Common writable folders

[J. Landman Gay]

Richard Gaskin wrote:
> J. Landman Gay wrote:
> 
>> Richard Gaskin wrote:
>>> I have an app which will be for Mac and Win, and maybe Linux down the 
>>> road, in which I need to store some data in a folder which needs to 
>>> be writable by all users.
>>>
>>> Both Mac and Win provide common folders for reading data:
>>>
>>>   Mac  /HD/System Folder/Application Support
>>>   Win  C:/Documents and Settings/All Users/Application Data
>>>
>>> ...but in my testing here only users with admin privileges can write 
>>> to those folders. :(
>>>
>>> What is the OS-recommended place to store common data which can be 
>>> written by any user? 
>>
>> I had exactly the same problem with a currently-shipping app. I'm 
>> writing app-specific data to the two folders you mention above. The 
>> only way we could work around it was to wrap our app in an OS-approved 
>> installer and have the installer set the permissions for our 
>> application support folder to allow access by everyone. The app 
>> support/app data folders don't need their permissions reset; only your 
>> own standalone-specific folder has to be set. For Mac OS X, we used 
>> Apple's package installer. On Windows, most any installer will do this 
>> for you.
> 
> Thanks for the input, Jacque.
> 
> But now I wonder:  Is there a way to do this from within a custom 
> Rev-based installer?   How does one trigger the OS X authentication dialog?
> 

Well, that's the deal. I couldn't find a way to do that without using 
Apple's installer. Most users wouldn't trust a home-made dialog that 
asks for their admin password; they want to see the "official" one. 
Ergo, package installer time.

Our app is a very simple one-file thing that can easily be dragged to 
the Applications folder.  The only reason we needed an installer was for 
the writable permissions problem. I have to admit though, it does lend a 
great deal of professionality when you use an OS-native installer. 
People trust your stuff more.

-- 
Jacqueline Landman Gay         |     jacque at hyperactivesw.com
HyperActive Software           |     http://www.hyperactivesw.com