Question

Is there a way to load Files outside the workspace?
This is what I found:

IFile fileToBeOpened = ...;
IEditorInput editorInput = new FileEditorInput(fileToBeOpened);
IWorkbenchWindow window=PlatformUI.getWorkbench().getActiveWorkbenchWindow();
IWorkbenchPage page = window.getActivePage();
page.openEditor(editorInput, "org.eclipse.ui.DefaultTextEdtior");

The problem here is the first line. My files that I would like to edit are of the java.io.File type. But there is no way of converting this into an IFile instance. How can I pass my java.io.File as input for my Editor?

Answer 1

To open an external file follow the instructions here
http://wiki.eclipse.org/FAQ_How_do_I_open_an_editor_programmatically%3F

import java.io.File;
import org.eclipse.core.filesystem.EFS;
import org.eclipse.core.filesystem.IFileStore;
import org.eclipse.ui.PartInitException;
import org.eclipse.ui.IWorkbenchPage;
import org.eclipse.ui.PlatformUI;
import org.eclipse.ui.ide.IDE;

File fileToOpen = new File("externalfile.xml");

if (fileToOpen.exists() && fileToOpen.isFile()) {
    IFileStore fileStore = EFS.getLocalFileSystem().getStore(fileToOpen.toURI());
    IWorkbenchPage page = PlatformUI.getWorkbench().getActiveWorkbenchWindow().getActivePage();

    try {
        IDE.openEditorOnFileStore( page, fileStore );
    } catch ( PartInitException e ) {
        //Put your exception handler here if you wish to
    }
} else {
    //Do something if the file does not exist
}