I was working on a project, which required the ability to export the contents of the table as a Microsoft Excel file. After saving the file, the file had to be open immediately by Microsoft Excel. However this is multi-platform application and needed to support at least Windows, Mac and Linux. What if the user didn’t have Microsoft Excel installed, but they did have another program capable of editing/viewing Excel files? Users may have installed alternatives such as Open Office, Libre Office, and Microsoft Office for Mac. How can a Java Swing program invoke an unknown native program without having to program to every native executable? After searching the web, there was an elegant solution.
