Drag and Drop

[Jax Laakso]

All right, I have a problem and I'm not sure if this belongs in the Intermediate or the Beginner forum, but I'll put it here.
I'm writing a Java program that has to take in a tab delimited file, order it, then spit out a postscript file and a ups file.
The problem I have is that my boss would love to simply drag the file onto the Java app I write and away the Java app goes.
I'm wondering if the Drap and Drop classes and subclasses for the java.awt would work, or is that just for inside the program? Does anyone have any ideas how I would go about getting a drag and drop to work like I described?
Thank you,
Jax

[Michael Ernest]

Hi Jax -
That sounds like a Macintosh-specific kind of operation, although I haven't used one in a while.
The idea's a nice one, and it could probably be written in any language, but you need a windowing system to provide that feature to begin with.

[Jax Laakso]

I think it's a Mac specific function as well, and our shop runs Macs so he's used to being able to do it.
The Java app won't do it automatically because I've written another application and when I tried it just to see if it was something Mac would just do, it didn't work. So I'm wondering where I can start, or if I'm going to have to break down and use a GUI for the program.
Jax

[Michael Ernest]

What is possible to making an executable JAR. In the JAR file you need a class with a main(), along with a manifest file that lists it, like this:
Main-Class: Bootstrap.class
You'd execute this on the command line with:
java -jar codestuff.jar
IF MacOS can be made to recognize an executable jar and take a dropped file as a "command-line argument," you're in business!