Sounds a bit like you can put it anywhere as long as you tell your code where to find it? One of the methods would be something like Savitch described in COS112; another would be to take advantage of some Qt functionality.
The problem of what's on the file is separate from the problem of where the file goes, is separate from the problem of how to make some use of what's in the file. Try to decompose the main problem into the finest granularity of subproblems, then just solve the simplest of the subproblems, stand back, look, solve the next one, and so on ...
Sorry I'm being so general. Sounds like a more direct answer is a bit too close to offering an answer to the assignment, though. (You have my sympathy for what it's worth).