| Function group | Execute on client | Platform(s) |
| FileOps | NO | All |
FileOps.$getfilename(&vListOrCharacter[,cPrompt,cFilter,cInitialDirectory,iFlags])
Opens the standard Open file dialog. Returns Boolean true if a file was selected
You can specify the dialog title in cPrompt, and restrict the files displayed using a filter passed in cFilter. The filter comprises one or more entries separated by the vertical bar character '|'. Each filter entry has two components, again separated by a vertical bar. The filter entries populate the file-type selection dropdown or popup list. The first component of an entry is the text to display in the dropdown or popup list. The second component is a file-matching specification. On all platforms, a file-matching specification can have the form *.<ext>, to match all files with the extension <ext>, or *.* to match all files. On macOS, a file-matching specification can also have the form TYPE or TYPE,CREATOR, where TYPE and CREATOR are the 4 character, case-sensitive Mac file type and creator. Example cFilter parameters:
| Text files|*.txt | Matched all files with .txt as their extension |
| Text files|*.txt|Omnis Libraries|OO$A,OO$$ | The first entry matches all files with .txt as their extension. The second entry matches all Omnis Studio libraries used under macOS. |
You can also specify the initial directory for the Open dialog in cInitialDirectory.
The iAppflags parameter only applies when running on macOS. It is optional; if specified, it must be a combination of the following constants:
| kFileOpsSelectApps | Allows applications to be selectable within the dialog |
| kFileOpsOpenApps | Allows the dialog to browse the content of applications |
Note that kFileOpsOpenApps automatically implies kFileOpsSelectApps, although it is valid to specify both flags (kFileOpsSelectApps + kFileOpsOpenApps).
The name and full path of the file selected by the user is returned in the cPath parameter. Note that the file is not open: you must do something with the file name and path returned.
The cPath parameter can be either a Character variable to return a single file, or a list to allow the user to select more than one file. When cPath is a Character variable the function returns a single file name and path. Note that the file selected is not opened: you must do something with the file name and path returned.
When cPath is a List variable, FileOps will allow the user to select more than one file in the select file dialog and return the path of the selected files into a list with a single column 'name' which is created automatically. Note that when cPath is a list, if the user selects a single file, FileOps will return a list with a single line.
Note that if the file selected is an alias/shortcut/link, then the returned value is the result of resolving the alias/shortcut/link to its target, not the path of the alias/shortcut/link.
$getfilename() returns true if the user selected a file and pressed OK. Otherwise, it returns false, meaning that the user pressed Cancel.
DoFileOps.$getfilename(lPath,'Please locate the Omnis help file','Help files|*.ohf',con((sys((115),'help'))ReturnslError# returns the name and full path of the file selected, e.g. 'c:\omnis\help\omnis\omnis.ohf'