From the July 2010 Issue of Prestwood eMag

Paradox OPAL: Commands: Finding the Path of a File By Mike Prestwood

Posted 16 years ago on 6/3/2008 Take Away: ObjectPAL example where user selects a file and you extract the path. KB101147

With the FileSystem commands, you can change your working directory, manipulate files on a disk, get the time and date from a file, and so on.

Suppose that you want to add a routine to a button that opens up the Paradox browser, browse for a file, select a file, and place its full path in a field. (This task is harder than it should be.)

Step By Step

1. Create a new form with a field and a button on it. Name the field fldFile and label the button Browse (see Figure 2).

2. In the pushButton event, type lines 3--23.

 1: ;Button :: pushButton

 2: method pushButton(var eventInfo Event)

 3: var

 4:   sFilename  String

 5:   fbi  FileBrowserInfo

 6: endVar

 7:

 8: if fileBrowser(sFileName, fbi) then

 9: ;A File was selected.

10:else;If no file is selected,

11:  return  ;then return.

12:endIf

13:

14:  ;Find path of file.

15:  switch

16:  case isDir(fbi.alias)

17:    : fldFile.value = fbi.alias + fbi.path + sFilename

18:  case sFilename.subStr(1,6) = ":PRIV:"

19:    : sFilename = sFilename.subStr(7, sFilename.size() - 6)

20:    fldFile.value = getAliasPath(":PRIV:") + "\\" + sFilename

21:  otherwise

22:    : fldFile.value = getAliasPath(fbi.alias) + "\\" + fbi.path + sFilename

23:   endSwitch

24: endMethod

3. Check the syntax, save the form as FINDPATH.FSL, and run it. Click the Browse button and choose a file. Try choosing files from the current working directory and from another directory using an alias.

In step 2, lines 3--6 declare an sFilename string variable to receive the name of the file in line 8 and an fbi FileBrowserInfo variable for use with fileBrowser(), also in line 8. Lines 15--23 determine the path of the file.

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KB Post Contributed By Mike Prestwood:

Mike Prestwood is a drummer, an author, and creator of the PrestwoodBoards online community. He is the President & CEO of Prestwood IT Solutions. Prestwood IT provides Coding, Website, and Computer Tech services. Mike has authored 6 computer books and over 1,200 articles. As a drummer, he maintains play-drums.com and has authored 3 drum books. If you have a project you wish to discuss with Mike, you can send him a private message through his PrestwoodBoards home page or call him 9AM to 4PM PST at 916-726-5675 x205. Visit Profile