Develop Reference

Reading and existing file in Xamarin withC#

This code works:
string file = Path.Combine(Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.LocalApplicationData), "File.text");
File.ReadAllText(file);
Pretty straight-forward, but when I display the variable "file" using a Pizel 5 simulator I get a weird path: /data/user/0/com.companyname.aikidohours/files/.local/share/File.text. I can write new data to the file and read from it. but I now want to read from an existing file and I can't figure out where to put the file. Can someone tell where to put a text file full of basic information that I need to read from in Xamarin for adnroid?
Thanks
Todd

If you want to deploy that file with your application, you can add it to the 'Assets' folder inside your_project_name.Android project.
WARNING!!! File put in this folder are READONLY!
In case this is ok for you,this is the code to access the file:
using Xamarin.Essentials;
using (var reader = new StreamReader(await FileSystem.OpenAppPackageFileAsync("file_path")))
{
string content = reader.ReadToEnd();
}

Check if a file has been written to in Android

I have a question about Android programming. Basically, I am unsure of where to check where my file is, and if I wrote to it correctly. I want to locate where the file is, and I also want to know whether or not I wrote to it correctly. Below is the code I have come up with:
String lsNow = "testing";
try {
fos = openFileOutput("output.txt", Context.MODE_APPEND);
fos.write(lsNow.getBytes());
fos.close();
}
catch{
...
}
Where can I find output.txt? Might anyone know how to check this all out? if so, that would be great! I am using an emulator by the way. If I were to do this on a real Android, how would one approach this also? (Just for future reference)

You Test it in Two ways
Using File Explorer
Go to DDMS perspective--> Open File Explorer-->location of the file
Pragrammatically by using exits() method
File file = new File(context.getFilesDir(), filename);
if(file.exists())

Using openFileOutput(...) means the file will be written to internal storage on the Android device in an area which is secure from access by other apps.
If you want to make sure the file is written correctly then make sure your catch block handles any failures (if it is called then the file writing has failed).
To access the file once it has been written use openFileInput(...).

FileNotFoundException in an Android app: can't find the route to copy the file

Good afternoon everyone,
I'm having a problem here with an CSV file that I wanna use to fill a dynamic table in Android.
I placed the file in the "data" folder of my emulator, and I did the following declaration to create my file variable:
file = new File("/data/Motors.csv");
I used a CSVReader class posted on another thread from this page (Link to the class) and also declared the following line to do the parse:
readerCSV = new CSVReader(new FileReader(file),';','"',0);
In the last line, the programmer to be able to create the variable has to send as parameters a Reader (Or a FileReader, it doesn't make a difference), the separator char, the quote char and the number of how many lines the CSV reader has to skip.
The problem comes that no matter in which directory (Not even in the root directory, which Java tells me that it's "/" through the file.getAbsolutePath(); method) it always gets to the point when the program throws the FileNotFoundException and I'm getting a bit frustrated because I have 2 days already with this problem.
If someone could please help me to get a bit of orientation of what I should do to get the file from the right directory... It would be a lot of help and I can go further with the code I have to finish.
Many thanks in advance!!!!
EDIT
I found a solution to open my file:
I have used 2 file variables: one gets the rout of the External Storage Directory (see first answer in the following link) and the other is declared as a new file, like the following lines in the code:
route = Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory();
file = new File(route,"Motors.csv");
Later I used again the CSV reader class that I found, where the first parameter is from the FileReader type (Sorry #Rajesh, but I couldn't use your alternative because you passed a FileDescription parameter from the AssetManager to the CSV reader class and then I had to change the whole class and that didn't help my problem at all).
Now I don't get the exception at all!!

There are various Storage Options in Android. Files can be stored in internal and external storages. If the CSV file is a static resource, you could think of bundling the file in the "assets" folder of your project.
If you are using the "assets" route, the following code segment can get you a CSVReader.
AssetManager am = getAssets();
AssetFileDescriptor afd = am.openFd ("Motors.csv");
FileDescriptor fd = afd.getFileDescriptor();
readerCSV = new CSVReader(fd, ';','"',0);
The above code snippet doesn't perform error/exception handling, please remember to take care of that. You need to copy the Motors.csv file to the "assets" folder within the project.

Accessing an app's project files on the Android platform

So in my Eclipse android project I have a pdf file that I'd like to open, I looked up the standard address on the android developer's page and I came up with this pointer:
File file = new File("Android/data/com.alex.testing.app/res/raw/jazz.pdf");
where jazz.pdf is situated in res->raw in my eclipse project,
and com.alex.testing is my package name.
Still, when I try if(file.exists()) , the function returns false (on the emulator it goes to an else I've set up to display an error message)...
Sorry for the newbie question, but I'm really stuck with this :(.

put the file in assets folder and pick the file from there
Now use Context.getAssets().open("jazz.pdf") and pass the resulting InputStream into PDf parser library

Ok, to access resources from current application you can use something like,
Uri path = Uri.parse("android.resource://<you package>/raw/<your_file.pdf>");
OR
Uri path = Uri.parse("android.resource://" + getPackageName() + "/" R.raw.<your_file.pdf>);
But I have a doubt if you are trying to use this pdf file in your application then its OK, but If you want to view this file using any third party application then I think you can't do it.
Because external application can't access application's package resources file.
So better way it to put this file in /asset directory then copy it to any public access area then view that file from that path.

//if your are stored in SDcard your location would be
"data/data/com.alex.testing/res/raw/jazz.pdf"
//you read resources from raw folder thru the below code
InputStream inputStream = getResources().openRawResource(R.raw.jazz);
byte[] reader = new byte[inputStream.available()];

android: Check the existence of a file in the application

I have few html files in assets folder of my application. My application loads these files depending on the device language. When I check for the existance of the file it say does not exist, but when I load that file using browser.loadUrl(filename), it loads it fine.
Following code will help you to understand my problem:
String filename="file:///android_asset/actualfilemname.html";
File f = new File(filename);
if(!f.exist){
filename = "file:///android_asset/newfile.html";[Everytime it loads this file even though I have actualfilename.html in the folder]
}
browser.loadUrl(filename);
[it loads the newfile.html but not actualfilename.html]

You can't use File for resources. You'll need to use the AssetManager for that.
(In the off-chance that File does handle resources, which I don't think it does, you'll have to convert the path to a URI first, for example using URI.create(). File(String) expects a path, not a URI.)

Is this the exact code you are using? you probably want to be calling f.exists() not filename.exist().
Edit: try working with the AssetManager instead of hard coding your file path. My best guess is that the file path you are using is not exactly how it supposed to be.