Android Filing System using LC9

[J. Landman Gay]

On 10/30/17 4:26 AM, Peter Reid via use-livecode wrote:

> 2. The internal storage area pointed to by specialFolderPath("documents") is Read-Write (RW) and can be used as such. However, the path returned by "documents" is INCORRECT:
> 
> 	/data/data/com.reidit.aphtrain/files
> 
> The correct path should be:
> 
> 	/Android/data/com.reidit.aphtrain/files

Not exactly; both are correct. There are two different types of 
documents folders; one is app-specific and private to the app. The other 
is the public documents folder you can see in a file manager on the 
device. The specialFolderPath("documents") points to the private 
app-specific folder and is correct. SpecialFolderPath("external 
documents") points to the public documents directory.

> 
> If I replace the leading "data" with "Android", the path works fully with RW access.

This path points to the general documents folder that other apps can 
see. It should be the same as specialFolderPath("external documents").

> 
> 3. If I pre-load files & folders onto a microSD card on my computer, I have to place them in a path such as:
> 
> 	/Android/com.reidit.aphtrain/<files & folders>
> 
> Such files & folders are Read-Only in the tablet and accessible using the following path:
> 
> 	/storage/sdcard1/Android/com.reidit.aphtrain/<files & folders>
> 
> It seems that Android 5 or later (FireOS 5 in my case) locks down SD cards. They used to be fully RW but are now treated as mainly RO apart from an area for the app to use. If I get the path from specialFolderPath("external documents"), the path gives me Read-Write access to the following area:
> 
> 	/storage/emulated/0/Android/data/com.reidit.aphtrain/files/<files & folders>
> 
> During the running of the app, the above path works fully for RW access but doesn't show any of the pre-loaded files & folders.  However, If I connect the microSD card to my computer again, this area is NOT VISIBLE!

If you are on a Mac, I believe you need special software to access 
documents. I know Samsung provides their KIES software for that. I'm not 
sure how Windows handles it.

I'm not sure whether FireOS is representative of all versions of Android 
OS. Amazon did some heavy customization of their OS so the rules they 
use may not be the same as pure Android OS. I don't have a Fire tablet 
but if you can get ahold of a different Android device it would be 
interesting to see if this behavior is universal.

> Also, specialFolderPath("documents") seems to have a BUG as it delivers the wrong path (in LC 9.0.0-dp9/10).

See above. The path is correct for the app's virtual folder.


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