howto let vbasic automatically search for a given datbase name for my application?

[mjvnotch]

Hi!

I'm curious if is it possible to let Vbasic 6.0 search for a given database name to open?

i.e.

instead of using ("c:\windows\myfolder\vbasic\codes\billings.mdb") which could be a problem if i'll use the application on another computer requiring me to place the billings.mdb on the same directory structure as specified on my source code.

It would be neat if there's a way to just let a vbasic application search for a given file on the system it currently runs on.

Anybody know of such a trick? or say magic?

[mattbrown]

I Believe that there is an API function by the name of SearchPath that will search your file system for a certain path.

You'll have to check up on that though.

I have this problem and use an alternative solution though. My Program accesses a database that is shared between the users of the app so it is usually on a network drive accessible to all users and some of the computers map that to different drive names than others.
To combat this I store the path name to the file in registry and then concatenate this with the database name at startup to form my connection string.

The program checks at startup (using the dir()) function to see if the db exists at the location specified in the registry and if it doesn't prompts the user to enter the path

Hope This Helps, Feel free to give me a call if you need more information.

Regards

[Chris]

Found this @ http://www.allapi.net

'Create a form with a command button (command1), a list box (list1)
'and four text boxes (text1, text2, text3 and text4).
'Type in the first textbox a startingpath like c:\
'and in the second textbox you put a pattern like *.* or *.txt

Private Declare Function FindFirstFile Lib "kernel32" Alias "FindFirstFileA" (ByVal lpFileName As String, lpFindFileData As WIN32_FIND_DATA) As Long
Private Declare Function FindNextFile Lib "kernel32" Alias "FindNextFileA" (ByVal hFindFile As Long, lpFindFileData As WIN32_FIND_DATA) As Long
Private Declare Function GetFileAttributes Lib "kernel32" Alias "GetFileAttributesA" (ByVal lpFileName As String) As Long
Private Declare Function FindClose Lib "kernel32" (ByVal hFindFile As Long) As Long

Const MAX_PATH = 260
Const MAXDWORD = &HFFFF
Const INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE = -1
Const FILE_ATTRIBUTE_ARCHIVE = &H20
Const FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY = &H10
Const FILE_ATTRIBUTE_HIDDEN = &H2
Const FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL = &H80
Const FILE_ATTRIBUTE_READONLY = &H1
Const FILE_ATTRIBUTE_SYSTEM = &H4
Const FILE_ATTRIBUTE_TEMPORARY = &H100

Private Type FILETIME
    dwLowDateTime As Long
    dwHighDateTime As Long
End Type

Private Type WIN32_FIND_DATA
    dwFileAttributes As Long
    ftCreationTime As FILETIME
    ftLastAccessTime As FILETIME
    ftLastWriteTime As FILETIME
    nFileSizeHigh As Long
    nFileSizeLow As Long
    dwReserved0 As Long
    dwReserved1 As Long
    cFileName As String * MAX_PATH
    cAlternate As String * 14
End Type
Function StripNulls(OriginalStr As String) As String
    If (InStr(OriginalStr, Chr(0)) > 0) Then
        OriginalStr = Left(OriginalStr, InStr(OriginalStr, Chr(0)) - 1)
    End If
    StripNulls = OriginalStr
End Function

Function FindFilesAPI(path As String, SearchStr As String, FileCount As Integer, DirCount As Integer)
    'KPD-Team 1999
    'E-Mail: [email protected]

    Dim FileName As String ' Walking filename variable...
    Dim DirName As String ' SubDirectory Name
    Dim dirNames() As String ' Buffer for directory name entries
    Dim nDir As Integer ' Number of directories in this path
    Dim i As Integer ' For-loop counter...
    Dim hSearch As Long ' Search Handle
    Dim WFD As WIN32_FIND_DATA
    Dim Cont As Integer
    If Right(path, 1) <> "\" Then path = path & "\"
    ' Search for subdirectories.
    nDir = 0
    ReDim dirNames(nDir)
    Cont = True
    hSearch = FindFirstFile(path & "*", WFD)
    If hSearch <> INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE Then
        Do While Cont
        DirName = StripNulls(WFD.cFileName)
        ' Ignore the current and encompassing directories.
        If (DirName <> ".") And (DirName <> "..") Then
            ' Check for directory with bitwise comparison.
            If GetFileAttributes(path & DirName) And FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY Then
                dirNames(nDir) = DirName
                DirCount = DirCount + 1
                nDir = nDir + 1
                ReDim Preserve dirNames(nDir)
            End If
        End If
        Cont = FindNextFile(hSearch, WFD) 'Get next subdirectory.
        Loop
        Cont = FindClose(hSearch)
    End If
    ' Walk through this directory and sum file sizes.
    hSearch = FindFirstFile(path & SearchStr, WFD)
    Cont = True
    If hSearch <> INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE Then
        While Cont
            FileName = StripNulls(WFD.cFileName)
            If (FileName <> ".") And (FileName <> "..") Then
                FindFilesAPI = FindFilesAPI + (WFD.nFileSizeHigh * MAXDWORD) + WFD.nFileSizeLow
                FileCount = FileCount + 1
                List1.AddItem path & FileName
            End If
            Cont = FindNextFile(hSearch, WFD) ' Get next file
        Wend
        Cont = FindClose(hSearch)
    End If
    ' If there are sub-directories...
    If nDir > 0 Then
        ' Recursively walk into them...
        For i = 0 To nDir - 1
            FindFilesAPI = FindFilesAPI + FindFilesAPI(path & dirNames(i) & "\", SearchStr, FileCount, DirCount)
        Next i
    End If
End Function
Sub Command1_Click()
    Dim SearchPath As String, FindStr As String
    Dim FileSize As Long
    Dim NumFiles As Integer, NumDirs As Integer
    Screen.MousePointer = vbHourglass
    List1.Clear
    SearchPath = Text1.Text
    FindStr = Text2.Text
    FileSize = FindFilesAPI(SearchPath, FindStr, NumFiles, NumDirs)
    Text3.Text = NumFiles & " Files found in " & NumDirs + 1 & " Directories"
    Text4.Text = "Size of files found under " & SearchPath & " = " & Format(FileSize, "#,###,###,##0") & " Bytes"
    Screen.MousePointer = vbDefault
End Sub