Open a text file with WPF - c#

There is a text file that I have created in my project root folder. Now, I am trying to use Process.Start() method to externally launch that text file.
The problem I have got here is that the file path is incorrect and Process.Start() can't find this text file. My code is as follows:
Process.Start("Textfile.txt");
So how should I correctly reference to that text file? Can I use the relative path instead of the absolute path? Thanks.
Edit:
If I change above code to this, would it work?
string path = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location;
Process.Start(path + "/ReadMe.txt");

Windows needs to know where to find the file, so you need somehow specify that:
Either using absolute path:
Process.Start("C:\\1.txt");
Or set current directory:
Environment.CurrentDirectory = "C:\\";
Process.Start("1.txt");
Normally CurrentDirectory is set to the location of the executable.
[Edit]
If the file is in the same directory where executable is you can use the code like this:
var directory = Path.GetDirectoryName(Assembly.GetEntryAssembly().Location);
var file = Path.Combine(directory, "1.txt");
Process.Start(file);

The way you are doing this is fine. This will find the text file that is in the same directory as your exe and it will open it with the default application (probably notepad.exe). Here are more examples of how to do this:
http://www.dotnetperls.com/process-start
However, if you want to put a path in, you have to use the full path. You can build the full path while only caring about the relative path using the method listed in this post:
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vbgeneral/thread/e763ae8c-1284-43fe-9e55-4b36f8780f1c
It would look something like this:
string pathPrefix;
if(System.Diagnostics.Debugger.IsAttached())
{
pathPrefix = System.IO.Path.GetFullPath(Application.StartupPath + "\..\..\resources\");
}
else
{
pathPrefix = Application.StartupPath + "\resources\";
}
Process.Start(pathPrefix + "Textfile.txt");
This is for opening a file in a folder you add to your project called resources. If you want it in your project root, just drop off the resources folder in the above two strings and you will be good to go.

You'll need to know the current directory if you want to use a relative path.
System.Envrionment.CurrentDirectory
You could append that to your path with Path
System.IO.Path.Combine(System.Envrionment.CurrentDirectory, "Textfile.txt")

Try using Application.StartupPath path as default path may point to current directory.
This scenario has been explained on following links..
Environment.CurrentDirectory in C#.NET
http://start-coding.blogspot.com/2008/12/applicationstartuppath.html

On a windows box:
Start notepad with the file's location immediately following it. WIN
process.start("notepad C:\Full\Directory\To\File\FileName.txt");

Related

Read text file from relative path within project

I am creating a unit test which works using the following exact path:
string path = #"/Users/{username}/Coding/computershare/ChallengeSampleDataSet1.txt";
I read the text from the file by passing this path
string pricesFromFile = System.IO.File.ReadAllText(path);
However, I do not want to hardcode the complete local file path - I want to use the relative path in the project directory.
Therefore I tried the below using other articles on StackOverflow:
string path = System.IO.Path.Combine(System.AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory, "ChallengeSampleDataSet1.txt");
But file is not found. How can I fix this so that I'm able to load the file when running the app from another machine?
Edit: the error in console using the second method is
System.IO.FileNotFoundException : Could not find file '/Users/{username}/Coding/computershare/bin/Debug/net5.0/ChallengeSampleDataSet1.txt'.
This should do the trick:
string path = System.IO.Path.Combine(System.AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory + #"..\..\..\", "ChallengeSampleDataSet1.txt");
Note the direction of the slash (\)
Since the error is "/Users/{username}/Coding/computershare/bin/Debug/net5.0/ChallengeSampleDataSet1.txt" it indicates that your base directory is /bin/debug/net5.0 down from the root of the code. By double dotting up three levels, you'll be able to find the file in question.

Error the relative path of resources folder auto change to absolute path in C#

The code below i use to read lines from file test.txt in my folder Resources of my project.
string[] test = File.ReadAllLines(#"Resources\test.txt");
The properties are already change to "Content" and "Copy Always".
When i run the program, somtimes the path auto change to the Absolute path as:
"C:\Users\Documents\Resources\test.txt
And the program error because cannot find the path.
You are using a relative path to the file, which relies on the CurrentDirectory being valid. This is either changing, or not being set to the desired directory when the program is executed. You can test this failure with this code:
string CurrentDirectory = Environment.CurrentDirectory;
Log.Trace($"CurrentDirectory = {CurrentDirectory}");
System.IO.File.ReadAllText(#"Resources\test.txt");
Environment.CurrentDirectory = #"C:\Tools";
// changing the current directory will now cause the next command to fail
System.IO.File.ReadAllText(#"Resources\test.txt");
You should not rely on the CurrentDirectory path being set correctly. Get the directory of the current running executable with something like this:
string ExePath = new System.IO.FileInfo(System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location)
.Directory.FullName;
string FullPath = System.IO.Path.Combine(ExePath, "Resources", "test.txt");
System.IO.File.ReadAllText(FullPath);
Yo could use
Path.Combine(AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory , "Resources", "test.txt"
to get the path.
But to your problem: I think, the problem is the ReadAllLines, because it wants to convert the string to an absolute path. So the problem shouldn't exist anymore, if you localize the string, or even make somenthing like:
var path = "" + "Resources\\test.txt";
var test = File.ReadAllLines(path);
I couldn't test this though because I couldn't reproduce your problem.

C# Application Relative Paths

I just started learning C# and it looks like when you are writing an output file or reading an input file, you need to provide the absolute path such as follows:
string[] words = { "Hello", "World", "to", "a", "file", "test" };
using (StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(#"C:\Users\jackf_000\Projects\C#\First\First\output.txt"))
{
foreach (string word in words)
{
sw.WriteLine(word);
}
sw.Close();
}
MSDN's examples make it look like you need to provide the absolute directory when instantiating a StreamWriter:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/8bh11f1k.aspx
I have written in both C++ and Python and you do not need to provide the absolute directory when accessing files in those languages, just the path from the executable/script. It seems like an inconvenience to have to specify an absolute path every time you want to read or write a file.
Is there any quick way to grab the current directory and convert it to a string, combining it with the outfile string name? And is it good style to use the absolute directory or is it preferred to, if it's possible, quickly combine it with the "current directory" string?
Thanks.
You don't need to specify full directory everytime, relative directory also work for C#, you can get current directory using following way-
Gets the current working directory of the application.
string directory = Directory.GetCurrentDirectory();
Gets or sets the fully qualified path of the current working directory.
string directory = Environment.CurrentDirectory;
Get program executable path
string directory = System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(Assembly.GetEntryAssembly().Location);
Resource Link 1 Resource Link 2
defiantly, you no need specify full path , what is the good way you perform this type of criteria?
should use relative path #p.s.w.g mention already by comment to use Directory.GetCurrentDirectory and Path.Combine
some more specify by flowing way
You can get the .exe location of your app with System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location.
string exePath = System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location;
string exeDir = System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(exePath);
DirectoryInfo binDir = System.IO.Directory.GetParent(exeDir);
on the other hand
Internally, when getting Environment.CurrentDirectory it will call Directory.GetCurrentDirectory and when setting Environment.CurrentDirectory it will call Directory.SetCurrentDirectory.
Just pick a favorite and go with it.
thank you welcome C# i hope it will help you to move forward

How to get image files in c# using relative path?

I've checked this thread How to get files in a relative path in C#, the directory is in IDE, which is not correct for me. I have a website application, needs to get image files from the same level folder img. I can use following code to get them:
DirectoryInfo path=new DirectoryInfo(#"c:\WebsiteSolution\wwwroot\Chat\img");
FileInfo[] images = path.GetFiles("*");
But I want to use something like .\img to replace the parameter in the first line code, is that possible?
Call the Server.MapPath utility to get the relative path.
DirectoryInfo path = Server.MapPath("~\Chat\img");
For ASP.Net use MapPath - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.web.httpserverutility.mappath.aspx.
Also if you just need to construct path for rendering a page just /Chat/img/My.gif is enough.
You need to find an anchor - something like Application.ExecutablePath - and then use that anchor with Path.Combine() to reach your image directory.
If your Application.ExecutablePath were: #"c:\WebSiteSolution\wwwroot\chat\code", then you could use string imgPath = Path.Combine(Application.ExecutablePath, #"..\img");
If you have a hard time finding a good anchor, there's a bunch to consider. You can get the path of the executing assembly via Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location

Load local HTML file in a C# WebBrowser

In my app I have a WebBrowser element.
I would like to load a local file in it.
I have some questions:
Where to place the HTML file (so that it will also be installed if a user executes the setup)
how to reference the file? (e.g. my guess is the user's installation folder would not always be the same)
EDIT
I've added the HTML file to my project.
And I have set it up so that it gets copied to output folder.
When I check it it is present when run: \bin\Debug\Documentation\index.html
However when I do the following I get a 'Page cannot be displayed' error in the webbrowser element.
I use the following code to try to display the HTML file in the Webbrowser.
webBrowser1.Navigate(#".\Documentation\index.html");
Do a right click->properties on the file in Visual Studio.
Set the Copy to Output Directory to Copy always.
Then you will be able to reference your files by using a path such as #".\my_html.html"
Copy to Output Directory will put the file in the same folder as your binary dlls when the project is built. This works with any content file, even if its in a sub folder.
If you use a sub folder, that too will be copied in to the bin folder so your path would then be #".\my_subfolder\my_html.html"
In order to create a URI you can use locally (instead of served via the web), you'll need to use the file protocol, using the base directory of your binary - note: this will only work if you set the Copy to Ouptut Directory as above or the path will not be correct.
This is what you need:
string curDir = Directory.GetCurrentDirectory();
this.webBrowser1.Url = new Uri(String.Format("file:///{0}/my_html.html", curDir));
You'll have to change the variables and names of course.
quite late but it's the first hit i found from google
Instead of using the current directory or getting the assembly, just use the Application.ExecutablePath property:
//using System.IO;
string applicationDirectory = Path.GetDirectoryName(Application.ExecutablePath);
string myFile = Path.Combine(applicationDirectory, "Sample.html");
webMain.Url = new Uri("file:///" + myFile);
Note that the file:/// scheme does not work on the compact framework, at least it doesn't with 5.0.
You will need to use the following:
string appDir = Path.GetDirectoryName(
Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetName().CodeBase);
webBrowser1.Url = new Uri(Path.Combine(appDir, #"Documentation\index.html"));
Place it in the Applications setup folder or in a separte folder beneath
Reference it relative to the current directory when your app runs.
Somewhere, nearby the assembly you're going to run.
Use reflection to get path to your executing assembly, then do some magic to locate your HTML file.
Like this:
var myAssembly = System.Reflection.Assembly.GetEntryAssembly();
var myAssemblyLocation = System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(a.Location);
var myHtmlPath = Path.Combine(myAssemblyLocation, "my.html");
What worked for me was
<WebBrowser Source="pack://siteoforigin:,,,/StartPage.html" />
from here. I copied StartPage.html to the same output directory as the xaml-file and it loaded it from that relative path.
Windows 10 uwp application.
Try this:
webview.Navigate(new Uri("ms-appx-web:///index.html"));
Update on #ghostJago answer above
for me it worked as the following lines in VS2017
string curDir = Directory.GetCurrentDirectory();
this.webBrowser1.Navigate(new Uri(String.Format("file:///{0}/my_html.html", curDir)));
I have been trying different answers from here, but managed to derive something working, here it is:
1- Added the page in a folder i created at project level named WebPagesHelper
2- To have the page printed by webBrowser Control,
string curDirectory = Path.GetDirectoryName(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetName().CodeBase);
var uri = new Uri(curDirectory);
string myFile = Path.Combine(uri.AbsolutePath, #"WebPagesHelper\index.html");
Uri new_uri = new Uri(myFile);
i had to get the assembly path, create a first uri to get an absolute path without the 'file://' attached, next i combined this absolute path with a relative path to the page in its folder, then made another URI from the result.
Then pass this to webBrowser URL property webBrowser.URL = new_uri;

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