how to write a file to desktop using streamwriter - c#

I have a block which is supposed to send the overwritten file to my desktop but the code does not seem to be working, I am using a MVC application not a console apllication.
Can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong or advise me on how to achieve my solution.
using (var File = new StreamWriter(Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.Desktop) + "~/ColTexOutputFileTest.csv", false)) // true for appending the file and false to overwrite the file
{
foreach (var item in outputFile)
{
File.WriteLine(item);
}
}

Remove the '~' char.
"\ColTexOutputFileTest.csv"

This character ' ~ ' used to find Server Side folder or file
For Example if you access App_Data folder in abc.xml file
HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath("~/App_Data/abc.xml");
if you streamed file on local access to file as windows path
using (var File = new StreamWriter(Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.Desktop) + "\ColTexOutputFileTest.csv", false)) // true for appending the file and false to overwrite the file
{
foreach (var item in outputFile)
{
File.WriteLine(item);
}
}
"~/ColTexOutputFileTest.csv" change it "\ColTexOutputFileTest.csv"

As stated in the answers above, the ~ is the problem. .Net provides the Path class which has a combine method for joining path & file names & not needing to know whether separators are needed :
using (var File = new StreamWriter(Path.Combine(Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.Desktop), "ColTexOutputFileTest.csv"), false))
See : https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.io.path(v=vs.110).aspx

Related

Why is my zip file not showing any contents?

I've created a zip file method in my web api which returns a zip file to the front end (Angular / typescript) that should download a zip file in the browser. The issue I have is the file shows it has data by the number of kbs it has but on trying to extract the files it says it's empty. From a bit of research this is most likely down to the file being corrupt, but I want to know where I can find this is going wrong. Here's my code:
WebApi:
I won't show the controller as it basically just takes the inputs and passes them to the method. The DownloadFileResults passed in basically have a byte[] in the File property.
public FileContentResult CreateZipFile(IEnumerable<DownloadFileResult> files)
{
using (var compressedFileStream = new MemoryStream())
{
using (var zipArchive = new ZipArchive(compressedFileStream, ZipArchiveMode.Update))
{
foreach (var file in files)
{
var zipEntry = zipArchive.CreateEntry(file.FileName);
using (var entryStream = zipEntry.Open())
{
entryStream.Write(file.File, 0, file.File.Length);
}
}
}
return new FileContentResult(compressedFileStream.ToArray(), "application/zip");
}
}
This appears to work in that it generates a result with data. Here's my front end code:
let fileData = this._filePaths;
this._fileStorageProxy.downloadFile(Object.entries(fileData).map(([key, val]) => val), this._pId).subscribe(result => {
let data = result.data.fileContents;
const blob = new Blob([data], {
type: 'application/zip'
});
const url = window.URL.createObjectURL(blob);
window.open(url);
});
The front end code then displays me a zip file being downloaded, which as I say appears to have data due to it's size, but I can't extract it.
Update
I tried writing the compressedFileStream to a file on my local and I can see that it creates a zip file and I can extract the files within it. This leads me to believe it's something wrong with the front end, or at least with what the front end code is receiving.
2nd Update
Ok, turns out this is specific to how we do things here. The request goes through platform, but for downloads it can only handle a BinaryTransferObject and I needed to hit a different end point. So with a tweak to no longer returning a FileContentResult and hitting the right end point and making the url simply an ahref it's now working.

Loop through Embedded Resources and copy to local path

I have a simple WinForms application, but it has some Embedded Resources (in a subfolder under "Resources") that I would like to copy out to a folder on the computer. Currently, I have the latter working (with a explicit method naming the Embedded Resource and where it should go):
string path = #"C:\Users\derek.antrican\";
using (Stream input = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetManifestResourceStream("WINFORMSAPP.Resources.SUBFOLDER.FILE.txt"))
using (Stream output = File.Create(path + "FILE.txt"))
{
input.CopyTo(output);
}
But I'm still trying to figure out how to get the former working: looping through all the resources in the "WINFORMSAPP.Resources.SUBFOLDER" folder and moving them. I've done quite a bit of Googling, but I'm still not sure how to get a list of each Embedded Resource in this subfolder.
Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!
Start by getting all resources embedded in your assembly:
Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetManifestResourceNames()
You can check these names against the name of your desired subfolder to see if they are inside or outside it with a simple call to StartsWith.
Now loop through the names, and get the corresponding resource stream:
const string subfolder = "WINFORMSAPP.Resources.SUBFOLDER.";
var assembly = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly();
foreach (var name in assembly.GetManifestResourceNames()) {
// Skip names outside of your desired subfolder
if (!name.StartsWith(subfolder)) {
continue;
}
using (Stream input = assembly.GetManifestResourceStream(name))
using (Stream output = File.Create(path + name.Substring(subfolder.Length))) {
input.CopyTo(output);
}
}

Write on a network folder from android (Xamarin) System.UnauthorizedAccessException

I created a android app to create a stockage list by capturing code bars, the idea is to write a csv file in to a network folder, because I want the app to run as much offline as it's possible.
Currently my code looks like:
string path = Android.OS.Environment.ExternalStorageDirectory.AbsolutePath;
string filename = Path.Combine(path, "stock.csv");
using (var streamWriter = new StreamWriter(filename, true))
using (var writer = new CsvWriter(streamWriter))
{
foreach (var item in articulos)
{
writer.WriteField(item.codbar);
writer.WriteField(item.reference);
writer.WriteField(item.quantity);
writer.NextRecord();
}
}
string path2 = #"\\Desktop-jce8pl5\csv\stock.csv";
File.Copy(filename, path2,true);
But I keep geting a System.UnauthorizedAccessException
I tried to enter directly to the file from another computer and there
is no problem.
I give full permission to "all" and "network"
I tried directly with IP I tried not to copy, just to create
string path = #"\\Desktop-jce8pl5\csv\stock.csv";
FileStream fs = null;
if (File.Exists(path))
{
fs = File.Open(path, FileMode.Append);
}
else
{
fs = File.Create(path);
}
But there is no way.
Any help?
Thanks.
As #RobertN sugested, I tried to connect with EX File Ex and detected that I was unable to, so I checked the windows 10 general configuration to shared folders and it was only enabled to auth users.
I changed that, then I start with the cifsmanager but on that moment we decided that, if the user has access to local network he will most sure have acces to internet, so I will send the file by email.

IO Exception - File being used by another process (Can't open file following directory creation)

I have got a project on the go that monitors patients for a vet while they are being operated on and writes the result to a text file. While I was experimenting with the outputting I just let the files save in the Debug folder, which worked fine. However, I've now created a full directory that creates or opens a main folder, and then a sub folder (based on input text from the program), to save the text file into.
private void createDirectory()
{ //create output file in this folder using owner name and current date
//main folder path (contains all files output from system)
string rootDirectory = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.MyDocuments) + "\\Horse Monitoring Records";
//sub folder path (each patient has individual subfolder)
string subDirectory = rootDirectory + "\\" + txtPatName.Text + "-" + txtOwnerName.Text;
//file name (patient has file created for each operation)
fileName = subDirectory + "\\" + txtOwnerName.Text + "-" + DateTime.Now.Date.ToString("ddMMyyyy") + ".txt";
if (!Directory.Exists(rootDirectory)) //if main folder does not exist...
{
Directory.CreateDirectory(rootDirectory); //create it in My Documents
}
if (!Directory.Exists(subDirectory)) //if patient sub folder does not exist...
{
Directory.CreateDirectory(subDirectory); //create it in Patient-Owner format
}
if (!File.Exists(fileName)) //if monitoring file does not exist...
{
File.Create(fileName); //create it in Owner-Date format
}
}
This stage works fine, but as soon as you try to save some data to the text file, it throws to a run time error stating that
The file cannot be accessed because it is being used by another process.
The exception is brought up here:
private void saveFileDetails()
{
//Once case details have been entered, create new file using these details and add data input structure
StreamWriter consoleFile = new StreamWriter(fileName);
...
}
When I went and checked out the folder, the relevant sub-folder and file had been created but the text file was blank.
I'm guessing it's something to do with closing the text file after creating the directory, which means it's already open when the system tries to open it. I can't figure out how to sort this issue out though!
The two functions shown above are called like this:
private void btnStart_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
...
//file details entered upon load written to new file - according to PatID
createDirectory();
saveFileDetails();
}
Any suggestions on where to go from here would be very much appreciated!
Thanks,
Mark
The issue here is that you do
if (!File.Exists(fileName)) //if monitoring file does not exist...
{
File.Create(fileName); //create it in Owner-Date format
}
Right before you try to write to the file. Because you've just created it (if it didn't exist), chances are that the operating system hasn't released the file yet.
Like #Jauch mentioned in the comments, you could skip this check completely and use the StreamWriter overload which will create file if it doesn't exist, or append to it if it does.
private void saveFileDetails()
{
//Once case details have been entered, create new file using these details and add data input structure
using (StreamWriter consoleFile = new StreamWriter(fileName, true))
{
// ...
}
}
Alternatively you can use the following to write all of your text at once:
File.AppendAllText(textToWrite, fileName);
File.Create(fileName) returns an open stream to the file which is never closed.
To create an empty file use File.WriteAllBytes(fileName, new byte[0]);
Otherwise the 2 methods can be shortend
private void SaveFileDetails()
{
string subDirectory = Path.Combine(
Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.MyDocuments),
"Horse Monitoring Records");
// create the folder hierarchy if not exists. does nothing if already there
Directory.CreateDirectory(subDirectory);
// each patient has individual file
var filepath = Path.Combine(subDirectory,
txtPatName.Text + "-" + txtOwnerName.Text + "-" + DateTime.Now.Date.ToString("yyyyMMdd") + ".txt");
// creates the file if not exists
using (var writer = new StreamWriter(filepath, append: true, encoding: Encoding.UTF8))
{
// write details
}
}
Note:
merged 2 methods
.NET naming conventions applied
changed dateformat to better sort by name in explorer
StreamWriter implements IDisposable, so wrapping it in a using block can manage closing and disposing the writer and ensuring it is available the next time you want to touch that file. It can also manage creating the text file if it doesn't exist, removing the need to explicitly call File.Create.
StreamWriter consoleFile = new StreamWriter(fileName);
becomes
using (StreamWriter writer = File.AppendText("log.txt"))
{
// writing, etc.
}
or
using (StreamWriter writer = new StreamWriter(fileName, true))
{ // true says "append to file if it exists, create if it doesn't"
// writing, etc.
}
Whatever seems more readable to you will work fine.

Write from Resource to file where resource could be text or image

I'm having a problem trying to write my resource files to disk (all resource files part of the same project and assembly).
If I add
var temp = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetManifestResourceNames();
This returns a string[] in the following format
Gener.OptionsDialogForm.resources
Gener.ProgressDialog.resources
Gener.Properties.Resources.resources
Gener.g.resources
Gener.Resources.reusable.css
Gener.Resources.other.jpg
The last 2 of the array are the only 2 files I want but I assume it's not a guarantee that this will always be the case. The array could come through in another order as code is changed so I cannot explicity call the item at a given index (temp[4])
So, I could do
foreach (string item in Assembly
.GetExecutingAssembly()
.GetManifestResourceNames())
{
if (!item.Contains("Gener.Resources."))
continue;
//Do whatever I need to do
}
But this is just horrible! I face another problem with this approach; This doesn't return the file name with the extension, just the Name and as such, I have no idea what the extension is.
This is the code as it currently is
public void CopyAllFiles()
{
var files = Resources.ResourceManager.GetResourceSet(System.Globalization.CultureInfo.CurrentUICulture, true, true);
//var temp = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetManifestResourceNames();
foreach (DictionaryEntry item in files)
{
using (var resourceFileStream = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetManifestResourceStream("Gener.Resources." + item.Key.ToString() + ".css")) // this won't work, I can't hard code .css as the extension could be different
{
Stream stream = new FileStream(this.DirPath, FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write);
resourceFileStream.CopyTo(stream);
stream.Dispose();
}
}
files.Dispose();
}
But this seems... wrong... Is this how any one else would do this, I'm sure I'm missing something and such a task is common that there is a better solution?
The resource names are predictable, you could just pass the name to the Assembly.GetManifestResourceStream() method.
More productively, Visual Studio supports a designer for this so you don't have to guess at the string you need to pass. Use Project + Properties, Resources tab. Click on the dropdown arrow of the Add Resource button and select your file. You can now refer to the resource in your code with a variable name. Like:
File.WriteAllText(path, Properties.Resources.reusable);
Do consider the so-so wisdom of copying resources to files at runtime. You get the exact same outcome by just using an installer or XCopy to copy the files just once. With the significant advantage is that those resources won't eat memory address space anymore and that you won't get in trouble when you don't have write access to the directory. Which is common with UAC enabled.
This was what I used! Hopefully it will help others. It feels some what hacking, but it works!
/// <summary>
/// Copies all the files from the Resource Manifest to the relevant folders.
/// </summary>
internal void CopyAllFiles()
{
var resourceFiles = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetManifestResourceNames();
foreach (var item in resourceFiles)
{
string basePath = Resources.ResourceManager.BaseName.Replace("Properties.", "");
if (!item.Contains(basePath))
continue;
var destination = this._rootFolder + "\\" + this._javaScriptFolder + "\\" + item.Replace(basePath + ".", "");
using (Stream resouceFile = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetManifestResourceStream(item))
using (Stream output = File.Create(destination))
{
resouceFile.CopyTo(output);
}
}
}

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