c# Relative path - c#

Hello I have a program made in Visual Studio in C#.
In this program I have some pictures that need to be called. And some html files that need to be saved.
All these files are saved in the map 'mails'.
At the moment I have the path:
String pad = #"C:\Users\Charlotte\Desktop\proof of concept\mails\";
I need this path to be relative so the user of the program can just copy the map mails to wherever he/she wants it and execute the exe of my program and just work with it.
Can anyone help me?

You can use function: Directory.GetCurrentDirectory() to get the path of current directory instead of telling program the fullpath.

If the user places a file wherever he wants, you need to tell your program where it is aomehow. So if you use OpenFile dialog your path would be:
string pad = openFileDialog1.FileName;
On the other hand if you mean that a path should be relative to your exe file you would use:
string pad = Application.StartupPath + "\\mails\\";
This will mean that a path is a directory of your exe \mails, but without a name of the file.

try it
string path = #"..\..\mails\";

Related

(C#) Copying User Selected File To AppData Folder

Okay, so. I'm going to try to explain this as best as I can.
I have been working on a program, obviously. Basically, the user selects one file hits the "Replace" button and it replaces the files in a AppData folder.
Well, I got how to make an AppData folder for my program.
Basically, what I would like to do is first off take the selected file (that's through the open file dialog) and copy to the AppData that I created for one. Then I need to rename the file and copy the file to the other folder.
I've been looking and can't seem to find what I need...which sucks.
EDIT:
My second question. Say the user chooses "myfile.txt" there's a folder in the AppData at ".../Roaming/thefiles/file.txt"
I need to rename and replace that "file.txt", but I can not figure out how to move to that directory since everyone's username is different.
First of all you dont need to create a folder in AppData it will be readily available.
File.Copy(sourcepath,destinationpath); can be used for this purpose
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc148994.aspx check this out.
use Application.UserAppDataPath or Application.CommonAppDataPath to access your program's app data folder.
you can call File.Copy(sourcepath,Path.Combine(Application.UserAppDataPath,"yourfile.ext"));
Edit
I understand you mean logged in user of the system
using (OpenFileDialog fd = new OpenFileDialog())
{
if (fd.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK)
{
string fullFileName = fd.FileName;
string fileNameWithExt = Path.GetFileName(fullFileName);
string destPath = Path.Combine(Application.UserAppDataPath, fileNameWithExt);
File.Copy(fd.FileName, destPath);
}
}
the above code will copy the selected file to AppData path of your Program that belongs to logged in user, ex: if you logged in as user1 to windows this will be copied under user1's AppData
Edit2
If am not mistaken then Application.UserAppDataPath will always gives the path of current logged user of windows, so without worrying of losing other user's data you can safely move the file inside that Directory

Get relative path from OpenFileDialog in C#

I am a beginner at programing and I´m writing my second Prog.
I have a Question about how to get a relative path to my application Startup path.
The Program reads an .xml-file that has a path of a .jpg stored in it. It creates a Picturebox for every path and loads the respective image.
The problem I have is, that I have the images in my Dropbox to be able to use the Program on any PC that has Dropbox. When I use the OpenFileDialog on my main PC and save the Path of the .jpg to the xml it won´t work on my laptop because the Dropbox folder is on another drive as on my main PC.
Does anyone have an idea, how to get around this Problem?
To solve your issue, This will get the current location of your application
Directory.GetCurrentDirectory()
You can do a simple replace of the path.
Example :
String JPG_Path_Relative = openFileDialog1.FileName.Replace(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory(),"")
When the dropbox folder is in the default location (User-folder) you can use this to get your path:
string userFolderPath= Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.UserProfile);
This will give C:\Users\USERNAME (drive may be different).
Then simply add the rest of the path to your image folder.
string imageFolderPath = userFolderPath + #"\Dropbox\Imagefolder";

Relative path to a file using C#

I have a command-line program that takes a configuration file as a parameter, that is, C:\myprogram.exe -c C:\configFiles\MyConfigFile.txt. I want to be able to make it so that I do not have to type the absolute path to the configuration file, so instead of the above I can just enter C:\myprogram.exe -c MyConfigFile.txt
I'm not familiar enough with how C# deals with paths to understand if or how this can be done. Any insight is appreciated.
Use Path.GetFullPath()
Something like:
string path = "MyConfigFile.txt";
string fullPath = System.IO.Path.GetFullPath(path);
That's if the config file is in the current directory. If they're stored in a standard folder you can use Path.Combine()
string basePath = "C:\Configs";
string file = "MyConfigFile.txt";
string fullPath = System.IO.Path.Combine(basePath, file);
You are only passing in a string. It is up to you to handle it in a relative path way.
If you used this code, it would by default support relative paths.
FileInfo will attempt to use the path in Environment.CurrentDirectory first, if the path provided is not explicit.
var file = new FileInfo(args[1]); // args[1] can be a filename of a local file
Console.WriteLine(file.FullName); // Would show the full path to the file
You have some general options:
Store the directory path in the config file (you said you don't want to do this)
Have the user enter a relative path (....\MyFile.txt)
Programmatically search for files matching the name (very slow and prone to locating multiple files of the same name)
Assume the data file is in the executing directory
Any way you slice it, the user must indicate the path to the directory, be it in the config file, entering relative path, or selecting from a list of files with identical names found in different directories.
ANALOGY: You place a textbook in a locker, somewhere in a school. You ask your friend to get the book from "a locker", without hinting as to exactly which locker that may be. You should expect to wait a very long time and end up with 50 similar books. Or, provide a clue as to the hallway, bank of lockers, and/or locker number in which the book may be stored. The vagueness of your clue is directly correlated with the response time and potential for returning multiple possibilities.
Without the relative path as part of the input argument, your application would need to:
either search for the file that is passed in
append the path name of the Config directory to the filename
Well, standard .NET classes are working with relative paths in same way as with absolute, so, you could use them without any problems. If C: root is working directory of your program, you could use c:\myprogram.exe -c configFiles\MyConfigFile.txt and it will point to c:\configFiles\MyConfigFile.txt.

StreamReader looking for file in the wrong directory in C#

I have a program where I am using windows form, in that form I use openFileDialog where I open a file in some directory. Then I use in a different function a StreamReader and I have a 2nd file in my big/debug directory which I want the streamReader to open. But for some reason after I open the 1st file with the openFileDialog the StreamReader looks for the 2nd file in that directory instead in bin/debug as usual.
Does anyone know why he does that and how can I solve it?
Thanks in advance,
Greg
The OpenFileDialog has that behavior; it alters the current directory for the application. To prevent this from happening, you can use the RestoreDirectory property of the OpenFileDialog.
When you change directory in an open file dialog, this also causes your application's working directory to change. So if you are trying to use relative paths, it will look in the wrong place.
The solution is RestoreDirectory.
If you don't specify a complete file path but only a file name, that means that the file is in the current directory. When you use the OpenFileDialog, it changes the current directory.
If you want to access a file somewhere regardless of what the current directory is set to, you have to specify a complete path for it. You can use Application.StartupPath to get the path to the folder where your program is.

How to determine a full path of a named folder?

I want to determine the full path of certain folders. In my array, I just have the names of the folders, but when my application will get installed on another user's machine, my program must be able to determine the full-path of these folders.
How to get the fullpath?
You can check the method Path.GetFullPath, it could be useful to what you're trying to do.
Path.GetFullPath Method
Did you mean the My Documents folder and the rest? It's not obvious for me from your question.
The My Documents folder is:
Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.MyDocuments)
And the rest of the special system folders can be retrieved in a similar way.
By prefixing it with another Path. Which Path depends on your application.
string path = ...
string fullPath = System.IO.Path.Combine(path, folderNames[i]);
You could take a look at Environment.GetFolderPath(...)
Sounds to me that you mean actually the current path plus an additional path. I.e., suppose your application is installed in c:\installations and you need the relative path of resource\en-US, you want to find c:\installations\resource\en-US.
Normally I would go for getting the current path, but in Windows it is possible to start an application as if it is executing from a different path. A fool-proof way of getting the path of the current application (where it is installed) is as follows:
// gets the path of the current executing executable: your program
string path = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location;
// transform it into a real path...
FileInfo info = new FileInfo(path);
// ...to make it easier to retrieve the directory part
string currentPath = info.Directory.FullName;
Now it becomes trivial to get new paths.
string someRelativePath = #"reource\en-US";
string someFullPath = Path.Combine(currentPath, someRelativePath);
I know, it looks a bit contrived, but it is safer then using the current path.
FileInfo.FullName, if you are lucky and the constructor finds your file somehow (e.g. current working directory).

Categories