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Replacing Hanging Ceiling Fixture Wth Regular Fixture

Name: trudy  City: north kingstown, ri

Question: There's a hanging ceiling fixture in my living room; just what looks like an electrical cord comes out of the ceiling. I'd like to replace this with a regular fixture. On home repair tv shows, I've seen people messing with boxes(?) in the ceiling when they replace a regular fixture with a regular fixture. What do I do in the case of my situation, can I just connect the wires to the new fixture and bolt the new fixture to the ceiling, or do I have to break into the ceiling any install a "box"? Thanks.