VBnet Code Library: File API Index

	File API Routines Updated Wednesday April 11, 2001
Category	Topic
Attributes vb6 vb5 vb4-32	Changing File and/or Folder Attributes Recursively Recursive file searching providing the ability to reset file or folder attributes. March 25.2001 Searching and Obtaining File Property Information Recursive file searching that additionally retrieves select file property information. Nov 29.99

Combine vb6 vb5 vb4-32	Combining an Image and Text into a Single File Simple code by Larry Serflaten to combine a text and image into a single file. May 07.2000 Combining Multiple Elements into a Single File Extending the above, this combines an image and the contents of three Rich Text controls into a single file. May 07.2000

Common Dialog API vb6 vb5 vb4-32	File Open Dialog Fully commented code to call the Win32 FileOpen Common Dialog using API File Save Dialog Call the Win32 FileSave Common Dialog using APIs. Requires the code from the FileOpen Dialog code above.

Copying vb6 vb5 vb4-32	How to Copy Files En-mass to a New Folder Using the CopyFile API Pass a source and target folder and a filespec, and have this routine do the copying. Will create the destination folder if it doesn't exist. Sept4.97 Using CopyFile as a File Backup Mechanism Creating a backup app that compares files before copying. Dec 20.99 Using CopyFileEx and Callback as a File Backup Mechanism Backup app for NT that uses the CopyProgressRoutine callback to track file copy progress. Dec 20.99

Directories vb6 vb5 vb4-32	An API 'FolderExists' Routine Using FindFirstFile to determine if a specified folder exists. Oct 20.99 How to Create Nested Directories Two methods to created a nested hierarchy of folders. Sept 19.98

Disk Info vb6 vb5 vb4-32	Determining Free Disk Space In Win95 The code to determine clusters, sectors, used and free space on a release version of Win95 (pre-OSR/2). Determining Free Disk Space on a Fat32 Drive The code to determine total, used and free space on a Fat32 drive made with Windows 95 OSR2 or Windows 98. Determining if a Floppy Drive is Ready Four wrapper routines that each determine if a removable drive is ready. Sept 12.99 How to Enumerate the Available System Drives API method to determine a system's installed drives and their type. How to Determine if a Specific Drive Exists API method to determine if the system has a specific drive letter. How to Obtain a System's CD-ROM Drive Information Code to determine if the target system has a CD-ROM installed, obtain its drive letter, and the volume name of an inserted CD. How to Retrieve Drive Information Using GetDiskFreeSpace and GetDiskFreeSpaceEx Retrieve drive and volume information for any size partition or drive on any 32-bit platform. July 29.99 Using GetDiskFreeSpaceEx for Disk Information on 32-bit Windows Four wrappers for retrieving disk free and used space info on any 32-bit Windows system. Dec 23.99

Drag & Drop vb6 vb5 vb4-32	Implementing File Drag & Drop in a Visual Basic Project APIs to turn a listbox into a drag-drop receptacle.

Drives vb6 vb5 vb4-32	An API 'DriveExists' Routine Using GetLogicalDriveStrings to determine if a specified drive exists. Oct 20.99 Determining if a Floppy Drive is Ready Four wrapper routines that each determine if a removable drive is ready. Sept 12.99

Extract vb6 vb5 vb4-32	Obtaining the Filename from a Full Path using FindFirstFile Small function returning the filename alone from a full path and filename. Feb 11.2001

File Associations vb6 vb5 vb4-32	Creating a Visual Basic File Association Now your application will launch whenever its associated file is clicked in Explorer. June 29.98 Determining the Name of the Executable Associated with a Specific File Use FindExecutable to retrieve the file associated with a particular file extension. Sept 12.99 Obtaining the Path and Filename of the Default Browser Using FindExecutable and a temporary file to determine the application associated with html files. Oct 13.99 Starting Specified URLs in Separate Instances of the Default Browser Using FindExecutable and CreateProcess to force URLs to open in new sessions of a browser. Oct 18.99

File/Date Routines vb6 vb5 vb4-32	Obtaining and Changing a File's Created, Accessed and Modified Dates Once the debug code provided is removed, you'll be left with a half-dozen line routine to retrieve and set/reset a file's Created, Last Accessed or Last Modified dates.

File Searching vb6 vb5 vb4-32	Performance Comparison - FSO vs API Herein lies the truth - the FileSystemObject and API compared for file searching Apr 12.2000 Performing Recursive Searches Using FindFirst and SearchTreeForFile Four very fast, functional routines for file and folder searching. Oct 3.99 Retrieving Internet Favourites Information Extracting the shortcut name and URL from an IE Favourite. Mar 09.2000 Saving a Recursive Search of All Drives to Disk Build on the Recurse methods to grab all the filenames from a system and write them to disk. Oct 8.99 Saving a Recursive Search of All Drives to Disk, Advanced Advanced disk searching using the FindFirstFile recursion methods to grab all the filenames from a system and write them to disk. Oct 8.99 Searching a Drive Using SearchTreeForFile Use this simple API to locate the full path to a specific file. June 12.99 Searching and Obtaining File Property Information Recursive file searching that additionally retrieves select file property information. Nov 29.99

FindFirst - FindNext Change vb6 vb5 vb4-32	Creating a Watched Folder with FindFirst/NextChange Notifications Monitor when the contents of a folder or subfolder have changed.

FindFirst - FindNext File vb6 vb5 vb4-32	An API 'FileExists' Routine For the API purists, the popular FileExists wrapper via API. June 17.98 An API 'FolderExists' Routine Using FindFirstFile to determine if a specified folder exists. Oct 20.99 Changing File and/or Folder Attributes Recursively Recursive file searching providing the ability to reset file or folder attributes. March 25.2001 Enumerating Folders using FindFirstFile and FindNextFile API API routine recursively load a treeview control with the folders on a selected drive. Enumerating Folders using FindFirstFile and FindNextFile API, Advanced Building on the code from the above page, this method provides for the optional loading of folders for either a single-level or an entire drive, and adds visual identification to the drives and folders with ImageList icons. Obtaining a Directory File Count Using FindFirstFile and FindNextFile Use this tight routine to count the files in a given folder in blistering speed. Uses a passed filespec as the counting parameter. Includes routines to perform attribute-specific counts as well. Sept 4.97 Obtaining the Filename from a Full Path using FindFirstFile Small function returning the filename alone from a full path and filename. Feb 11.2001 Performance Comparison - FSO vs API Herein lies the truth - the FileSystemObject and API compared for file searching. Apr 12.2000 Performing Recursive Searches Using FindFirst and SearchTreeForFile Four very fast, functional routines for file and folder searching. Oct 3.99 Retrieving Internet Favourites Information Extracting the shortcut name and URL from an IE Favourite. Mar 09.2000 Saving a Recursive Search of All Drives to Disk Build on the Recurse methods to grab all the filenames from a system and write them to disk. Oct 8.99 Saving a Recursive Search of All/Select Drives to Disk, Advanced Advanced disk searching using the FindFirstFile recursion methods to grab all the filenames from a system and write them to disk. Oct 8.99 Searching and Obtaining File Property Information Recursive file searching that additionally retrieves select file property information. Nov 29.99 Using CopyFile as a File Backup Mechanism Creating a backup app that compares files before copying. Dec 20.99 Using CopyFileEx and Callback as a File Backup Mechanism Backup app for NT that uses the CopyProgressRoutine callback to track file copy progress. Dec 20.99

FindFirst - FindNext URL vb6 vb5 vb4-32	Deleting the Internet Cache Using DeleteUrlCacheEntry to empty the internet cache programmatically. Dec 06.99 Retrieving the Internet Cache with FindFirst/NextUrlCacheEntry Find URL and cookie info from your Internet cache. Nov 16.99

FTP vb6 vb5 vb4-32	FTP: Connecting To and Retrieving FTP File Listings Using the FTP APIs to connect to a site and retrieve its file listing. Dec 17.99 FTP: Downloading Files via FTP Adding to the FTP demo adding file download ability. Dec 17.99 FTP: Downloading Files Using the FTP Download Dialog Use the Internet Explorer File Download dialog in your application. Jan 8.2000

INI Files vb6 vb5 vb4-32 vb4-16 vb3	Create the "Kidz Quiz" project Code to create a child's quiz application, easily extended to cover adults. Aug 24.99 Retrieving Internet Favourites Information Extracting the shortcut name and URL from an IE Favourite. Mar 09.2000 Using INI Files to Save Application Data - The Basics Primer on saving and reading data from private ini files. Aug 13.99 Using INI Files to Save Application Data - Saving Entire Sections INI section manipulation - saving and restoring an entire list from private ini files. Aug 13.99

Paths vb6 vb5 vb4-32	Shell Path Routines: File/Folder/Drive Exists Tests the validity of the file and path on the local file system or on a remote drive that has been mounted to a drive letter. Apr 08.2001 Shell Path Routines: IsDirectoryEmpty Determines whether or not a specified path is an empty directory. Apr 08.2001 Shell Path Routines: IsPathAFile Determines whether or not a specified path contains path delimiting characters. Apr 08.2001 Shell Path Routines: IsPathAFolder Verifies that a path is a valid directory. Apr 08.2001 Shell Path Routines: IsPathARoot Parses a path to determine if it is a directory root. Apr 08.2001 Shell Path Routines: IsPathLFN Determines whether or not a file name is in long format. Apr 08.2001 Shell Path Routines: IsPathLocalPath Determines whether a path string represents a local resource. Apr 08.2001 Shell Path Routines: IsPathNetPath Determines whether a path string represents a network resource. Apr 08.2001 Shell Path Routines: IsPathRelative Searches a path and determines if it is relative. Apr 08.2001 Shell Path Routines: IsUNCPathAShare Determines if a string is a valid universal naming convention (UNC) share path, \\server\share. Apr 08.2001 Shell Path Routines: IsUNCPathAServer Determines if a string is a valid UNC (universal naming convention) for a server path only. Apr 08.2001 Shell Path Routines: IsUNCPathValid Determines if the string is a valid UNC (universal naming convention) for a server and share path. Apr 08.2001 Shell Path Routines: IsPathAURL Determines if a string string conforms to a valid URL format. Apr 08.2001

Temporary Files vb6 vb5 vb4-32	Creating Temporary Files Using GetTempFileName Use Windows' built-in functions to create working files as needed. Aug 02.98