I am loading this file which is located in a folder i created, the same folder is also rendered in the bin/debug folder, but i need to locate the file in the folder i created, the thing is the method which should find the path of the file by its name gives me the path of the debug folder instead of the on i created.
I have harcoded the path to show you the real location.
var path2 = System.IO.Path.Combine(Environment.CurrentDirectory, "xulrunner");
var hardcodedPath= "C:\\Users\\Alan\\Desktop\\TabControl\\TabControl\\TabControl\\TabControl\\xulrunner";
This is the result of path2 variable:
C:\\Users\\Alan\\Desktop\\TabControl\\TabControl\\TabControl\\TabControl\\bin\\Debug\\xulrunner"
As you can see its pointing to different folder as hardcoded path.
When running from Visual Studio, the working directory is different from your project location, usually it is two folders up (from bin\Debug\). In your distributed application, the working directory might be the same as that of other files you want to access since you copy some other files to the working directory.
I would recommend to keep your code the same, and copy the files you require from your project to the output directory. You can do that by simply setting the Copy to Output Directory setting to Copy always or Copy if newer.
Changing the path to go two folders up is a bad idea, since this won't be true in production scenarios, and will thus break your code.
To get exactly what you are looking for, you could do the following:
var path2 = System.IO.Path.GetFullPath(System.IO.Path.Combine(Environment.CurrentDirectory, "..\\..\\xulrunner"));
However, please be aware that Environment.CurrentDirectory can change as your program runs. I have found that using the %PROGRAMDATA% environment variable works well for creating a location where you save data. It allows for a more consistent solution for using paths.
Additionally, the code snippet provided will only really be useful when you are running through the IDE's debugger. When you deploy, it will likely not give you what you are expecting.
It would help to know what is the overall functional result you are hoping for.
Related
I want to acess a .txt file, which I stored in the resources folder of my project, there where all the imported pictures are stored as well.
I want to use something like a relative path, since every user would have safed his programm somewehere else on his Pc, but there is always the resources folder at the same place, compared to the programm folder.
I tried to used this: displayText = System.IO.File.ReadAllText("Resources\\startmessages.txt"); but this isn't working.
I get this error message: System.IO.DirectoryNotFoundException:, it lists the unrelative path to the .txt there as well, so I don't get, why it cant read it.
Thanks for your Help.
What #ChetanRanpariya is trying to tell you is, that your programm is built in another folder than your folder Resources is sitting to. So you have explictly tell your file Resources\startmessages.txt to copy itself on build process, so it get copied to said another folder. Assuming that you are using Visual Studio, you have to right click on your file and set Copy To Output Directory to true. Its relative folder path (Resources\) will be taken over. You find your build folder somewhere in your bin folder depending on configuration and framework. :)
Current Path where your executable is
Directory.GetParent(System.IO.Directory.GetCurrentDirectory()).FullName
Path to Solution
If you are using Visual Studio and need to access the folders in the solution directory, you can use .Parent method,
Directory.GetParent(System.IO.Directory.GetCurrentDirectory()).Parent.Parent.FullName
Use of Path.Combine
and once you have the location of your Resource folder, use Path.Combine to get the location to read files / content etc
Path.Combine(Directory.GetParent(System.IO.Directory.GetCurrentDirectory()).Parent.Parent.FullName, "Resources\\startMessages.txt")
My structure is like this picture below:
How can I write a code that gets me the path to the highlighted one which is "ConenctionsList.xml" ?
I tried something like this but this take me to bin folder
this.XmlPlath = Path.Combine(Path.GetDirectoryName(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location), #"ConnectionsList.XML");
It is good that XmlPath points to the bin folder, the trick is to set ConnectionList.xml to be copied in the output. Just, enter its properties and set Copy to Output to Always or even better - If Newer.
Note: Imagine that your application will be deployed and your paths within the project or solution do not make sense in the deployed location. Only relative paths to the executable (or some assembly) are important (except if GAC registering or something similar is used).
You need to know what the absolute path of that file is to reference it in code. Referencing it by where it resides in Visual Studio is not adequate. More often than not, if you are running a program and wish to read in a config file of some sort, the designer will put the configuration file in the same place as the executable and reference it using various methods, one of which is listed below:
string filename = "ConnectionsList.xml";
string filePath = Path.Combine(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory(),filename);
Please reference links below, and other threads on Stack Overflow for any additional details. This general topic is addressed in numerous places.
MSDN GetCurrentDirectory
MSDN Path.Combine
My exact file path is as follows. This .txt file is not supposed to be deployed to bin/debug
string str = File.ReadAllText(#"C:\development\slnfolder\projfolder\myfile.txt");
How can I write the code so that I do not have to hard code full path to get to the file
I am trying to avoid hard coding path in the above line of code as follows:
string file = #"myfile.txt";
string str = Path.GetFullPath(file);
but the str ends up being as follows and is not able to find the file.
C:\development\slnfolder\projfolder\bin\debug\myfile.txt
You can include myfile.txt in your Visual Studio solution and go to its properties and set the Build action to Copy always (or Copy if newer if you want to avoid copying the file if it didn't change since the previous build...).
This way you're going to have the whole file in the target directory (i.e. bin\debug).
That's where it should map, because that's where your executable is running from. I'd highly suggest you ensure that the text file is moved to the bin/debug folder (there's a VS option to copy it down in properties) rather than trying to read two levels up. It will be much easier once you end up deploying your app instead of running it from visual studio.
If you're using Visual studio, than add the txt file to your project
right click on properties
set build action to none
and set copy to output directory to copy if newer
this will ensure that the txt file is always in the same folder as your executable
To avoid hard-coding something, you should:
"Soft-code" it (i.e. make it part of your product's configuration). You can use Configuration Settings APIs for that.
Take it as a parameter on the command line (read the directory location from one of the args passed to the Main method), or
Make a convention as to where it should be located, for example, in the data directory, which is a subdirectory of your current running directory (read from #"..\data\myfile.txt").
You can always define a combination of these methods, for example, use the "by convention" location when the configuration / command line option has not been specified.
I need some help with paths please!
Basically I have a project with the following folder structure:
Project (root directory which contains the .sln file etc.)
Project/MyProj (contains the code)
Project/MyProjTest (the test folder)
Project/TestResults
Now with this Project I need to have a common folder where I can stick a bunch of files for use with the Application without having to copy the files to multiple locations etc. What is the best way to do this? Ideally I would like to have the folder as Project/ResourcesFolder, so that both the Code folder and Test folder can access it. Now if this is the case how do I call this folder from within C#? I've tried Application.StartupPath, Environment.GetCurrentDirectory but they both just return the CURRENT folder which is not what I want.
Thanks in advance.
You can add a solution folder to your solution and place common files in it.
You'll have to copy the files, you'll want your program to operate the same way after it is deployed. The simplest way to do so is by adding them to your project. In the Properties window, set Build Action = None, Copy to Output Directory = Copy if Newer. The latter setting ensures that you don't waste time copying the files over and over again.
This ensures that the files will be present in the same directory as your EXE. Both when you debug and after you deploy it. Simply use Application.StartupPath to locate them. Creating the Setup project for the app is now very simple as well.
Note that if the files are small you really want to embed them as resources.
.. goes one directory up. That is, from Project/MyProjTest you could access Project/MyProj via ../MyProj.
Use Server.MapPath("~") to get to the root folder of your application. From there you can get to wherever you need.
I am developing an application in C#. I have a folder called myfolder it contains a file called mypoints.bmp. The folder myfolder is in my project folder it is in D drive. The path is D:\Myproject\myfolder\mypoints.bmp.
Now, in my program, whereever I need mypoints.bmp I have hardcoded the whole path. When my project is copied in to a different system under C drive, I am not able to run my project because of the hardcoded path. How can I give the path so that there will not be any problem even if it is loaded in to a different system under a different drive.
The best would be to store the path in a configuration file.
Add -> New Item -> Application Configuration File
Then you can use the following class to pull the value you're looking for:
System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager
Have a look here on the usage.
If the images you are referring to are non-changing and are simply acting as a resource for your application then you could consider embedding them in resource files which are compiled as part of your assembly. That way you need never worry about paths or copying them.
If the BMP file is used in the code and is accessed in runtime, there is no point in keeping it just in the project directory. it should be also present in the outputdirectory.
i.e you could write a post-build command to copy your folder to the output directory.
like copy "$(ProjectDir)\MyFolder\*.*" "$(OutDir)"
then in the code you could just write the relative path i.e "MyFolder\MyPoints.bmp"
But please remember one thing. If this BMP file is not going to change through out your program execution, it is better that you put it as a resource.
You can use something like GetCurrentPath(), which will return your .exe file path, then add to this path your \myfolder\mypoints.bmp. This will not be depend on C or D or ... drive and folder
There is one path that you can always reliably find, no matter how your program got deployed to the target machine: the directory in which your .exe is stored.
Take advantage of this, put the .bmp file in the same directory. Or a subdirectory of the install directory. You didn't say what kind of program you wrote, it is easy with Application.ExecutablePath in Windows Forms. But the generic solution that works everywhere:
public static string GetImagePath(string filename) {
string exeFile = System.Reflection.Assembly.GetEntryAssembly().Location;
string exePath = System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(exeFile);
string imgPath = System.IO.Path.Combine(exePath, #"images");
string imgFile = System.IO.Path.Combine(imgPath, filename);
return imgFile;
}
Which assumes the images are stored in a subdirectory named "images". Tweak as necessary.
Last but not least: don't forget that you can add images to your program's resources so it is baked in the .exe file. Project + Properties, Resources tab. Highly recommended.
You can also use predefined or existed system variable. Anyway you must decide when the user (or you) have to define that path (in config file or wherever) - during instalaltion, first run, before first run or in any time when app is running.
Personally I would use the Environment class in C#. Then I will locate the local app settings folder using the Environment.SpecialFolder enum.
I will then store all my applications specific files inside a folder in the local app settings folder.
This way you are also UAC safe, since UAC will complain if you want to store files in Program Files if you are not Administrator.