I'm using the software Inno Setup in order to create an installer for my program, this installs the program to the C:\ProgramFiles(x86) folder, so Im linking my database connection to this new folder, however it won't let me link it as it says I don't have permission.
I am unsure of how to combat this error, as the database is the key part of my program and without it my program wont work.
Putting a database under C:\Program Files or C:\Program Files (x86) is not a good idea. Non-admin users don't have write access to those folder, and you should never give write access to it.
To be Windows conformant, you have two possibilities:
When your program starts the first time, copy a template database to the user's profile under %AppData%\companyname\prgname and use that from now on.
if you need different users to work on the same database, put the database under %ProgramData%\companyname\prgname instead, and don't forget to give user's write access to that folder.
Related
I need to store some temporary files from my program sometimes, currently I use the AppData path which works. However, I have just been trying my program on a non Admin (guest) account on Windows. This is resulting in errors because Windows is refusing me access to the AppData folder.
What would be the most ideal path to use instead of AppData, that even a user with the lowest permissions can use?
I tried Googling this one because I am sure I have seen an article on the Microsoft website that lists the different paths and requirements needed but I can't find it.
Thanks
If you want to store temporary files then use a sub-folder in the temporary directory. Use GetTempPath to find out where this is.
Note that on all modern versions of Windows, this folder is a per-user folder and is not shared between different users. If you want a location that is shared between all users then you need the CSIDL_COMMON_APPDATA folder. However, as you have discovered, standard users do not have rights to write in the folder. The standard approach is for the installation program to create a sub-folder with a permissive ACL that allows sufficient write access for standard users.
I have a little problem with my application. Application stores a SQLite database in C:\ProgramData\ProgramName\ folder on first run. I wanted to test if I delete the database, can application create a new database. On startup, I check if file exists using FileExists(filename) function from SysUtils. But it returns always True, even if I deleted the ProgramName folder.
If I use another folder (for example %AppData%), then it's all OK.
What I'm missing here? Why FileExists function returns always True?
Standard users (and that includes administrators when UAC is active) do not have delete rights to that location.
You need to find a different location to store the file if you need standard users to be able to delete it.
Given that I am executing an EXE file (D2006 app) on a machine across the network, how can I get the pathname to the commondocs folder on that machine, given that the EXE might have been invoked from a UNC shortcut or a mapped drive letter shortcut, and the platform of the remote machine is not necessarily known (but will be >= WinXP)?
The situation is where the client has a large number of dispersed machines, and they can't be bothered installing my app on all the PC's. So what they do is install the executable somewhere on the network and give everybody a shortcut to that. This already seems to suit them fine and there are no issues there.
At their request, I made the app read the settings from an INI file placed in the same folder as the executable. I can only assume they have configured things so that all the users can write to that folder so that the INI file can be saved back.
However, I want to change it so that the INI file is read and saved to somewhere in the commondocs folder tree on the remote machine, so that they don't need to provide write access to a Program files folder.
The machine that's running your program is the only machine you have access to. The machine where your program is stored is irrelevant. It's just a disk drive. It might not be running Windows. It might even be a NAS that's hardly running anything at all.
If the customer wants the common-documents folder of the file server to act as the common-documents folder for everyone on all the client systems, then get the sysadmin to configure a shared folder on the server and then configure the clients to use that remote folder as their common-documents folder. There is no special programming required on your part for that.
To get the common-documents folder of the machine your program is running on, you can call any of various API functions, including ShGetFolderPath. The CSIDL value you need is CSIDL_COMMON_DOCUMENTS. If you call SHGetKnownFolderPath instead, use FOLDERID_PublicDocuments.
I am working on an internal application. We have a website that displays all our SSRS reports for a group of work. I have been asked to see if I can link all the files (pdf, word, excel) for the group of work. These files are stored on a file server that users viewing the reports have access to. Each group has its own group of reports and shared files.
Is it possible to open the files (without downloading them) from a webpage? Meaning that they file is opened from the file server? I don't want people to download a copy of the file.
I am pretty sure this can work with IE because sharepoint does it. However, other browsers may have an issue.
EDIT: What I would like is to have a web page with links to the files. When they click on a link (say for a word doc), word will open the file that resides on the file server. Without out a local copy downloaded from the network share.
EDIT2: Please note, I know what I am asking is probably not possible in all browsers. I am more or less just making sure. It seems possible in IE using activeX, but out side of that browsers do a good job at keeping processes inside a sandbox.
3 options. Remember this is for an internal website.
link to the share using file://. This will have the side affect of downloading the file to be viewed. As long as user clicks open every time it should not be a big deal.
Use JavaScript and activeX to open word (excel, reader, ect) passing in the file path as a command line arguments. This works only in IE and in win7 (probably vista) user will get a pop up asking if it is ok for the activeX control to run.
Create a new protocol. openfile://. This would be set up to run an application that is installed on the client machine which would open the file. Since it is internal, the application could be installed on the machines without issues. This also requires a registry change.
I haven't picked one as this change is still being looked into but i figure I would update this in case someone runs into something similar.
I have an ASP.NET MVC website that works in tandem with a Windows Service that processes file uploads. For easy maintenance of the site, I'd like the log file for the Windows Service to be accessible (to me, only) via the website, so that I can hit http://myserver/logs/myservice to view the contents of the log file. How can I do that?
At a guess, I could either have the service write its log file in a "Logs" folder at the top level of the site, or I could leave it where it is and set up a virtual directory to point to it. Which of these is better - or is there another, better way?
Wherever the file is stored, I can see that there's going to be another problem. I tried out the first option (Logs folder in my website), but when I try to access the file via HTTP I get an error:
The process cannot access the file 'foo' because it is being used by another process.
Now, I know from experience that my service keeps the file locked for writing while it's running, but that I can still open the file in Notepad to view the current contents. (I'm surprised that IIS insists on write access, if that's what's happening).
How can I get around that? Do I really have to write a handler to read the file and serve it to the browser myself? Or can I fix this with configuration or somesuch?
PS. I'm using IIS7 if that helps.
Unfortunately I'm afraid you'll have to write a handler that will open the file, and return it to the client.
I've written an IIS Manager extension that displays server log files, and what I've noticed that even the simple
System.IO.File.OpenRead("")
can still run in the same problem, and return the same error.. It was kind of confusing.
In the end I used
System.IO.File.Open("", FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read, FileShare.ReadWrite)
and I could easily open the file while the server was writing logs to it :)
I think the virtual directory is an "okay" solution, if you add the directory (application) with READ ONLY rights + perhaps "BROWSE directory" too (so you can see the folder contents rendered by the IIS).
(But once you do that, you should consider that you also anonymous access to that folder - unless you enable authentication, so watch out for "secret" contents of the logfiles that you might expose? just a thought.)
Another approach, I prefer myself, is to make a MVC/ASP.NET page that does the lookup in the folder by normal code, so that you 100% can filter whatever data is shown in the HTML.
You can open the files as TextStream's and in Read Only mode.
If it's a problem to gain access to the logfolder, I would use the virtual directory with READ ONLY access and then program something that renders the logfiles as HTML on my screen and with my detail levels. Perhaps even add some sort of "login" first. But it all depends on your security levels and contents of logfiles.
is this meaningfull to you? if not, please explain more, as I've been through this thought a few times already for similar situations.