Physical vs Logical My Documents question

[dgk]

Is there some built in way to know whether a physical folder path is
'My Documents" for a specific user? I can always use xxx.StartsWith to
compare it to the enumeration returned by the Personal folder, but it
seems a bit inelegant.

[Tibby]

Re: Physical vs Logical My Documents question

dgk wrote:
[color=blue]
> Is there some built in way to know whether a physical folder path is
> 'My Documents" for a specific user? I can always use xxx.StartsWith to
> compare it to the enumeration returned by the Personal folder, but it
> seems a bit inelegant.[/color]

HKCU\Software\M icrosoft\Window s\CurrentVersio n\Explorer\Shel l Folders
That contains the location for all the Special folders for that user.

HTH,
Tibby

[Cor Ligthert [MVP]]

Re: Physical vs Logical My Documents question

DGK,

Although I am not clear about what you write, because you use your own
probably your own mnemonics of classes.

I assume that you with the Enum means the enum in the Environment class and
not an own build Enum.

Than it seems for me in combination with the path class, from what I think
you mean with xxx and the method to get the full path in that what I think
you mean with Start, a complete normal method that you use.

I hope this helps,

Cor

[Ken Tucker [MVP]]

Re: Physical vs Logical My Documents question

Hi,

Environment.Get FolderPath(Envi ronment.Special Folder.Personal )
returns the path to My Documents.

Ken
-----------------
"dgk" <sonicechoes-spamless@zero-spam-hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:6mdte1hqh8 428sugce65fs5u3 u7sbguq32@4ax.c om...
Is there some built in way to know whether a physical folder path is
'My Documents" for a specific user? I can always use xxx.StartsWith to
compare it to the enumeration returned by the Personal folder, but it
seems a bit inelegant.

[dgk]

Re: Physical vs Logical My Documents question

On Tue, 2 Aug 2005 02:40:42 -0400, "Ken Tucker [MVP]"
<vb2ae@bellsout h.net> wrote:
[color=blue]
>Hi,
>
> Environment.Get FolderPath(Envi ronment.Special Folder.Personal )
>returns the path to My Documents.
>
>Ken
>-----------------
>"dgk" <sonicechoes-spamless@zero-spam-hotmail.com> wrote in message
>news:6mdte1hqh 8428sugce65fs5u 3u7sbguq32@4ax. com...
>Is there some built in way to know whether a physical folder path is
>'My Documents" for a specific user? I can always use xxx.StartsWith to
>compare it to the enumeration returned by the Personal folder, but it
>seems a bit inelegant.
>[/color]

Sorry, I should be more specific. I have the user pick the folder
where a database will be kept, defaulting to "My Documents\Produ ctX",
where ProductX is the name of my program. When FolderBrowserDi alog is
used to have the user pick a folder, and they choose "My Documents",
it returns the physical address as the SelectedPath, not "My
Documents" which is what the user expects to see. So I don't want to
subsequently show the physical location, I want to show "My
Documents".

I check to see if the physical path returned begins with the physical
My Documents path, and then show it as My Documents to the user.
Nothing major, I've already written the trivial code to handle it but
it just seemed that there would be a built in function (oops, Shared
Class method) that would deal with the physical vs logical
implementation of the Special Folders.

[Cor Ligthert [MVP]]

Re: Physical vs Logical My Documents question

DGK,

I have a routine that does it the same way as you do.

Cor

[Jay B. Harlow [MVP - Outlook]]

Re: Physical vs Logical My Documents question

dgk,
In addition to the other comments.

I was thinking that the System.Uri.Make Relative function might help. Which
is not specifically what you want, but may give you an indication of what
you want...

The Uri.MakeRelativ e function "determines the difference between two Uri
instances". There is a constructor on Uri that takes a root URI and
"appends" a relative path.

The System.IO.Path. IsPathRooted can be used to determine if the path itself
is relative or absolute.

One of the advantages of using the Uri object in your function is that it
removes superfluous segments, such as "/" and resolves ".." in the path.

One could create a function similar to:

Public Function IsRoot(ByVal rootPath As String, ByVal sourcePath As
String) As Boolean
Dim root As New Uri(rootPath)
Dim source As Uri
If Path.IsPathRoot ed(sourcePath) Then
source = New Uri(sourcePath)
Else
source = New Uri(root, sourcePath)
End If
Dim relative As String = root.MakeRelati ve(source)
Return Not Path.IsPathRoot ed(relative)
End Function

Unfortunately it doesn't work, per se.


Going back to your original idea, I would modify the above to use StartWith
on Uri.AbsolutePat h. Something like:

Public Function IsRoot(ByVal rootPath As String, ByVal sourcePath As
String) As Boolean
Dim root As New Uri(rootPath & "\"c)
Dim source As Uri
If Path.IsPathRoot ed(sourcePath) Then
source = New Uri(sourcePath)
Else
source = New Uri(root, sourcePath)
End If
Return source.Absolute Path.StartsWith (root.AbsoluteP ath)
End Function


Dim myDocuments As String =
Environment.Get FolderPath(Envi ronment.Special Folder.Personal ) & "\"c
Dim path1 As String = "D:\Documen ts and Settings\Jay\My
Documents\Visua l Studio Projects"
Dim path2 As String = "D:\Documen ts and Settings\dgk\My
Documents\Visua l Studio Projects"
Dim path3 As String = "D:\Documen ts and Settings\Jay\.. \Jay\My
Documents\Visua l Studio Projects"
Dim path4 As String = "Visual Studio Projects"

Debug.WriteLine (myDocuments, "My Documents")
Debug.WriteLine (IsRoot(myDocum ents, path1), path1)
Debug.WriteLine (IsRoot(myDocum ents, path2), path2)
Debug.WriteLine (IsRoot(myDocum ents, path3), path3)
Debug.WriteLine (IsRoot(myDocum ents, path4), path4)


Hope this helps
Jay


"dgk" <sonicechoes-spamless@zero-spam-hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:6mdte1hqh8 428sugce65fs5u3 u7sbguq32@4ax.c om...
| Is there some built in way to know whether a physical folder path is
| 'My Documents" for a specific user? I can always use xxx.StartsWith to
| compare it to the enumeration returned by the Personal folder, but it
| seems a bit inelegant.

[Jay B. Harlow [MVP - Outlook]]

Re: Physical vs Logical My Documents question

dgk,
| I check to see if the physical path returned begins with the physical
| My Documents path, and then show it as My Documents to the user.
| Nothing major, I've already written the trivial code to handle it but
Uri.MakeRelativ e will do that!

Try something like:

Dim myDocuments As New
Uri(Environment .GetFolderPath( Environment.Spe cialFolder.Pers onal), True)
Dim dialog As New SaveFileDialog
If dialog.ShowDial og() = DialogResult.OK Then
Dim toUri As New Uri(dialog.File Name, True)
MessageBox.Show (myDocuments.Ma keRelative(toUr i), "Safe As")
End If

Hope this helps
Jay



"dgk" <sonicechoes-spamless@hot-nospamp-mail.com> wrote in message
news:pmrue192oo dh4v9upupi42386 8dacs9vsl@4ax.c om...
| On Tue, 2 Aug 2005 02:40:42 -0400, "Ken Tucker [MVP]"
| <vb2ae@bellsout h.net> wrote:
|
| >Hi,
| >
| > Environment.Get FolderPath(Envi ronment.Special Folder.Personal )
| >returns the path to My Documents.
| >
| >Ken
| >-----------------
| >"dgk" <sonicechoes-spamless@zero-spam-hotmail.com> wrote in message
| >news:6mdte1hqh 8428sugce65fs5u 3u7sbguq32@4ax. com...
| >Is there some built in way to know whether a physical folder path is
| >'My Documents" for a specific user? I can always use xxx.StartsWith to
| >compare it to the enumeration returned by the Personal folder, but it
| >seems a bit inelegant.
| >
|
| Sorry, I should be more specific. I have the user pick the folder
| where a database will be kept, defaulting to "My Documents\Produ ctX",
| where ProductX is the name of my program. When FolderBrowserDi alog is
| used to have the user pick a folder, and they choose "My Documents",
| it returns the physical address as the SelectedPath, not "My
| Documents" which is what the user expects to see. So I don't want to
| subsequently show the physical location, I want to show "My
| Documents".
|
| I check to see if the physical path returned begins with the physical
| My Documents path, and then show it as My Documents to the user.
| Nothing major, I've already written the trivial code to handle it but
| it just seemed that there would be a built in function (oops, Shared
| Class method) that would deal with the physical vs logical
| implementation of the Special Folders.
|

[Jay B. Harlow [MVP - Outlook]]

Re: Physical vs Logical My Documents question

Doh!!

Here is a sample using the FolderBrowserDi alog:

Dim dialog As New FolderBrowserDi alog
If dialog.ShowDial og() = DialogResult.OK Then
Dim rootUri As New
Uri(Environment .GetFolderPath( dialog.RootFold er), True)
Dim toUri As New Uri(dialog.Sele ctedPath, True)
MessageBox.Show (rootUri.MakeRe lative(toUri), "Safe As")
End If

Notice that I use the FolderBrowserDi alog.RootFolder property to determine
the root path to make the relative path from.

Hope this helps
Jay

"dgk" <sonicechoes-spamless@hot-nospamp-mail.com> wrote in message
news:pmrue192oo dh4v9upupi42386 8dacs9vsl@4ax.c om...
| On Tue, 2 Aug 2005 02:40:42 -0400, "Ken Tucker [MVP]"
| <vb2ae@bellsout h.net> wrote:
|
| >Hi,
| >
| > Environment.Get FolderPath(Envi ronment.Special Folder.Personal )
| >returns the path to My Documents.
| >
| >Ken
| >-----------------
| >"dgk" <sonicechoes-spamless@zero-spam-hotmail.com> wrote in message
| >news:6mdte1hqh 8428sugce65fs5u 3u7sbguq32@4ax. com...
| >Is there some built in way to know whether a physical folder path is
| >'My Documents" for a specific user? I can always use xxx.StartsWith to
| >compare it to the enumeration returned by the Personal folder, but it
| >seems a bit inelegant.
| >
|
| Sorry, I should be more specific. I have the user pick the folder
| where a database will be kept, defaulting to "My Documents\Produ ctX",
| where ProductX is the name of my program. When FolderBrowserDi alog is
| used to have the user pick a folder, and they choose "My Documents",
| it returns the physical address as the SelectedPath, not "My
| Documents" which is what the user expects to see. So I don't want to
| subsequently show the physical location, I want to show "My
| Documents".
|
| I check to see if the physical path returned begins with the physical
| My Documents path, and then show it as My Documents to the user.
| Nothing major, I've already written the trivial code to handle it but
| it just seemed that there would be a built in function (oops, Shared
| Class method) that would deal with the physical vs logical
| implementation of the Special Folders.
|

[dgk]

Re: Physical vs Logical My Documents question

On Tue, 2 Aug 2005 13:13:12 -0500, "Jay B. Harlow [MVP - Outlook]"
<Jay_Harlow_MVP @msn.com> wrote:
[color=blue]
>dgk,
>In addition to the other comments.
>
>I was thinking that the System.Uri.Make Relative function might help. Which
>is not specifically what you want, but may give you an indication of what
>you want...
>...[/color]


OUCH! And I was thinking that my solution wasn't elegant. But this is
interesting stuff and I will investigate it. I hadn't thought about
the .. problem. I didn't realize that that could ever be returned by a
function. Always more to learn. Add URI to the list.