I have an SQL Server CE 4.0 (SDF) file that under the Users Application Data Folder (because due to Win7 UAC you cannot modify the DB if it is in the \Programs Files\ folder. But the problem remains that I need to now (on install) modifiy the .EXE.CONFIG file (ConnectionString) to point to the new path for the DB, however obviously I do not have access to modify the .EXE.CONFIG file either in the \Program Files\ folder ...
So how do people resolve this issue?
Can you deploy the .EXE.CONFIG file to the users Application Data Folder as well with the SDF file? If not how? I cannot beleive you need to grant special access rights to the \Program Files\Application folder to be able to have full access...
I am using VS2010 and using a standard Deployment Project (MSI) and I don't see anyway to deploy the .EXE in one place the the .EXE.CONFIG in another (can this be done? Is this the right solution?)
Thanks,
Use the %APPDATA% variable in the connection string and you won't have to modify the configuration file. This is also more flexible than hard-coding a path that contains a username, since it will allow all users of the computer to use your program and have their own .sdf files.
However, the environment variables are not automatically expanded in .NET, so you need to enforce it by using the Environment.ExpandEnvironmentVariable method:
// Example appSetting element:
// <add key="examplePath" value="%APPDATA%\example.txt" />
string path = System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["examplePath"].ToString();
path = Environment.ExpandEnvironmentVariables(path);
System.IO.File.WriteAllText(path, "foobar");
Related
C# MVVM project targeting .NET Framework 4.6.2 with underlying SQL Server database.
We have a handful of user-writable settings in appSettings. These are stored in the PROGRAMNAME.exe.config in C:\Program Files\PROGRAMNAME
The problem is that our users typically do not have write permissions to the C:\Program Files\PROGRAMNAME directory and so cannot write changes to this file. The program either needs to be run as an administrator or we need to give write permissions to that directory. Neither is ideal.
I was under the impression that it should create a copy of the .exe.config in C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\PROGRAMNAME but this does not seem to happen, especially in our Citrix environments.
Is there a way to relocate these specific appSettings to a file in a user-writable location?
You can do it. Read the config file like this:
Configuration App_Config =
ConfigurationManager.OpenExeConfiguration("C:\Temp\PROGRAMNAME.exe");
By this, it will look for the config file PROGRAMNAME.exe.config in the specified path C:\Temp
Please notice the path is not specified as C:\Temp\PROGRAMNAME.exe.config
Get more info from Here
I am creating an application in WPF.
In that I am using XML file to store some settings.
My app will run for every 10 sec. So it will use that XML file settings.
My issue is in My local system i am calling the XML file as D://Foldername/projectname/test.xml .
But after deployment it is storing in C://Programfiles/Projectname/test.xml .
So how to give a generic path so that it runs in all the client systems.
I am creating setup file to install in clients systems.
Please help me.
Open the project properties page.
Click on Settings tab.
Add a new item called "MyPath". Make it an Application Setting of type String and give it a sensible default path name as value.
Reference the value in code with Properties.Settings.Default.MyPath.
If you open the applications config there will be a setting called MyPath where you can override the path at runtime.
I suggest you to put the XML file in the same folder as your EXE file and then use Assembly to get its current path.
var cfgPath = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location + ".config"
Update
it's better to name your config file the same with your exe file but with ".config" extension.
If you are really using ClickOnce, I hardly recommend you to create your own directory for data and configuration files:
private static string GetDataDir()
{
var dataDir = Path.Combine(Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData),
"YourApplicationName");
if (!Directory.Exists(dataDir))
Directory.CreateDirectory(dataDir);
return dataDir;
}
The problem with storing the data in the directory of the executable is, that it will be at a different location. While debugging, it will be in you \bin directory. When the application is deployed by ClickOnce, you gonna have a bad time. The installation directory for a ClickOnce application is created for every version. So if you EVER update your application at "customers", all their settings will be lost.
I have a c# winforms app that uses SQL compact and here is the connection string for the DB:
<add name="Test.Properties.Settings.TestManagerConnectionString"
connectionString="Data Source=|DataDirectory|\Database\TestManager.sdf"
providerName="Microsoft.SqlServerCe.Client.3.5" />
How can I get the path that the connection string is pointing to? ie: C:\Users\name\AppData... etc
Why do you want to move it to a different directory? By default a non-administrative user does not have access to make changes in the Program Files directory tree. AppData is a user specific store that (in the case of network hosted profiles) points to the appropriate directory on the network for the user's app data directory.
If you want to share data for multiple users, there is the All_Users Data Directory. I'm not sure how to specify it with the SqlCE connection string though.
Update
Here is the answer to determining the appdata directory.
To set the DataDirectory property, call the AppDomain.SetData method.
If you do not set the DataDirectory property, the following default
rules will be applied to access the database folder:
For applications that are put in a folder on the user's computer,
the database folder uses the application folder.
For applications that are running under ClickOnce, the database folder uses the
specific data folder that is created.
I am developing a simple piece of software which uses Entity Framework code first and sql server compact 4. At the moment this setup works. Entity framework creates the sql server compact file if it doesn't yet exists. The path to the database is defined from within a connectionstring which is stored inside the app.config file. It is build up like this:
<connectionStrings>
<add name="DataContext"
connectionString="Data source=Database.sdf;"
providerName="System.Data.SqlServerCe.4.0"/>
</connectionStrings>
However, I want to place the database in a folder within the current user's Application Data folder (the C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming folder on my win7 machine). I've tried setting the Data source of the connectionstring to something like %APPDATA%\Database.sdf, but this doesn't work, I get an "Illegal characters in path" exception.
I want to stick with the connectionstring method, because I'd like to use a different database for my unit tests than with my actual application. This way it is easy to modify the database by placing an app.config file in the root of the project.
Can someone steer me in the right direction?
Use below:
AppDomain.CurrentDomain.SetData("DataDirectory", Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.CommonApplicationData));
<connectionStrings>
<add name="DataContext"
connectionString="Data source=|DataDirectory|Database.sdf;"
providerName="System.Data.SqlServerCe.4.0"/>
</connectionStrings>
connectionString="Data source=Database.sdf;"
This tells your app to look for Database.sdf in your app’s current working directory; which could be anywhere and may not be writeable. You need to look at a location you specify:
connectionString="Data source=|DataDirectory|Database.sdf;"
ADO.NET looks for pipe characters in connection strings and expands them to the value of the property of that name in the application’s domain. So what’s the value of the DataDirectory property? It’s supposed to be set by whatever deployed your application:
.MSI installers set it to the app installation folder. If you allow the user to choose the installation folder, they choose the DataDirectory as well. This is why you should always use |DataDirectory| and never a hard-coded path.
ClickOnce defines a special data folder in your project.
Web apps use the App_Data folder.
The Visual Studio debugger uses the debug folder.
Any Visual Studio files in your project with a “copy to output directory” property will be copied to DataDirectory. In most cases DataDirectory will be a read-only folder. This is fine if your data is read-only, but if you want to write to it you will have to copy your data to a writeable location. Probably the best place is Environment.GetFolderPath( Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData)). There are several ways of doing this:
If you are creating an empty new data file, just use your API’s standard CREATE DATABASE or new SqlCeConnection() or whatever.
If you want to start with a pre-populated seed or starter database, include the seed database in your project . In your application startup, check if the database exists in the SpecialFolder.ApplicationData folder and, if not, copy it there.
If you search the web for sample code on creating local database you will run across a lot of bad advice. Do not do the following:
new SqlCeConnection(#"Data source=c:\users\me\myApp\Database.sdf;"); // Do NOT do this!
I hope I don’t have to explain why hard-coding the path to your data is wrong; but be aware that unless you specify a full path in your connection string, the path is relative to your current working directory.
using (var conn = new SqlCeConnection(#"Data source=|DataDirectory|Database.sdf;"))
{
conn.Open();
// No No No! This throws an Access Exception for Standard users,
// and gets deleted when you repair the app!
var cmd = conn.CreateCommand("INSERT INTO Table (column1, column2) VALUES (#p1, #p2)");
...
}
Do not try to modify the data in DataDirectory. Not only is this directory not always modifiable by users, it is owned by the installer not by the user. Repairing or uninstalling the application will delete all the user’s data; users don’t like that. Instead, copy the installed data to a folder writable by the user and make all changes to the copy.
AppDomain.CurrentDomain.SetData("DataDirectory",
// Wrong, this overwrites where the user installed your app!
Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.CommonApplicationData));
Do not change the value of DataDirectory in your code, it is set by the installer and if you change it you won’t know where your data was installed. If you are creating an empty database, just open it in your final location. If you are going to make a copy, open the installed database, save it to the user’s location, close the installed database, and open the copy.
I also discourage saving data to Environment.SpecialFolder.CommonApplicationData. This may not be writable by users, and unless there is a very very good reason all users must be allowed to change other users’ data, each user should have their own database.
I am working on c# windows project.I am using Microsoft Access database with OleDbConnection connection.My database "email.mdb" is in My document directory and my "email_db.udl" is in "D: drive".This is running well on my computer.But whenever i am making an exe installer file for installment on other Pc this is not working.I am placing "mdb" and "udl" file is in same directory as they are on my PC.I am supposing this ('udl' file) is not connected with my database.
How will i resolve this problem for installation on any windows pc.
Thanks
You can put the database files in your project's directory (where sln file is) and access them through their bare filenames (without D:...., only filename).
In case of the installation you have to set the installer to put it in the installation folder (where the exe file is)
This is a good way to carry everything in one folder and be organized.
Probably here you have a problem because the "My Document" directory has a different path in every PC.