All i need is copy folder from my c# exe to user directory .i cannot have folder separate from exe.i can have only one exe.Is there anyway to marge a folder inside my c# exe file.so then i can paste it to user directory when execute it.but i cannot use a installer setup .i can have only single exe and it should paste a folder which is inside of exe to the user directory.
Make it simple.
Add files to the project as embedded resources
Create a folder from your application
Extract resource files and save them to that folder
You can follow this answer on stackoverflow to help in extracting embedded files and save them.
Related
I have a very simple .NET console application in Visual Studio. I am trying to write some words into a text file.
using (StreamWriter file = File.AppendText("log1.txt"))
{
file.WriteLine("Hello from the text file");
}
If the file does not exist, the application creates it in the autogenerated folder bin/Debug.
Is there a way to create this file in the project's directory, where I have .csproj file?
And more important, in real-world applications, when you work with files, you keep them in bin/Debug? That's why .NET creates them there firstly?
Is there a way to create this file in the project's directory, where I have .csproj file?
Yes, but this can only be done while you are working on your project. Once you are done developing it and try to publish it you won't have access to the location where you have .csproj file, because after publishing you can install it on any PC and it wont have the project you are working on.
And more important, in real-world applications, when you work with files, you keep them in bin/Debug?
No, I assume by real-world applications in your context you mean a published project '.exe' that you can run on any PC. Windows provides you three Data folders that you should use when writing your program so that it works smoothly after publishing:
User Data
Roaming User Data
All User Data
You can acess the above folders in .NET application using the Environment.SpecialFolder:
Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.LocalApplicationData)
Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData)
Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.CommonApplicationData)
As per your given code, try this :
var fileName = Path.Combine(Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData),
"log1.txt");
using (StreamWriter file = File.AppendText(fileName))
{
file.WriteLine("Hello from the text file");
}
This way you will be able to publish your program and it will still work smoothly without hard-coding the path as you were doing previously.
That's why .NET creates them there firstly?
If you don't specify a complete path, and just the file name .NET looks into the working directory of the executable, which in this case is bin/Debug
Is there a way to create this file in the project's directory, where I have .csproj file?
Yes. As explained here (second answer) you can use the post-build event to write down the value of $(ProjectDir) in a text file (using command echo $(ProjectDir) > ..\..\projectdir.txt). This macro contains the directory of your .csproj. This command will create the file projectdir.txt with your project directory after a build process so you read this file contents in your code and use what is inside it to pass to File.AppendText as the base directory to create your file log1.txt.
And more important, in real-world applications, when you work with files, you keep them in bin/Debug? That's why .NET creates them there firstly?
That depends on what you want to do. In your case the code creates the file at bin/Debug because that is where your executable are being executed. When you omit the full path to File.AppendText and just pass "log1.txt" as argument, it will create the file in the same folder as the executable are at. If you want a different folder you should specify the folder here (e.g. File.AppendText("C:/log1.txt") will create the file at C:/.
You can create the text file in the root of your project and use copy always to have them in the same place as your executable. If this is just a readonly text file then it's OK because windows doesn't allow you to modify the files reside in Programs folder in OS drive.
If you want your code to modify these text file then you need to put them in appdata folder. In real world example I did this on many project. All the database work my winforms, WPF application need goes in AppData folder.
I'm currently programming an app that need to access to some Excel files.
So what I need is to create a folder in the app files with these Excel files in it but I want that folder to be created at the app install, so they would be accessible for every device that install the app.
The files also need to be modifiable in the future by the user.
The problem is that I don't know how to do it right. Should I just create a new folder in the Solution Explorer and put the Excel files in it ? Should I create the folder programmatically and force the user to put them manually in that folder ?
I don't really know how to do it so that the application will not be too complicated to be modified by the user.
EDIT : Also, if I put the files in the Assets, will the user be able to change them later ?
So what I need is to create a folder in the app files with these Excel files in it but I want that folder to be created at the app install, so they would be accessible for every device that install the app. The files also need to be modifiable in the future by the user.
For your requirement, you could use ApplicationData.LocalFolder to store Excel files, LocalFolder has full access permission. LocalFolder exists in the app's sandbox path and will be created after the app is installed.
Also, if I put the files in the Assets, will the user be able to change them later ?
Assets folder exists in Windows.ApplicationModel.Package.Current.InstalledLocation and it is read only that often use to store some static resource. You can't modify the file at run time.
For more details about file access permissions please refer this document.
Forget the installer. It is deprecated and the new apps on Windows are installed over the store.
If you want to copy some files (Excel templates), you have to put them in your resources. At startup you can check if there is a folder in your App-Data folder with your files, if you don't find them, you can copy it from your resources. So even if the file is deleted, your app can copy them in the next start.
If you use Windows Forms with .NET, you can check this page:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.windows.forms.application.localuserappdatapath?view=netframework-4.8
If you are writing an UWP-app, check this page:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/uwp/design/app-settings/store-and-retrieve-app-data
I have an application that upon execution It copies two folders with subfolders that are in the same location to another windows location %AppData%
Now I have the following files :
MyApp.exe , Folder1, Folder2
In each folder there are subfolders. How to embed these two folders as resources inside the application so after compiling the program, I get only one executable file. And when I click on it, it extract the two folders to the same location then do the rest of job.
I know how to add a file as embedded resource then retrieve it using reflection,
but how about a folder Is that even possible??
I had to solve this problem recently. I embedded a ZIP file, and then decompressed it at runtime.
.NET 4.5 includes ZIP functionality. If not, use SharpZipLib or DotNetZip.
I have created a C# WinForms application. It has some additional files that it uses, such as help files and some external data files. I want to put these files in folders under the Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ProgramFiles) path so that the application can find and read them.
This path doesn't get created until the application is installed right? So where do I put these files in my VS2010 project, or how do I tell my project that these files exist so that when I am running (debugging) the application from VS it will find the files.
Thanks
EDIT: I did think about adding the files as resource files, but unfortunately some files may get added after the project is built and deployed. Therefore we decided to make the program search and find the data files (and associated help files) at a specific location and load them if they exist.
Thing is that your application should not need to use 'Environment.SpecialFolder.ProgramFiles'. It "should" be location agnostic. The quick answer to your question is "from the folder that the application was launched from". The real answer is how you reference these files.
Your help files and data files need to be deployed to folder with a known relationship to the application. That is, the same folder or a child folder. Consider making the file resources.
Now if the files are user configurable or run time writable then they should not be in the program files area but be in the application data area. If so, then there is your path!
Hope this helps.
You should add these files to the main (exe) project inside your solution.
(Right click on Project Name, Select Add Existing Item)
Then set its property Copy to Output Directory = Always
(not sure of the translation because I use a localized version of VS)
Of course, it should be noted that, when you deploy your files in the Environment.SpecialFolder.ProgramFiles, you could not be able to write to them (Windows7, Vista) for security reasons.
Add the files as resources in your project. Take a look at this MSDN article. You can add resources to a project by right-clicking the Properties node under your project in Solution Explorer, clicking Open, and then clicking the Add Resource button on the Resources page in Project Designer.
You can add resources to your project either as linked resources, which are external files, or as embedded resources, which are embedded directly into the .resx file.
When you add a linked resource, the .resx file that stores your project resource information includes only a relative path to the resource file on disk. If you add images, videos, or other complex files as linked resources, you can edit them using a default editor that you associate with that file type in the Resource Designer.
When you add an embedded resource, the data is stored directly in the project's resource (.resx) file. Strings can only be stored as embedded resources.
I include a javascript include folder in the root directory of my setup project in the Application Folder. I tried to move the javascript include file under the Javascript folder and I now get:
Unable to find source file 'C:\Documents and Settings\support\My
Documents\Projects\u2server\wwwroot\ckeditor\ckeditor_basic_source.js'
for file 'ckeditor_basic_source.js', located in
'[TARGETDIR]\wwwroot\Scripts\ckeditor', the file may be absent or
locked.
I can delete the the directory and then add the files one by one but their are over 200 files in that include directory. Is their an easy way to move a folder in the application folder of the file system view of a setup program?
When moving files on disk you also need to update your setup project. The simplest approach is to remove the entire folder in your setup project File System Editor and add it again in the correct location. This way it will use the correct paths.