How to have a file Import Button in Mathematica

Question

so I've been having trouble getting a dynamic import button to work inside of a manipulate. I have code that takes in a data set (in this case an excel sheet), and I got everything to work fine in the UI at first. But there are some days where my code simply seems not to work.

    Manipulate[DataModelGenerator[data1, Temperature, Rate, 
   alphaseed,  Qseed, Aseed, nseed], Dynamic[Button["import data",   fileFull = SystemDialogInput["FileOpen"]; 
   data1 = Flatten[Import[fileFull], 1]], data1], {Temperature, InputField}, {Rate, InputField},  Grid[{{"Seed Values"}, {Grid[{{"Q", 
   Control@{{Qseed, 18, ""}, 
     ControlType -> InputField}}, {"A", 
   Control@{{Aseed, 29, ""}, 
     ControlType -> InputField}}, {"n", 
   Control@{{nseed, 2, ""}, 
     ControlType -> InputField}}, {"\[Alpha]", 
   Control@{{alphaseed, 1, ""}, 
     ControlType -> InputField}}}]}}]
 , ControlPlacement -> Left]

For UI purposes I would prefer to have the button with the manipulate controls. Thank you for your time.

Answer 1

You could use a FileNameSetter to first select the file, then a button to import the data. For example:

Manipulate[
     DataModelGenerator[data1, Temperature, Rate, alphaseed, Qseed, Aseed,nseed], Row[{Item[FileNameSetter[Dynamic[selectedFile]], Alignment -> Center], 
   Button["Import", 
    data1 = Flatten[Import[selectedFile], 1]]}], {Temperature,InputField}, {Rate, InputField}, 
   Grid[{{"Seed Values"}, {Grid[{{"Q", 
    Control@{{Qseed, 18, ""}, ControlType -> InputField}}, {"A", 
    Control@{{Aseed, 29, ""}, ControlType -> InputField}}, {"n", 
    Control@{{nseed, 2, ""}, 
     ControlType -> InputField}}, {"\[Alpha]", 
   Control@{{alphaseed, 1, ""}, ControlType -> InputField}}}]}}], 
 ControlPlacement -> Left]