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C# get relative path of resources folder

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")

How to get absolute path of another project in a solution C#

I have a solution containing two projects. One project is just for doing all data stuff and the other one, the startup project, do all the web stuff.
Now I want to get the TasksDataBase.xml from the TaskManagerHelpers class by first getting the projects root directory. But all I get is the TaskManager.Web root directory. (I call the method inside TaskManagerHelpers.cs from a controller inside TaskManager.Web)
How do I get the TaskManager.Data root directory when I'm in a class in the same project?
I've tried with theese methodes and similar ones.
HttpContext.Current.Request.PhysicalApplicationPath;
System.IO.Path.GetFullPath();
AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory;
Thanks in advance!

One possibility is to embed the XML file into the assembly of the class library and then read it as resource in your web application. Remember that when you publish your web application to a web server all that will get into the package will be the files of this web application. There's no physical relation to some projects that might have lived into the Visual Studio solution that this web application was part of.
You may take a look at the GetManifestResourceStream method which will allow you to read the embedded XML from the referenced assembly.
Here's an example:
// you could use any type from the assembly here
var assembly = typeof(TaskManagerHelper).Assembly;
using (var stream = assembly.GetManifestResourceStream("TaskManager.Data.DataBase.TasksDataBase.xml"))
using (var xmlReader = XmlReader.Create(stream))
{
// ... do something with the XML here
}
Bear in mind though that since the file is embedded into the assembly you will not be able to modify it. It is readonly. If you need to modify it then an alternative approach would consist into copying this file to your web application. For example a good place is the App_Data special folder. You could even setup a post compilation step that will copy the XML file in this location.
And then you can reference it easily:
string xmlFile = HostingEnvironment.MapPath("~/App_Data/TasksDataBase.xml");
using (var xmlReader = XmlReader.Create(xmlFile))
{
// ... do something with the XML here
}
In this case since the XML file is now physically part of the web application and lives on the hard drive you could also modify it.

Just because the two projects are located in the same folder tree during development, says nothing about where they'll be located at run time. It's entirely possible that that could be on different machines.
"No," you say. They'll will definitely be on the same machine in the same c:\inetpub tree. That may be true, but that's your policy, not a requirement.
If you are going to establish a hard policy about where they are located, then you can hard-code that into you code.

Right-click the XML file and select properties, then change the Copy to Output Director to one of the other settings than "Do Not Copy". That will place the file into your \bin\ folder alongside the other project output. You can then use AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory as your base path

IF you are running a web project, all the referenced dll files are copied to the bin directory (unless they are in the GAC) and used from there, no matter if you add a reference to another project, Visual Studio first compile it and then copies it to the bin folder of the web project. You can mark your xml file as Content (Compilation Action) and with the copy always option so it always copy it to the bin directory .... the problem is that it sometime look for this files outside of the bin folder but I think that you can handle this.

C# Xml files when creating exe application

I'm planning to build my winform into a .exe file. I'm just wondering what to do with the XML files that my application needs?
I did some research and found out that I can add the XML files in the Resource folder before creating a .exe file.
Or I need to create a setup file? When the user runs the setup file, the XML files will be installed into their pc.Now I wonder which one is the best way to go for,
Note: XML files might get modified by the user.

If you want to ship the XML files as seperate to the .EXE then you can set the Copy to Output Directory to Copy if newer. (click on file and then go to properties).
OR if you want it as part of the .EXE I think you can change the Build Action to Embedded Resource.
I personally would create a Setup as per your edit and include the XML files. I usually just add everthing from the bin/release folder that is needed when I create a setup file.

You could either deploy the necessary files along with the executable in the same folder or embed them as resources (if they are read-only). If you need to modify them do not embed them as resources into the executable.

The correct way depends on how you intend to use the files. If the files always are deployed together with your application, the application never writes to them and they are never upgraded without upgrading the application, you can go with them embedded as resources.
If you need to update them separately from the application, you need to have them as physical files.
You don't necessarely need a installation package, unless you need to apply some logic during setup, such as updating the content of the setup based on user input or to check preconditions. The application can just be copied into place regardless of if you have embedded the files or not.

Hard Coded Paths in a .NET Program

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.

Working with relative file paths in .Net

I have a C# project where I include some resources which I need to refer using the Uri-class. For this specific problem I have some shaders placed in a "Shaders" folder in the root of the project, but I've had this problem before with other files like images, etc. This far I've used the simple solution giving a fixed absolute path, and making sure the file is present at that location. Needless to say - this is not a good solution, and it won't work in the long run...
So, how can I use relative paths to refer my resources? I guess my question is twofold:
First; I don't want to refer the relative path from my Debug folder to the project folder. I want the file to be copied to the build folder. The shaders are included in the project, but obviously this isn't enough. How do I tell the project to copy the files when building? Or; what's the common way of solving this?
Second; when I have the "Shaders" folder copied to my build folder - what Uri syntax do I use to refer e.g. "myShader.ps" placed inside this folder? Can I simply say file:///Shaders/myShader.ps?

To get a Uri from your applications directory do:
Uri baseUri = new Uri(System.Reflection.Assembly.GetEntryAssembly().Location);
Uri shader = new Uri(baseUri, "shaders/test.ps");

Answer to first:
How do I tell the project to copy the files when building?
Add the file to the project, right click, select Properties and change Copy to Output Directory to Always Copy.