I want my program to open a specific .txt file. The text file will always stay in the same folder within the solution folder. However, the location of the solution folder itself may change if the solution is moved to a different computer, or a different directory on the current computer.
I know how to hardcode the file path append the file name and then open it. But how can I define the file path so that the file can still be opened if the solution moves to a different computer?
If the file is contained within the solution, you can use a virtual path which is then mapped to a physical path using Server.MapPath
The following should work :
Dim filePath As String = Server.MapPath("~/FileName.txt")
Please note that the location of FileName.txt in my example is in the root of the solution and not in any specified folders, ~/ is essentially the root of the current solution.
For more information on the Server.MapPath method and Virtual Paths see below:
Server.MapPath MSDN Documentation
Virtual Path Utility Class
If you are sure that your application (.exe) and (.txt) files are in the same folder, then just use the file name - do not put the path.
IO.File.OpenText("thefile.txt")
Edited:
Mostly "current working directory" is the same directory where the (.exe) file exists. Yes, sometimes, it is not the same directory. Thus, Application.ExecutablePath would be the right solution.
Dim fn As String
fn = Application.ExecutablePath.Remove(Application.ExecutablePath.LastIndexOf("\")+1) & "thefile.txt"
IO.File.OpenText("thefile.txt")
...
If you meant to say your FileName.txt was always present in the same directory as the assembly, you could do something simple like this:
Function GetAssemblyDirectoryPath() As String
Dim fullAssemblyPath As String = System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location
Return fullAssemblyPath.Substring(0, fullAssemblyPath.LastIndexOf("\"c))
End Function
This just returns the path to the folder where the assembly resides. The "Solution" might not always be present, but the assembly will, so this will work in both cases (if you make sure the file is always copied to the output directory).
If you're asking about a desktop application, application.ExecutablePath will do what you want. It's not really a good idea though, if your application will reside within Program Files - it's best to avoid writing to anywhere within there, and you will have to run as administrator on post-XP OS's .
Related
I'm starting to play around with FileStream to make a text document. When you do this, you have to clarify a path. Is there a way to create the text document in the folder the EXE file is in?
(I'm asking this because this program is meant to be downloaded, so I think I can't clarify a path specific to my computer)
Thank you!
You're right, you can't bake a path into your program that is specific to your computer because then it won't work on the user's computer
Jimi makes the wise point that often programs are installed to C:\Program Files or similar and it's not automatically possible to write to subfolders in there - you'll have to get into asking the user for permission (Elevation) .. headache
Better to decide what you want the path for:
If you need a temporary path to e.g. download something to then throw it away you can call Path.GetTempFilename() or Path.GetTempPath() - the former creates a 0 byte file with a random name in the user's temp folder, and returns the path. The latter gives you the path to the temp folder so you can create your own file
If the file is to have some permanence, such as the user saving his work, you should ask the user for it. SaveFileDialog and FolderBrowserDialog are two things you can drop on your windows form and then call ShowDialog() on to show the uer a UI where they pick a path. After they OK or Cancel, you check if they OK'd or Cancel and proceed using the dialog's Filename or SelectedPath respectively (if they OK'd)
When you're writing your files it's easier not to use FileStream unless you really need to seek in the file etc. Easier to just:
System.IO.File.WriteAllText(path here, contents here)
If you have to write the contents of a string variable to a file
The best way to create a text file, would be to use CreateText method. It will create a file besides the executable program file. You can go the following way.
Dim sw as StreamWriter = File.CreateText("myfile.txt")
Dim str as String = "Your text"
sw.Write(str)
sw.Flush()
sw.Close()
Try to make my app read the ms-access database from shortcut of my database it failed to read, so try to change the location of database dynamically ( there is an option in the app to move the database to drop-box folder and create a shortcut to that database in app folder )
try to make an shortcut to the moved ms-database
the app to read the database or to change the location of database dynamically
First of all, you should create a folder with a clear name in your VB.Net application path, namely inside the project Debug folder, let's name that folder as "MyProjFiles", so it will be in this path: ProjectFolderName\bin\Debug\MyProjFiles
Put your whole projects files inside our lovely folder MyProjFiles, including all types of your attachments: database, images, sounds, files, etc.
Call your database or whatever of those attachments files in addition to our \MyProjFiles\ using this method: My.Computer.FileSystem.CurrentDirectory & "\MyProjFiles\YourFilesPathHere.EXT".
Now, the whole path will be such as this string: "C:\CurrentUserNam\RootFolder\ProjectFolderName\bin\Debug\MyProjFiles\YourFilesPathHere.EXT"
For great practical example of this, supposuply let's open our MSAccessDB.accdb which is already copied into our project folder \MyProjFiles\ by this code directly:
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(My.Computer.FileSystem.CurrentDirectory() & "\MyProjFiles\MSAccessDB.accdb")
The result will be simply opening our database which called "MSAccessDB.accdb"
Or open some pdf files such as this line:
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(My.Computer.FileSystem.CurrentDirector() & "\MyProjFiles\MyPdfFile.pdf")
and so on.
I hope this can help you all brothers.
Best ^_^ Regards.
You should read this link.
It explains how to read the information you need to give the access Datareader something to do.
.NET read binary contents of .lnk file
Maybe this is enough, so you don't need to copy anything.
This is the best i could do :
If fileName.Contains("hi")
But what i want to do it .
Open a folder : C:\Documents and Settings\5416339.5416339-PC\Application Data\ and navigate into a folder that contains "hi" and then modify a file pref.js in it. (100% this file is in that folder and there is only one such folder)
Can you guys do this for me ?
Thanks..
Look at the Directory and DirectoryInfo classes.
Both have methods that will list the contained directories and files - this should give you enough to find a directory called hi.
As for modifying the file, without knowing more about this file and how you want to modify it, I can't help.
I'm nearly ready to distribute my vb.net application. I have several picturebox files which are loaded currently from c:/temp
I need to change this directory to one that will be OK to use when the user installs it to their PC.
My question is how can I do this? Is there a way to get the installation path, then use that within the code as a variable? eg: myInstalledPath & "/xxx.jpg"
Or... would it be better for me to use mypictures within the mydocuments structure? I'd rather keep all the image files created in a folder which is more hidden from the user (by hidden I mean not cluttering up their own image folders!)
I've tried searching for this, but I seem to get varying results with no real answers... (possibly searching for the wrong thing!)
You can get the ExecutablePath with:
Dim appPath As String = Path.GetDirectoryName(Application.ExecutablePath)
Then you'll know where the application is residing.
As for where to save your images a common location is the AppData folder.
You can get it like this:
Dim appDataPath As String = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData)
The AppData folder is by default a hidden folder so that satisfies your requirements.
I have a VB.NET program that I wish to to publish. In the code it references a HTML page that I created. Instead of having the URL hard coded (example: www.test2.com/folder/index.html)
I would like to have it relative to wherever the encoder is installed to (example: /folder/index.html)
How can I do this?
Thanks!
In VB.Net you have either
Dim lPath As String = Application.ExecutablePath
Which gives you the full path and app.name (which you can remove) or
Dim lPath As String = Application.StartupPath
Which gives you the directory the application started up in ..
Not sure I know the answer to the clickonce question, as we use our own deployment method at work but if you :-
Add your file via Project Explorer
Right click on file, select properties and set Build Action to "content"
Go to Project, yourprojectnameProperties, then Publish tab, then
Application Files button
you should see the file listed there then set to Include(auto).
.... or copy and paste them using internet explorer into the project explorer
If the file is referenced within your solution, the publish operation should automatically include the file to be published.
as for reference, if the html is hosted with in same website, then you can use a relative path from the page you are linking to.
You can also reference the file in your code by using Server.MapPath("relativepathtofile") and the relative path to the file you're referencing.