C# + File.OpenRead(path_to_file) - c#

I am developing a HTML5 based WebApp being hosted in IIS7. This webapp sends requests to webservices being hosted in IIS7.
The service initialization looks up for a specific file e.g: "appfile.txt" as
FileStream stream = File.OpenRead("appfile.txt"); // opens file for reading.
This call when run as a console application looks up in the project\bin or output directory and able to locate the specified file.
But the same hosted in IIS7 looks up in "C:\windows\system32\inetsrv\appfile.txt".
Are there any configuration item having used in web.config locates the file from the Bin directory of the IIS7 application and not anywhere else?
Any help is much appreciated.

If the app file is in your web application folder, try using Server.MapPath to get The location of the file relative to the root of the web app:
File.OpenRead(Server.MapPath("~/appfile.txt"))
That should work. You probably need to set up the appfile.txt properties so it is copied to the output folder.

You can certainly create your own section in the web.config file to grab the file path that you want. It doesn't need to have been predefined. Then just use any XML reader you want.
Alternatively, you can make a .resx file very easily in Visual Studio and just populate the path there as a variable.

Thanks for all your valuable comments, I could resolve this issue myself using the following code snippets
string path = System.Web.Hosting.HostingEnvironment.ApplicationPhysicalPath;
string[] labs = File.ReadAllLines(path + "/appfile.txt");
This bit of code allows me to read the file contents without any issues.

Related

C# get current directory without having to specify full path? [duplicate]

We have a web application written in ASP.NET 3.5. In it, we access a file in the code-behind. (Ordinary C# file access, done on the server during the page life-cycle, this has nothing to do with URLs or web browsers).
On our production systems, we specify the full path to the file in question in the web.config. We'd like to be able to include a local copy of the file in the project in version control, and then to use a relative path in the version-controlled web.config to point to it, so that a checked-out copy of the application could be run from within Visual Studio's debugger without having to do any configuration.
The problem is that when the web application is running in debug mode, its working directory is neither the project nor the solution directory. In a windows or console application, in a project's properties page I can set the working directory. But in a web application I cannot.
Any ideas on how I can manage to make this work?
To get the path of the root of the application:
//equivalent to Server.MapPath("/"); if at domain root, e.g Http://mysite.com/
string path = Server.MapPath("~");
This answer gives a rundown of a few different common Server.MapPath() uses that may also be of use to you.
In code behind: HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath("~")
Use:
Server.MapPath("~");

I am making a wcf service application how do I get the full path of a xml file?

I am making a wcf service application how do I get the full path of a xml file? The file is on a visual studio project folder, is going to move to another computer and the path will be change.
Server.MapPath("/PathToYourFiles");
More info here https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.web.httpserverutility.mappath(v=vs.110).aspx
I removed using System.Web.dll;
and add the following:
string path = System.Web.Hosting.HostingEnvironment.MapPath("/fileName.xml");

How to give a folder path in app.config file in C#

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.

Read from output file in installed WCF service

I included a text file as output in a WCF set up project.
The text file is correctly located in the same folder with the dll, exe, and config file after the project is installed (C:\Program Files\KLTesting\KLTestApp).
However when the program tries to read it, it looks under "C:\Windows\system32", what's the correct way to find & read it?
I have
string a = Directory.GetCurrentDirectory();
a += "/R0303.txt";
string content = File.ReadAllText(a);
Thanks.
You should use AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory or AppDomain.CurrentDomain.SetupInformation.ApplicationBase instead, to get the Directory of your .exe file.
First you should not call Directory.GetCurrentDirectory() and concatenate with the file name. The service is running within a web server like IIS or some other type of container, so GetCurrentDirectory will not give you what you are thinking as you found out. (On a quick tangent, as a recommendation in the future if you want to do path combining you should use Path.Combine method as it will handle all the corner cases and be cross platform.)
There are a few ways to do this:
Assembly myAssembly = Assembly.GetAssembly(SomeTypeInAssm.GetType());
string fullFileName = Path.Combine(myAssembly.Location, "MyFile.txt");
The fullFileName should be what you are looking for. Make sure you use a type that is actually in an assembly located and referenced from the directory in question. However be aware because this file in your question in the Program Files area this is a secure area on Vista and higher OS's and you may not have access to do anything but read the file.
Also you could have the installer of the application place in the registry the install path. Then your service if on the same box can pull this information.
Also you could make sure the file you want to load is within the web server environment that is accessable to the WCF service in question.

How to get to app-relative subdirectory in .net windows app?

I have an application that contains a sub folder that contain xml file ,that is use as a database now i want take the path of the xml file at run time ,how can i achieve this in window application?
I know how it does in asp.net using Server.MapPath but i want this is same in windows application
please help
thanks in advance .
Use Aplication.ExecutablePath property when am XML document and executable are reside in the same directory.
I think the recommended way in Windows is to use the Application.StartupPath property.
And with Path.Combine you can have your xml file path Server.MapPath-style like this:
var appPath = Application.StartupPath;
var xmlPath = Path.Combine(appPath, "data/my_db.xml");
// xmlPath now points to app-relative data/my_db.xml file
...
A nuanced answer:
The best way to access data would be to put it in Application.CommonAppDataPath or Application.UserAppDataPath so that it does not depend on the application's installed path. However, there are many reasons why you might need to avoid this.
To answer your question:
If the application is a standard forms application deployed to the client's machine by an installer or XCopy deployment, then the path to the executable is Application.ExecutablePath
If the application is Click-Once deployed, then I would not recommend using the above since the app's path is obscured, shadow-copied and put in the sandbox. You can use ApplicationDeployment.IsNetworkDeployed to test for click-once deployment then ApplicationDeployment.CurrentDeployment.ActivationUri to get the URI that the application was launched from. Your app-relative file will be on that web server; you will always be able to download it.
of course in click-once deployent it would be better to tag the file as Data in which case it would be accessible through ApplicationDeployment.CurrentDeployment.DataDirectory
if the application is a web app, then the Application class is useless. In this case you should use Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location This works because currently executing assembly for a web app is almost always in the web app's /bin directory.
For a "portable" assembly where you don't have an installer, and for rare cases where you don't want to use the Application class, use Assembly.GetEntryAssembly().Location This works because it figures out what the entry point assembly is (your application) and uses that location. This is reliable because assemblies that your entry assembly load don't have to be in the same directory as the entry assembly.
You can get the directory of the currently executing assembly using
System.Runtime.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location
from there you can get to your subdirectory.

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