Help with a system call in java

[Michael Paul]

Hey,

I am making a system call to open a particular file in ms word. I do it like this:

    
Process proc = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(FilePathOfMSWORD.exe fileName);

The problem here is that I do not believe that this exe file doesn't appear in the same path on all computers...I would assume. So how can I generally make a system call that says, look for microsoft word or some flavor? I have it working for the case in which I know where the exe file.

Thanks
Michael

[Jonathan Wolter]

You could have the file location in a properties file. You can read and set properties like this:

(I'm using a junit 4 test to illustrate)

package com.jawspeak.misc;
 
import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileInputStream;
import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.util.Properties;
 
import org.junit.Assert;
import org.junit.Test;
 
public class CanOpenPropertiesFileTest {
 
  @Test
  public void canOpenPropertiesFile() throws Exception {
    String filename = "misc_test.properties";
    
    File file = new File(filename);
    file.createNewFile();
    
    Properties properties = new Properties();
    properties.load(new FileInputStream(filename));
    properties.setProperty("key1", "value1"); 
    properties.setProperty("key2 ", "value2");
    properties.store(new FileOutputStream(filename), "comments to go in file");
    
    
    Assert.assertEquals("value1", properties.get("key1"));
    
    
  }
}
 
    

[Purushoth Thambu]

I can think of two options
(1) Search for all the drives to find the winword.exe and use the path.
(2) Make use of windows file type association without bothering where the exe is located.

 
 String arr = "cmd.exe /C start C:\\temp\\my.doc";
 Process proc = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(arr);
 proc.waitFor();

The above snippet opens new command window and from there winword or any office suite app is launched and shell is destroyed immediately. You can try cmd.exe /? to find more options.

[Ulf Dittmer]

There's also a similar trick using something like "rundll32 url.dll,FileProtocolHandler <<url>>", where"url" is the file you want to open.

[Rob Spoor]

Alternatively, java.awt.Desktop should be able to help you with this as well. At least if you have Java 6 or beyond.

[Muhammad Saifuddin]

agree with Rob statement, about referring java.awt.Desktop instead of Runtime.exec().

this may help you to find out the difference between java.awt.Desktop and Runtime.exec().