OpenFileDialog and SaveFileDialog [modified]

[Dave Kreskowiak]

This is problably because you're not using fully qualified paths in your code or your using CurrentDirectory in it. You should ALWAYS build fully qualified paths to files in your code to avoid this very problem. Also, using CurrentDirectory to build a path name is not a good idea because all of the File dialog's change what the current directory is and, therefore, can inadventantly change your file paths if they are not built properly.

A guide to posting questions on CodeProject[^]
Dave Kreskowiak Microsoft MVP Visual Developer - Visual Basic
     2006, 2007, 2008

[Spacix One]

You beat me to it :( It looks like your are using what Microsoft calls the "working directory" which is the last directory your program accessed and can even be changed when a .lnk file is made to your application. If you just do something like

XmlDocument xmlDoc = new XmlDocument();
xmlDoc.LoadXML("<rootnode><subnode /></rootnode>");
xmlDoc.Save("myXMLfile.xml");

it'll spit the XML file out where the last "working directory" is set. You can read where your working at with the Directory.GetCurrentDirectory() method. When you open something say in the same folder as your application. Use the string property "StartUpPath" "System.Windows.Forms.Application" class or hook the current process and get the image path and call an Environment.GetFolderPath() on the fill path and filename.

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-Spacix All your skynet questions[^] belong to solved

[Matthew Butler 0]

If it helps... OpenFileDialog and SaveFileDialog have a RestoreDirectory property... if true, it restores the chosen directory when the dialog closes. (The 'restored' directory is the InitialDirectory). I don't know if that is what you mean.

Matthew Butler

[Dave Kreskowiak]

I wonder, while navigating a FileDialog on the UI thread, if the current directory changes on a background thread BEFORE the dialog closes and returns from RestoreDirectory?? Hmmm, something I'll have to test when I get some free time.

A guide to posting questions on CodeProject[^]
Dave Kreskowiak Microsoft MVP Visual Developer - Visual Basic
     2006, 2007, 2008

[cocoonwls]

Hi Dave, what is your mean by "fully qualify path"?Can you please give an example? Spanix, thanks for you reply,i will try it :) Matthew, isn't if i use the restoredirectory after OpenFileDialog, the path will get back to original path?

[Dave Kreskowiak]

Full drive and path specification:

C:\Program Files\CompanyName\AppName\SomeFolder\SomeFile.txt

A guide to posting questions on CodeProject[^]
Dave Kreskowiak Microsoft MVP Visual Developer - Visual Basic
     2006, 2007, 2008

[cocoonwls]

Hi Matthew, Its work great to me.Now after i openfiledialog, it will restore the original path for me.Thanks :laugh: regard cocoon

[cocoonwls]

Hi Dave, Thanks for fast reply.I will try it :) (I have been solve the problem by using matthew's suggestion)

[darkelv]

It's still good and future proof to use full path for the database in case next time other people use OpenFileDialog and didn't set the restore flag.

[Spacix One]

I seem to recall there is even a method that can convert a relative path such as "..\afolder\blah.txt" into a fully qualified path. It's in System.IO I think, I'll edit my post when I remember the method name. Edit: here it is: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.io.path.getfullpath(VS.80).aspx[^]

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-Spacix All your skynet questions[^] belong to solved

modified on Saturday, April 19, 2008 2:43 PM