Open External Application From JavaFX

Question

I found a way to open a link on default browser using HostServices.

getHostServices().showDocument(\"http://www.google.com\");

• Is the

Answer 1

Only the solution with java.awt.Desktop worked for me to open a file from JavaFX.

However, at first, my application got stuck and I had to figure out that it is necessary to call Desktop#open(File file) from a new thread. Calling the method from the current thread or the JavaFX application thread Platform#runLater(Runnable runnable) resulted in the application to hang indefinitely without an exception being thrown.

This is a small sample JavaFX application with the working file open solution:

import java.awt.Desktop;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;

import javafx.application.Application;
import javafx.concurrent.Task;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.scene.control.Button;
import javafx.stage.FileChooser;
import javafx.stage.Stage;

public class FileOpenDemo extends Application {

    @Override
    public void start(Stage primaryStage) {
        final Button button = new Button("Open file");

        button.setOnAction(event -> {
            final FileChooser fileChooser = new FileChooser();
            final File file = fileChooser.showOpenDialog(primaryStage.getOwner());

            if (file == null)
                return;

            System.out.println("File selected: " + file.getName());

            if (!Desktop.isDesktopSupported()) {
                System.out.println("Desktop not supported");
                return;
            }

            if (!Desktop.getDesktop().isSupported(Desktop.Action.OPEN)) {
                System.out.println("File opening not supported");
                return;
            }

            final Task task = new Task() {
                @Override
                public Void call() throws Exception {
                    try {
                        Desktop.getDesktop().open(file);
                    } catch (IOException e) {
                        System.err.println(e.toString());
                    }
                    return null;
                }
            };

            final Thread thread = new Thread(task);
            thread.setDaemon(true);
            thread.start();
        });

        primaryStage.setScene(new Scene(button));
        primaryStage.show();
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        launch(args);
    }
}

The other proposed solution with javafx.application.HostServices did not work at all. I am using OpenJFX 8u141 on Ubuntu 17.10 amd64 and I got the following exception when invoking HostServices#showDocument(String uri):

java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: com.sun.deploy.uitoolkit.impl.fx.HostServicesFactory

Obviously, JavaFX HostServices is not yet properly implemented on all platforms. On this topic see also: https://github.com/Qabel/qabel-desktop/issues/420