We Keep Coding

How do I compensate for a changed directory?

I am developing a simple C# console application for use in an industrial setting. This application takes a product id number, and then configures an XML file and saves it to a folder location. The operators then load this XML file into a laser printer that engraves data onto a product. This app will be used on multiple computers, and not installed by me.
Right now I have hardcoded in filepaths for the XML file templates (C:\XmlGen\SourceTempplates), and the location that the configured files are saved (C:\XMLGen\OutputXml). Now, if the app gets installed on a computer and moved somewhere, the application will not be able to find the templates or save the configured files. Is there a way that I can write these filepaths so that the application can still find the files? (Say for example, it gets installed to a D:\ drive instead of C).
Thanks! Let me know if I need to provide more info.

Its generally a good practice to use defined environment folder to store application generated files instead of using hardcoded drive letter.
Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.LocalApplicationData)
Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData)
Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.CommonApplicationData)

Distributing an Access database with a Winforms app

I have a C# app which reads from and writes to an Access database. There is one database file per user. My intention is to check for the existence of the MDB in the user's My Documents folder at launch, and if the MDB isn't found, then copy the template MDB to that folder.
I have already added the template MDB to my project and placed it in its own folder which I have called Packaged. However, I am unable to refer to this Packaged folder from code as it doesn't appear in IntelliSense.
My intention had been to use File.Copy to copy the MDB over, but I cannot determine the file path as I can't access the MDB in code. And presumably it wouldn't have a file path anyway if it's just packaged in the .exe?
What would be the best way to achieve this, given that I would rather not distribute a separate MDB if possible?

I've done this in the past by making the MDB an embedded resource, and writing it to disk as needed (if it doesn't exist).
Here is more info on writing an embedded resource to file.

You'd almost have to use one of the Environmental paths for the template MDB. Like ApplicationData or Documents and Settings\Username\Local Settings\ or one of the other ones. Local User Data is the best way for user specific data. IN the code in the beginning, determine to see if the file exists in the first run. If it exists copy the template, if not don't.
That way the user has full read and write access and the ability to copy the file or duplicate the file without security problems. These environmental variables are accessible through
Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable
You could also have a registry setting and read and write to the registry for that specific application, that has a simple DatabaseAvailable key, and toggle it yes or no.
You could also embed the MDB as a resource too, and then write it as necessary.

How to conceal file in deployment package?

In an upgrade to a VB6/C# product I need to include a file. This file will be copied by the app to a server location when a certain button is clicked. Once there it will stay there and be utilised by the application from then on.
This file needs to be included in the deployment package so that it can be copied to the server location. If I just include the file in the app directory, then every workstation that installs the product will have this file. The file is of a slightly sensitive nature, which means that I would prefer that it is not just sitting in its raw form on each workstation.
Is there a way I can have the file available for copying, but not have it accessible to someone who is able to look into the app's folder on each workstation?
I do not want to deploy the file directly to the server location because I don't want to have the customer's staff involved in placing specific files on the server.

Encrypt the content of the file. Decrypt it while copying to server. Or perhaps you keep it's encryption after it's moved to the server.
You could perhaps include the file as an embedded resource in one of the binaries of the application. It would be somewhat less accessible to non developers at least.
Last option is to update the server itself and give it the files so the clients aren't responsible for bringing it there. Of course I don't know what creates the requirements you have.

C# -> Updating an AppSettings.config file on Win7/Vista

I can't see anything on here but I do remember being told that If you want an application to update a config file then it needs to be under ...
**C:\Users\Ibrar Mumtaz\AppData**
Well somewhere there, the reason being is that the user should have permisions to update a config file here and not under the applications install folder. This is the impression that I am under and I'm fairly certain that this is definately the case. As I think I read that on here = p
My question is, is there anybody on here that can shine some light on this as this is the last feature I want to implement before I give my application out to test.
1) First thing is, an installer is needed to set up the folder and then drop my apps config file into it. I already am using the visial studio installer so I have my app packaged up but this point is throwing me off? How do I do this then? I just need someone to show how to do this and I should be O.K reconfiguring my app to look for the new home of the config file.
2) I should be able to work out how to find the folder and locate the config file found within it. As once I know the installer is chucking the config file out into the right folder where the user has permissions then it should be straight forward from there.
Thanks for reading.
UPDATE:
It was pretty straight foward, as the VS Installer has an option to add a special folder so all that was left was to access the folder programmatically and read and write to the config file. ONE PROBLEM? The ConfigurationManager class which I have used to create my config file for my application expects my config file to be local to the application and not miles away in a completey different part of the local FileSystem? Errr help here Plz?
Ibrar

If you are using the VS Settings file to create application setting keys, and have values that the user might want to change in runtime, and save his preferences, just set the scope of those settings to "User" instead of "Application".
That way you will have a setter method for them, and you can edit the Settings.Default instance, and when you are done call the Save() method to persist them to disk.
The file will be saved in the user's "AppData" folder, wherever it is, under some cryptic folder. But you needn't worry about it's location most of the time, since it will be read automatically on the next execute, and persisted to the same location on subsequent runs.

Afaik the installer can be extended with classes that do things.
On INSTALL-action to do could be to
var path = Path.Combine(Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData),
"My app name");
if (!Directory.Exists(path)) Directory.CreateDirectory(path);
And vice-versa on uninstall.
App.config files are related to where the physical assembly is located I think.

Actually, if your app is running on the user's machine- it will have whatever permissions that user has. So most likely, you can expect to be able to write anywhere on the file system.
However it is possible the user would be running under a restricted acct, and thus not have the permissions. So you could just use the registry to store where your config file is (install folder), then when you try to update it, if it fails for permissions, ask the user to grant it.
Or you could use the Windows standard folders, as you were getting at, because doing so also separates out user data from application data.
Use the Environment.GetFolderPath () method to get the 'special folder' paths in your app.
http://www.programmersheaven.com/2/Les_CSharp_15_p2
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/14tx8hby.aspx

If you are talking about application settings found on project Properties -> Settings tab, then there're two different types of settings: user-level and application-level.
If you need to change any settings in run-time, these would be user-level settings (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cftf714c.aspx) and all changes would be buried somewhere in the private folder in your user profile.
If you want to update application-level settings, your best shot would be to do that during software installation. In this case you don't need to look for the configuration file (YourApp.exe.config) anywhere but in the application folder. More likely you would need to create some sort of post-install event handler in your setup package and run some script or another application which would update data in YourApp.exe.config. Everything in the setup package will be executed with elevated priviledges and thus that configuration file would be writeable. BTW, this scenario applies to 2000 and XP, if the user is using limited user account type priviledges.

Because I did not technically find the answer I was looking for, after 6 months I have come back to my application and have managed to produce a solution that does not break my current architecture.
If you are implementing an application to make use of some of the features on offer by the ConfigurationManager then it offers a static method called:
ConfigurationManager.OpenMappedExeConfiguration(); // takes two arguements.
It can be used like this:
ExeConfigurationFileMap fileMap = new ExeConfigurationFileMap();
fileMap.ExeConfigFilename = returnUsersAppDataFolderPath();
Configuration config = ConfigurationManager.OpenMappedExeConfiguration(fileMap, ConfigurationUserLevel.None);
e.g
fileMap.ExeConfigFileName = #"some file path external to your applications install folder."
remember to use '#' symbol in front to allow the compiler to literally treat the string on as is basis.
If the config file can be conveniently locally located then just use the:
ConfigurationManager.OpenExeConfiguration(string exePath)
Above is what you would typically use but for me i needed my config file to located under the users AppData folder so the first option is what I needed. And it does indeed work.
I hope this helps others as it does for me as I want to deploy my application to Win7 and vista environments therefore this question needed asking if I was to stick to using the ConfigurationManager it's a shame the method of choice in the end never really stood out in the first place = ).
If you want to read from your config file then leave a comment and I will show you how I managed to do that also.

Writing drive C: in Windows 7/Vista

I am developing an application that saves its settings in the install folder. If I install the app in the Program Files on drive C: and attempt to write the settings file I get an exception and that's it.
I know that the User Account Control (UAC) migth be the one that is not letting my app modify the content of the file.
I need help with the following issues:
Do the file editing in such a way that at least an UAC warning should be shown and if I answer yes the file becomes writable
If there is no way to edit the file on drive C: I need a method to store data somewhe
A more generic question would be:
How to create a C# program that after installing it to C:\Program Files\MyProgram under Windows Vista can manipulate (create/edit/delete) an .ini file in the installation directory? This file should be the same for all users.

Why don't you store the settings in a user-specific location like C:\Users\Username\AppData?
That way different users can have different settings on the same machine. Also, this is the recommended location for settings and the like.

Building on the answer from Ben S, check out the Environment.GetFolderPath method.
This method allows you to abstract away the specific location and just use a known SpecialFolder path instead (ie SpecialFolder.ApplicationData).

The fact that you are getting an exception means that your program is Vista/7 aware somehow. I am not totally sure what setting (in a C# project) triggers that. But if you can make your app 'pretend' it is an XP application, Vista will let it write to a shadow file located elsewhere.
But the proper way to get a writeable path shared by all users:
string path = Environment.GetFolderPath(
Environment.SpecialFolder.CommonApplicationData);

I'm surprised it hasn't been mentioned yet, but a viable C# option is to ditch INI files (yuck) and embrace the Settings facilities provided by .Net. They work very well across all Windows versions, they are directly supported by Visual Studio, and finally they are overridable at both the User and Machine level.
We've had no real problems to speak of utilizing this feature (this includes XCopy deployments, Installed applications, Citrix, etc).

Building on the answers of Ben S and akmad, you should put the ini file in the appDataFolder.
If you want the settings to be unique to each user, create an ini file for each user and put it in their AppData folder, which can be retrieved with the following code:
Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData)
If you want the settings to be common to all users, but the ini file in the common AppData folder.
Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.CommonApplicationData)