How to find existing directory/file within a given path???

[mvelasquez]

I'm working with crystal reports in my windows app.
I have a pre-existing report that I will access dynamically in the application at run time.

I set the parameters of the report through the code, then set the report viewer's source as the report itself after setting the parameters.

But I'm not sure of the best way to go about getting the report FILE after the application is deployed.

The report file is located in the "Reports" directory of my application.

At runtime, I call this method to get the application path:
Application.Info.DirectoryPath

Which gives me the directory that the .exe is located in.
The "Reports" directory a couple of levels higher than that, and this is the directory that the file is located in.

How do I get to that directory without having to hardcode the path after stripping 2-3 levels off the end?

Thanks

[Shashi Sadasivan]

Use the DirectoryInfo to get the directories(folders) contained inside the given folde path.

However to navigate into the folder inside this you would have to hardcode (something similar to XMl, if you dont know the node name, how do you expect to get the value of it)

You should have a good exception handling system which will detect any change in the structure if it has been changed by the user!

[mvelasquez]

no, i need the directories upward in the chain, not within the directory of the application .exe
i need to go backward through the path to the "Reports" directory

i.e. c:\ProgramFiles\MyApp\bin\Release would be my application .exe directory.
the "Reports" directory is located in the "MyApp" directory.
i'm trying to get there.

[Shashi Sadasivan]

This is not really a good idea to do so.

reason is that when you install it on a machine the baseDirectoy would be something like c:\programFiles\MyProgramCompany\MyProgram
if the user changes the installation path to something like d:\SomeProgram
then you would face issues going backwards because you cannot control the directory structure backwards.

To answer your question

If you are using the DirectoryInfo Class, use the Parent property of the class to go one step behind in the directory !

[mvelasquez]

This is not really a good idea to do so.

I see what you mean in your example.
What would be a more efficient way of doing this then?
I've seen in a few different examples of Crystal Report rendering that they simply use the string of the path to the report file itself within the directory heiarchy, so I was attempting to use that practice.

[mvelasquez]

Never mind, I went with the actual object route instead of dealing with the physical class path.

Thanks for your help though.