How can I get the path of a file on my computer or on the local area network.
I would to show a window that allows me to browse the file system when I click a button, and I want to select a file and get the path to the file. How can I do this?
P.S. I'm not looking to upload the file; I just want to get the path.
The web application is running on the server, and you don't have access to the client file system at all. Can you imagine how much of a vulnerability that would be? I know I don't want the sites I visit inspecting my file system...
EDIT: Question is for a WinForms application
For a WinForms application, you can use the OpenFileDialog, and extract the path with something like this:
If you're looking for the file path:
string path = OpenFileDialog1.FileName; //output = c:\folder\file.txt
If you're looking for the directory path:
string path = Path.GetDirectoryName(OpenFileDialog1.FileName); //output = c:\folder
In general, the System.IO.Path class has a lot of useful features for retrieving and manipulating path information.
To do this in VB.NET use the FolderBrowserDialog.
Due to security restrictions browsers include for user safety, you can't manipulate the client file system directly. You can only use to let them pick a file, and even then it only sends the filename, not the whole path.
The FileSystem API in HTML5 allows for file manipulation, but only within a sandbox for your site specifically, not browsing across the network or other files on the client system.
Instead, provide your users easy steps on how they should use My Computer (or whatever equivalent on other OS's) to navigate to the file and copy & paste the path into a simple text input box.
Have you taken a look at the Path class from System.IO ?
Related
I am developing a Windows Phone 8 application but am having a lot of issues with file access permission exceptions hindering the approval of my application when ever I try accessing files in the "local" folder (this only happens after the application has been signed by the WP store, not when deployed from Visual Studio). To solve this I have moved all file operations to IsolatedStorage and this seems to have fixed the problems.
I only have one problem left though. My application needs to make use of the file extension system to open external files and this seems to involve the file first being copied to the local folder where after I can then manually copy it into IsolatedStorage. I have no problem in implementing this but it seems that a file access permission exception also occurs once the system tries to copy the external file into the local folder.
The only way I think this can be solved is if I can direct the system to directly copy into IsolatedStorage but I cannot figure how to do this or if it is even possible. It seems as if though the SharedStorageAccessManager can only copy into a StorageFolder instance but I have no idea how to create one that is directed into IsolatedStorage, any ideas?
PS. Do you think that the Microsoft system might be signing my application with some incompetent certificate or something because there is not a hint of trouble when I deploy the application from Visual Studio, it only happens when Microsoft tests it or when I install it from the store using the Beta submission method.
Below is a screenshot of the catched exception being displayed in a messagebox upon trying to open a file from an email:
EDIT:
Just to make it even clearer, I do NOT need assistance in figuring out the normal practice of using a deep link uri to copy an external file into my application directory. I need help in either copying it directly into isolatedstorage or resolving the file access exception.
Listening for a file launch
When your app is launched to handle a particular file type, a deep link URI is used to take the user to your app. Within the URI, the FileTypeAssociation string designates that the source of the URI is a file association and the fileToken parameter contains the file token.
For example, the following code shows a deep link URI from a file association.
/FileTypeAssociation?fileToken=89819279-4fe0-4531-9f57-d633f0949a19
Upon launch, map the incoming deep link URI to an app page that can handle the file
// Get the file token from the URI
// (This is easiest done from a UriMapper that you implement based on UriMapperBase)
// ...
// Get the file name.
string incomingFileName = SharedStorageAccessManager.GetSharedFileName(fileID);
// You will then use the file name you got to copy it into your local folder with
// See: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsphone/develop/windows.phone.storage.sharedaccess.sharedstorageaccessmanager.copysharedfileasync(v=vs.105).aspx
SharedStorageAccessManager.CopySharedFileAsync(...)
I've inline the information on how to do this from MSDN http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsphone/develop/jj206987(v=vs.105).aspx
Read that documentation and it should be clear how to use the APIs as well as how to setup your URI mapper.
Good luck :)
Ok I figured it out. The "install" directory is actually restricted access but for some reason the Visual Studio signing process leaves the app with enough permissions to access this folder. The correct procedure of determining a relative directory is not to use "Directory.GetCurrentDirectory()" but rather to use "ApplicationData.Current.LocalFolder". Hope this helps!
I have an application in Visual Studio C# which includes saving into a text file, how can I have a .exe sent to another computer and not have an exception in saving?
I need to send a .exe file by email (Yes it's possible) and this application includes saving the state of the game. How can I send this .exe file and let the user be able to save in his computer please?
The problem is that when I send my application's executable file on another computer, I'm getting an exception in saving. Because on the other computer I don't have the text file which I'm saving the game.
I am saving here :
StreamWriter myFile = File.CreateText(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory()+"//ConnectFour.txt");
in the obj/Debug/ of the project..
Thanks for your help :)
Sending an executable should work just fine.
Make sure the other computer has the appropriate Microsoft .NET Framework installed.
Latest framework installer: MSDN
Also, make sure the path inwhich you're saving the file to exists on the remote computer. For example, if you're trying to save to the D:\ drive and it doesn't exist. You will get an exception.
Most likely current location is not writable by current user.
Using "current directory" is dangerous as you have no control over where application is launched from. It is very useful for command line utilities, but not so much for regular windowed applications. Use location that you know you can save files to - i.e. "My Documents".
var filePath = Path.Combine(
Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.MyDocuments) + "\\",
ConnectFour.txt");
using(var myFile = File.CreateText(filePAth))
{
// save data here.
}
The problem when sending executables by email are the anti-virus-scanners. Some of them refuse e-mails containing executables. Others accept the mails but delete the attachment.
The solution consists in hiding the executable. This can be done by zipping the executable and sending the zip-file.
Often this is enough to solve the problem but some anti-virus-scanners are very smart and even recognize executables within the zip-attachment. The solution here is to encrypt the zip-file with a password. I often just use the password "pwd" and mention it in the e-mail text. The anti-viruses are not (yet) smart enough to understand this text.
UPDATE
Now I understand your problem. It has nothing to do with sending the executable.
An application can determine from which directory it has been started like this
string dir = System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(
System.Windows.Forms.Application.ExecutablePath
);
An alternative is (if you don't have a reference to WinForms):
string dir = System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(
System.Reflection.Assembly.GetEntryAssembly().Location
);
You probably do not have sufficient privileges to save the file on the remote machine. If you give us more information on the exact exception that is being thrown (type of exception, message, stack trace, etc) you will get a more accurate answer.
How to locate the path of other drive's folder in server?
For ex:
The application is there in 'C:\SomeFolder\', now I want to export a file to the drive 'D:\AnotherFolder\' on the server. How can I achieve this?
First of all you need to have permissions to access the folder. The user that needs to be able to access the folder is the same user as is running IIS. Usualy it is a built in account IIS_* that is running the instance.
As long as this user has access to the folder, you can just use File Read / Write as you normally do.
Read this article about C# File Handling.
Example - Search for files on another drive
var files = Directory.GetFiles("D:\\", "*.txt");
This will give you an array of files with the extension .txt found on D:\.
Also read this: How to: Copy, Delete, and Move Files and Folders (C# Programming Guide)
If you mean to get a list of all drives known on a system you can use Environment.GetLogicalDrives.
i want to create a small c# application. there is a text box and a button in form. if anyone enter a network path for a file and press the button, then the application must copy that file to a folder within that system. How can i do this.?
How to access a network path and how can i copy the file in that path to the system??
You can use the OpenFileDilog class in .net to browse through the files.
Also you can visit these links for Copy and other functionalities.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc148994.aspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.io.file.copy(VS.71).aspx
Net work paths are accessed by there full UNC ie \Server\Share\drive\file. As long as you have credentials to access them. You can use system.io.file.copy to move the files.
I have an ASP FileUpload control and I am uploading:
C:\Documents and Settings\abpa\Desktop\TTPublisher\apache-tomcat-6.0.26\webapps\ttpub\WEB-INF\classes\org\gtfs\tmp\GTFS_Rail\routes.txt
What is the C# code to grab this entire string using the code below:
var pathOfCsvFile = Server.MapPath(ImportRoutes.FileName);
var adapter = new GenericParsing.GenericParserAdapter(pathOfCsvFile);
DataTable data = adapter.GetDataTable();
I know that Server.MapPath needs to change.
UPDATE:
Using System.IO.Path.GetFullPath gave me the below output:
pathOfCsvFile = "C:\\Program Files\\Common Files\\Microsoft Shared\\DevServer\\10.0\\routes.txt"
You are mixing up client and server behavior, which is easy to do when you are testing locally. The issue you are having is that the FileUploadControl (and HTML file uploading in general) is specifically designed to not provide you with the full path to the file. That would be a privacy breach. What it is designed to give you is the binary data of the file that was uploaded itself. Specifically you should query the properties on FileUploadControl: FileBytes or FileContent.
Just to further clarify the issue, what would happen if the browser user was actually on a physically different machine from the web server (the usual case)? What good would the full path of the file on the client machine be to you on the server?
Server.MapPath will return the physical path to a file in or below the application root. If that path you list is outside the application root, Server.MapPath will not work.
You can map a virtual directory to a folder you want to use to hold file uploads, which you can then discover with Server.MapPath.