All about WP7 Isolated Storage - File manipulations

published on: 5/11/2011 | Views: N/A | Tags: IsoStore

by WindowsPhoneGeek

This is the 10th article from the "All about WP7 Isolated Storage " series of short articles focused on real practical examples with source code rather than a plain theory. I am going to talk about how to perform the different file manipulations in Isolated Storage like: add, remove, delete files, etc.

• All about WP7 Isolated Storage - intro to Isolated Storage
• All about WP7 Isolated Storage - Creating Folders and files
• All about WP7 Isolated Storage - Store data in IsolatedStorageSettings
• All about WP7 Isolated Storage - Read and Save Text files
• All about WP7 Isolated Storage - Read and Save XML files using XmlSerializer
• All about WP7 Isolated Storage - Read and Save XML files using XmlWriter
• All about WP7 Isolated Storage - Read and Save Images
• All about WP7 Isolated Storage - Read and Save Captured Image
• All about WP7 Isolated Storage - Read and Save Binary files
• All about WP7 Isolated Storage - File manipulations
• All about WP7 Isolated Storage - Recommendations and Best Practices
• All about WP7 Isolated Storage - open source Databases and Helper libraries

T.o begin with lets first create a Windows Phone 7 application project. Next include the following namespaces in MainPage.xaml.cs (alternatively you can use the code in another page):

using System.IO.IsolatedStorage;
using System.IO;
using System.Windows.Resources;

We will also use the following constants:

private const string FileName = "SomeFile.txt";
private const string FolderName = "SomeDir";
private string FilePath = System.IO.Path.Combine(FolderName, FileName);

Write/Create File in IsolatedStorage

In this example I will demonstrate how to create a new text file in IsolatedStorage and how to add some data into it. At first we will create a method called CreateNewFile which will accept as parameter the desired filePath. The most important thing here is not to forget to check if the target directory exists in IsolatedStorage (this is the case when using composite paths including directories, like for example: SampleDir1/File1.txt ). The method can be used with simple file paths (ex. File1.txt) and composite one(ex. SampleDir1/File1.txt) as well.

private void CreateNewFile(string filePath)
{
    StreamResourceInfo streamResourceInfo = Application.GetResourceStream(new Uri(filePath, UriKind.Relative));

    using (IsolatedStorageFile myIsolatedStorage = IsolatedStorageFile.GetUserStoreForApplication())
    {
        string directoryName = System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(filePath);
        if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(directoryName) && !myIsolatedStorage.DirectoryExists(directoryName))
        {
            myIsolatedStorage.CreateDirectory(directoryName);
        }

        using (IsolatedStorageFileStream fileStream = myIsolatedStorage.OpenFile(filePath, FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write))
        {
            using (StreamWriter writer = new StreamWriter(fileStream))
            {
                string someTextData = "This is some text data to be saved in a new text file in the IsolatedStorage!";
                writer.WriteLine(someTextData);
            }
        }
    }
}

Sample usage:

private void btnWrite_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
    this.CreateNewFile(FilePath);
}

Check if a file/directory exists

You can check is a particular file exists in this way:

myIsolatedStorage.FileExists(filePath)

You can check is a particular directory exists in this way:

myIsolatedStorage.DirectoryExists(directoryName)

Read File from IsolatedStorage

In this example I will demonstrate how to read data from an existing text file in IsolatedStorage. At first we will create a method called ReadFile which will accept as parameter the desired filePath. The method can be used with simple file paths (ex. File1.txt) and composite one(ex. SampleDir1/File1.txt) as well.

private void ReadFile(string filePath)
{
    using (IsolatedStorageFile myIsolatedStorage = IsolatedStorageFile.GetUserStoreForApplication())
    {
        if (myIsolatedStorage.FileExists(filePath))
        {
            using (IsolatedStorageFileStream fileStream = myIsolatedStorage.OpenFile(filePath, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read))
            {
                using (StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(fileStream))
                {
                    this.text.Text = reader.ReadLine();
                }
            }
        }
        else
        {
            MessageBox.Show("File not found!");
        }
    }
}

Sample usage:

private void btnRead_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
    this.ReadFile(FilePath);
}

Edit File in IsolatedStorage

In this example I will demonstrate how to edit an existing text file in IsolatedStorage. At first we will create a method called EditExistingFile which will accept as parameter the desired filePath and insetedText. The method can be used with simple file paths (ex. File1.txt) and composite one(ex. SampleDir1/File1.txt) as well.

private void EditExistingFile(string filePath, string insetedText)
{
    using (IsolatedStorageFile myIsolatedStorage = IsolatedStorageFile.GetUserStoreForApplication())
    {
        //Open existing file
        if (myIsolatedStorage.FileExists(filePath))
        {
            using (IsolatedStorageFileStream fileStream = myIsolatedStorage.OpenFile(filePath, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Write))
            {
                using (StreamWriter writer = new StreamWriter(fileStream))
                {
                    string someTextData = insettedText;
                    writer.Write(someTextData);
                    writer.Close();
                }
            }
        }
    }

}

Sample usage(In this example "Some new Text!" will be added to the text file data):

private void btnEdit_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
    this.EditExistingFile(FilePath, "Some new Text!");
}

Delete File in IsolatedStorage

In this example I will demonstrate how to delete a file in IsolatedStorage. Just check if the file exists and after that use myIsolatedStorage.DeleteFile(FilePath). The method can be used with simple file paths (ex. File1.txt) and composite one(ex. SampleDir1/File1.txt) as well.

private void btnDelete_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
    using (IsolatedStorageFile myIsolatedStorage = IsolatedStorageFile.GetUserStoreForApplication())
    {
        if (myIsolatedStorage.FileExists(FilePath))
        {
            myIsolatedStorage.DeleteFile(FilePath);
        }
    }
}

Clear IsolatedStorage

NOTE: You'll lose all isolated storage for all apps by restarting the emulator.

However if you still want to clear the isolatedStorage programatically here is the code:

using (IsolatedStorageFile store = IsolatedStorageFile.GetUserStoreForApplication())
{
    store.Remove();
}

In this article I talked about how to perform the different file manipulations in Isolated Storage.This post is some kind of summary of the techniques used so far in this series. Here is the full source code:

Stay tuned with the rest of the posts.I hope that the article was helpful.

You can also follow us on Twitter @winphonegeek

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