XP, Vista, Choosing where to save rev files

[Jim Ault]

On Sep 12, 2009, at 6:17 AM, Richard Gaskin wrote:

> sims wrote:
>> If I let a Windows user choose via dialog where my app creates and   
>> saves a rev file, will any folders that can be chosen by the user  
>> be  accessible to the rev app when it goes to open that file again?
>> I'm a bit worried about users choosing to save the file into a  
>> folder  that Vista will then not allow the rev app to open that file.
>> Maybe I'm being overly paranoid  ;-)   But Vista seems a bit cranky.
>
> Vista *is* cranky, but I've had good results as long as I stick to  
> folders within the user space.
> You can direct the user to their Documents folder by specifying the  
> path there in the ask file dialog, using the specialFolderPath  
> function:
>
>  ask file "Save file as:" with specialFolderPath("Documents")
>
> That's no guarantee the user won't switch to a more troublesome  
> folder, but in my experience many Windows users tend to stick to  
> whatever folder you prompt them to.
You could use a conditional loop and test, such as

on testValidity
    put false into successful
    put "itty bitty string" into stringToWrite

    repeat until successful is true
       ask file "Save file as: " with specialFolderPath("Documents")
       put it into userChoice
       if it is empty then exit to top -- user cancelled

       put stringToWrite into url ("file:" & userChoice)
       put url ("file:" & userChoice) into gotItBack
       if gotItBack is not empty then put true into successful
       --else user chose a file and path that could not be used
       --  either the filename is invalid or the folder or both
    end repeat
    --if we get here, we can use the folder and file name
    ... more steps
end testValidity

Jim Ault
Las Vegas