Question

File.Exists() trouble in NUnit vs. Debug Mode (VWD 2008 Express)

Asked by: peh803

When I execute the code below within a [Test] method from NUnit, using File.Exists() with a relative path resolves to the "bin" directory of my application.  

However, when I run the web application in debug mode, File.Exists() is looking in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE

Why is this happening?  How do I tell the web application to look in my local application's "bin" directory?  

Thank you for the assistance.

Regards,
Phil

public void DeleteAndRegenerateFile()
        {
            string path = "myFile.txt";
            if (File.Exists(path))
            {
                File.Delete(path);
            }
            SaveNewFile(path);
}

                                  
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Asked On
2009-05-26 at 09:10:22ID24438591
Tags

.Net 3.5 MVC 1.0 File.Exists

Topics

C# Programming Language

,

.NET

,

Programming for ASP.NET

Participating Experts
1
Points
500
Comments
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Answers

 

by: ApexCoPosted on 2009-05-26 at 09:33:44ID: 24474882

Server.MapPath("~/bin") can directly get the private bin dir of the current running asp.net application.

 

by: peh803Posted on 2009-05-26 at 09:39:02ID: 24474953

This is a perfect method to get what I need from the view tier (aspx).  How can I get access to this from within a controller or domain class?  Don't want to break MVC ...

I need a more generic way to get the path to bin so I can make sure I'm looking there from within my web application as well as within execution of my NUnit TestFixtures.

Thanks again,
Phil

 

by: peh803Posted on 2009-05-26 at 09:41:42ID: 24474977

Directory.GetCurrentDirectory() from the view at runtime returns C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE.  I believe this is why File.Exists() is looking there.  

It looks like I can change the current working directory like this: Environment.CurrentDirectory = (target);

I just need a way to dynamically retrieve the bin directory just as you've shown above, but that's not tied to the Page object.

Thanks,
Phil

 

by: ApexCoPosted on 2009-05-26 at 10:19:54ID: 24475350

I'm not 100% sure on the MVC stuff, still learning it. I did watch a screencast on it though and they used this to map a relative URL.

System.Web.VirtualPathUtility.ToAbsolute("~/aPath/");

I'm not sure if that's what you are looking for though.

 

by: peh803Posted on 2009-05-26 at 11:41:30ID: 24476162

Thanks -- good to know about VirtualPathUtility.  I can see how that would become VERY useful.

Unfortunately, it doesn't help me with my nunit tests, so it didn't totally solve my problem.  The code below is the best I've been able to do as of now.

The reason I have to put in the "if ((binPath.EndsWith..." stuff is that when the web application is executed, System.AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory resolves to the project's base directory, whereas when I'm running in nunit, it goes to my bin directory.  I'm sure there's a better way to do this, and this is possibly error-prone, but it's the best I've found for now.

A+ for the help and inspiration as I worked towards a solution -- thanks very much.

Regards,
Phil

        public static string GetBinPath()
        {
            string binPath = System.AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory;
 
            if ((binPath.EndsWith("bin\\") == false) && (binPath.Trim().EndsWith("bin") == false))
            {
                binPath = string.Concat(binPath, "bin\\");
            }
            return binPath;
        }

                                              
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by: peh803Posted on 2009-05-26 at 11:42:32ID: 31585368

Thanks again for the help!

 

by: ApexCoPosted on 2009-05-26 at 11:55:16ID: 24476274

Sorry it wasn't a complete success.

I'll keep looking around and if I find anything out I'll update here.


Thanks.

 

by: peh803Posted on 2009-05-26 at 11:57:31ID: 24476297

I appreciate it very much.  For now, I've got bigger fish to fry, so I'll go with my hack method and refactor it later.

Regards,
Phil

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