App.Path in VB.NET

[mp_direct]

Hi all,

I know VB.NET does not support App.Path, so i found this bit of code:

    Public Function App_Path() As String
        Return System.AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory()
    End Function

its instructions say copy and Unlike app.path in vb6, this includes the the "\" at the end of the value.

I dont understand what it mean by "\", can anyone advise?

[Phil Weber]

In VB6, App.Path only includes a backslash (\) at the end of the path if the app is running in the root directory of the drive. That is, if the app is running in the root directory of drive C:, App.Path returns "C:\". If, on the other hand, the app is running in C:\Program Files\My App, App.Path returns "C:\Program Files\My App" (no backslash at the end). Because of this discrepancy, you need to check for the presence of a trailing backslash before appending a file name to the path.

Your VB.NET App_Path function returns a trailing backslash in all cases -- "C:\" or "C:\Program Files\My App\" -- so you may simply append a file name without checking for a backslash.

[JBourgeois]

The "real" replacement for App.Path is the following:

Application.ExecutablePath

VB.NET also offers a second option that returns the working directory at the start of the application:

Application.StartupPath

Going through the AppDomain works most of the time, but an AppDomain and an Application are not the same, and in some cases, the code you used could link to something else than the directory you are looking for.

[Schleck68]

The replacement Application.ExecutablePath delivers the path of the executable, but not of the dll. If you need the path of the dll that was called as an addin inside of an application (to read config files or whatever) you have to do it this way:

Module modAppInfos
    Public Function App_Path() As String
        App_Path = CStr(Nothing)
        App_Path = System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly.GetName().CodeBase
        If StrComp(LCase(Left(App_Path, 8)), "file:///") = 0 Then
            App_Path = Mid(App_Path, 9) 'file:/// entsorgen
        End If
        App_Path = StripFileName(App_Path)
    End Function
End Module

[softgoodsint]

Just a quick "Thank You" as this answered my question/solved my problem. However, to provide a bit further info, in VB.NET 2002 at least (net 1.1) I found that Application.ExecutablePath was not useful, as it had not only the path, but included the executable file name as well, which I would have had to strip, however, the other suggestion: Application.StartupPath worked perfectly.
Thanks

[JBourgeois]

Glad to help.

A little trick that, once again, shows that a lot of things are simpler than they might appear at first sight. You can easily strip the file name from a full name to retrieve only the path:

App_Path = New System.IO.FileInfo(Application.ExecutablePath).DirectoryName

[softgoodsint]

Again, thank you JBourgeois,
The technique using ".DirectoryName" was a very nice approach that I was completely unaware of (not suprising as I'm rather new to .NET - I was a "crusty" VB6'er for far too long ~8^D). I don't know how many times I've done the 'ol "instr" searching for the last "\" and fussing the path from a full file spec string.

Best Regards
John Andrews

[Ron Weller]

Glad to help.

A little trick that, once again, shows that a lot of things are simpler than they might appear at first sight. You can easily strip the file name from a full name to retrieve only the path:

App_Path = New System.IO.FileInfo(Application.ExecutablePath).DirectoryName

One quick question! Why are you using 'New' ?
If FileInfo().DirectoryName returns a string and App_Path is a string then why would you need the 'New' in this statement?

[Ron Weller]

Thank you! I will check it out.