special folders

[Peter T. Evensen]

Hello Sadhu,

The user folder is a common place for applications to install files.  
Users should have read/write access to it.  That may not be true for the 
rest of the local hard drive.  Schools, in particular, like to lock 
things down.  Using the user's application data folder lets 
administrators limit rights to the rest of the drive.

On the Mac, certain things are expected to go to certain places, like 
preferences.  The special folders allow you to get that folder.  In some 
cases, the folder might be on a network drive, allowing a person to log 
into any Mac and have all there settings.

I hope this helps.

Sadhunathan Nadesan wrote:
> Greetings,
>
> After reading the post below about the admin issues possible with 
> specialFolderPath, I'd like to hear anyone expound on the 
> justification for the use of 'special folders', if we have any 
> pontiffs out there who advocate it.  Must be a good reason for it, 
> yes?  Anyone care to enlighten me?  It's basically curiosity so feel 
> free to ignore me also.
>
> For example, in our case, we are providing a download of an executable 
> for windows users which installs as normal in the program files 
> directory. (Mac version, not sure where it goes).  However, a separate 
> stack that can be written to is obscurely (some might say) squirreled 
> away in a special folder - which turns out to be different on 
> different versions of windoz.  For example, its under all 
> users/application data (or something like that) on XP home and pro, 
> and something like c:/ProgramData on Vista basic (at least mine).  The 
> mac I'm not sure.  Our code has a case statement to detect the type of 
> OS and pick the right special folder.
> Why wouldn't we just put this stack in the same folder where we 
> install the executable?
>
> Wise ones, tell all!
>
> Mahalo
> Sadhu
>
>
>
>
>>
>>  
>>
>>> Using the altsplash auto-load architecture, I have one user for whom 
>>> the loader hangs.  His specialFolderPath(35) returns as
>>>
>>> C:/Documents and Settings/All Users/Application Data
>>>
>>> but he says he has no such folder, which leads me guess is that it 
>>> is hidden and that its invisibility is preventing the write to or 
>>> the read from the directory.
>>>   
>>
>> Yup.  It's real and it is hidden - however if the user does not have 
>> Admin rights he can't write there.   He needs to write to a folder 
>> belonging to him.
>>
>> C:/Documents and Settings/Your Users Name/Application Data.
>>
>>  
>>
>>> Is there something special I must do to make this directory usable 
>>> if hidden?
>>>   
>>
>> You could instruct the user to elevate himself to an admin - while 
>> that will work it may also be against any policies they are subject 
>> to and therefore rendering "security" useless which probably is not a 
>> good idea.
>>
>> Scott Kane
>> "Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start
>> today and make a new ending." -- Maria Robinson
>>
>>  
>>
>>  
>>
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