Using the fox toolkit FileDialog static public functions

This trick comes from a brand-new project I hosted at github : elecrud, more specifically the MainWindow::onFileOpen() method you can find in the src/editor/MainWindow.cpp file.

 

The dialog class

The FXFileDialog class reference can be found online here for the 1.6 version of the fox toolkit library.

So, obviously, you could instantiate FXFileDialog but the simplest way to use it is to use Static Public Member Functions, for example getSaveFilename() or getOpenFilename() :

FXString filename = FXFileDialog::getOpenFilename(this, 
                               "Open a project...", "~");
// use filename here

The owner class

The only limitation is that you must have a valid owner as first parameter. If you try nullptr you may have a silly segmentation fault. The simplest solution is to call it from a class that inherits a Fox class, for example a MainWindow :

class MainWindow : public FXMainWindow
{
  // Macro for class hierarchy declarations
  FXDECLARE(MainWindow)

public:
  // MainWindow's constructor
  MainWindow(FXApp* a, const FX::FXString& windowTitle);

  // Messages for our class
  enum{
    ID_CANVAS=FXMainWindow::ID_LAST,
    ID_CLEAR,

    ID_LAST,
    };

  // Initialize
  virtual void create();
  virtual ~MainWindow();
 
protected:
  MainWindow();
};

The main() function

You will also need a valid application object :

int main(int argc,char *argv[]){

  FXApp application("Scribble","FoxTest");
  application.init(argc,argv);
  new MainWindow(&application);

  // Create the application's windows and run app
  application.create();
  return application.run();
  }

Conclusion

Even if the public static functions are easier to use for the most common cases, a subclass can offer more customisation. Choose your fate.