contents  of
              filePatternList.

       -initialdir directory
              Specifies  that the files in directory should be displayed when the dialog pops up.
              If this parameter is not specified, the initial directory defaults to  the  current
              working directory on non-Windows systems and on Windows systems prior to Vista.  On
              Vista and later systems, the initial directory defaults to the  last  user-selected
              directory  for  the  application.  If  the parameter specifies a relative path, the
              return value will convert the relative path to an absolute path.

       -initialfile filename
              Specifies a filename to be displayed in the dialog when it pops up.

       -message string
              Specifies a message to include in the client area of  the  dialog.   This  is  only
              available on Mac OS X.

       -multiple boolean
              Allows the user to choose multiple files from the Open dialog.

       -parent window
              Makes window the logical parent of the file dialog. The file dialog is displayed on
              top of its parent window. On Mac OS X, this turns the  file  dialog  into  a  sheet
              attached to the parent window.

       -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.

       -typevariable variableName
              The global variable variableName is used to preselect which  filter  is  used  from
              filterList  when  the  dialog  box  is opened and is updated when the dialog box is
              closed, to the last selected filter. The variable is read once at the beginning  to
              select  the  appropriate  filter. If the variable does not exist, or its value does
              not match any filter typename, or is empty ({}), the dialog box will revert to  the
              default  behavior  of  selecting  the  first  filter  in the list. If the dialog is
              canceled, the variable is not modified.

       If the user selects a  file,  both  tk_getOpenFile  and  tk_getSaveFile  return  the  full
       pathname  of  this file. If the user cancels the operation, both commands return the empty
       string.

SPECIFYING FILE PATTERNS

       The filePatternList value given by the -filetypes option is 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 pattern for one type of file is only necessary on the Macintosh
       platform.

       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
       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 platform, 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.

EXAMPLE

              set types {
                  {{Text Files}       {.txt}        }
                  {{TCL Scripts}      {.tcl}        }
                  {{C Source Files}   {.c}      TEXT}
                  {{GIF Files}        {.gif}        }
                  {{GIF Files}        {}        GIFF}
                  {{All Files}        *             }
              }
              set filename [tk_getOpenFile -filetypes $types]

              if {$filename ne ""} {
                  # Open the file ...
              }

SEE ALSO

       tk_chooseDirectory

KEYWORDS

       file selection dialog