Right now I am reading in text files in my C# code in Visual Studio. The text files are saved onto my computer and whenever we want to run the code on another computer, we have to change the path for the text file within the code so it will work. My question is, is there any place you can save the text files within the project so that you do not have to change the path everytime to run it on different computers?
Add the txt files to the project. Manage them in your source control just like any other file.
You can add any kind of file you like. They just sit there doing nothing ( it doesn't try to compile them or anything), you can group them into folders for better clarity.
You can add a folder to your project to hold the various text files:
Right mouse click on your project
Select Add New Folder
You can place any type of file into this folder.
Hope this helps.
Related
I would like to modify the contents of a file placed in my project folder (Specifically "Assets/recentChanges.txt") at runtime. Let's say it contains information about recent changes in application. It is supposed to be read and bound to a textbox control, which later on can be edited by developers and saved back. The problem with content files is that they are copied to output directories and therefore I'm not editing the original file in Assets folder, but the one in bin/Debug/Assets/ folder. And the Embedded Resource build action is not an option since such files cannot be modified.
The question is: how can I modify mentioned .txt file in its original root/Assets/recentChanges.txt location during runtime? All of the below instructions point to similiar build-dependant path:
Environment.CurrentDirectory;
Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location;
Or, in other words, what would be the correct approach for implementing "Recent Changes" section with following conditions:
based on text file in its original project location
possibilty to modify the file at runtime through UI
file copied to the output folder and visible to the user (through textbox) in published application
I am aware that it's probably not the perfect approach, because "recent changes" info could be collected from database or the .txt file could be modified manually and then copied to output locations... but nevertheless I think the issue is somewhat confusing and I would love some help. Thanks!
The compiled and running application doesn't know anything about some "original" location. This location is only important to Visual Studio when the application is built.
If you want to modify the file in this folder you should specify an absolute path to it, i.e. "c:\your_project_folder\file.txt".
The .exe cannot be supposed to know from where it was compiled
What I want is make my setup project install same file in two different locations. When I try to do that, it adds that file again into my project which doubles the size of the .msi in the end. What can I do about this? Thanks !
When adding a file:
Go to add Existing Item
In the bottom left corner where it says Open drop the drop down box and select Link file
click ok
This will then add the file as a link instead of copying the file to your project directory
More info here
What you could do is to install the file at one place. Create a Custom Action that creates a copy of the file on the second place. Please take care that you remove that file as well at uninstall time.
I have written some code for saving an image to a folder in asp.net. My problem is that the image in the folder is white and is not the same as images added manually to the folder.
I used a simple asp.net fileupload control to save the file to the correct path. But the images dont display on the page and this is how the file icons look in visual studio.
Anybody know why this is?
Try Right-clicking the images and select "include in project"
edit
If you want to do that programmatically you need to modify the project file programmatically; that's all there is to it. It's an XML file with nothing special about it. Note, however, that you have this under source control and you'll probably need to do more than just modifying the project file (ie adding the file to source control too)
Yes, it is. Because it is not included as part of the project files.
Try this:
There isn't anything else that is wrong. Only the files are not tracked by VS, so they won't be published. Your files are still completely accessible from your code.
In my opinion, files like say images added to your web app shouldn't be part of the project.
You need to include them in the project by right clicking them and click Include In Project.
Furthermore, if you want these files to included in the build you need to go to Properties of each file and set Build Action as Content.
I am creating an installer for my C# application, and I want to put a link to the configuration file into the start menu, so that users can open it for editing in notepad from the program folder in the start menu.
I seem not to be able to put a link to it however - does anyone know how to do this? (Really, I would just love to put "[targetdir]\myapp.exe.config but VS doesn't let me edit the field, only select from a file browser).
Many thanks,
Rob
I found the solution and it's pretty easy:
Add Project Output for your project in the setup project
Select Project Output from File System in left pane and go to the properties of the project output. Then add a filter *.config to remove the .config file from your project output.
Rename the app.config from your actual project to the output name that your App exe ([ProductName]) will have along with the config extension ofcourse.
Add the [ProductName].config to your setup project as a File.
Create a Shortcut to that file and add it in any setup folder desktop or program folder.
Voila.
You're all set.
Isn't the config file added in your installer? You should be able to select it when prompted for the shortcut target (the "Select Item in Project" dialog). Please note that in this prompt dialog you first need to browse to the folder which contains it (for example double-click "Application Folder").
If the config file is not added, you need to manually add it in "Application Folder". Only then you can create a shortcut to it.
Please note that Visual Studio doesn't support shortcuts to a specific file from a project output which generates multiple files. In this case you can try using a custom action which creates the shortcut through custom code.
I remember doing it in Vs2005 using as below:
File System Editor > Users Programs Menu
Add> Folder
Add file (Say Config file) point it to the its location
I have a resource file named rs.resx. In the Visual Studio designer, I can add an image to my resource file by clicking "Add resource" and specifying the path to my image file.
After adding the image, the image file itself is also copied to a folder in my Visual Studio solution named Resources. I would like all of my image files to be placed in a folder named Images instead. Is this possible?
This is a little tricky, but it is possible.
VS checks if the file added to a resource is already defined somewhere within your project. If it can't find it, it creates the folder Resources, puts a copy to the file there, adds this file to the project and puts a reference into the resource designer to this fresh copy of your file.
To avoid this behaviour you should add the file to your project before you add it into the resource file. If the file isn't somewhere within your project structure you can just create a folder, right click it, select Add file and before you click on the Add button of the OpenFileDialog, push on the little arrow next to the button and select Add as link.
Now the file resides on the place on your hdd wherever you like and the resource designer doesn't create a copy within your project file if you now add the file within the resource designer.
Maybe this little picture helps to find the Add as link button:
(source: modbusdriver.com)
That's just a subdirectory of your project directory. Your program doesn't use it at runtime, it should use the embedded resources. Anything you add to the .resx file gets copied there, not just images. But you can rename the folder if you really want to, right-click it and click Rename.
Instead of adding a .resx file to your project, I'd recommend you use the existing one. Project + Properties, Resources tab. Makes it very easy to retrieve the resource at runtime, just use Properties.Resources.Something in your code.