- How to get local application data folder in Java? [duplicate]
- Answer by Tori McClure
- Answer by Stella Burton
- Answer by Kira Branch
- Answer by Zaire Newman
- Answer by Malcolm Scott
- Universal access to the AppData folder in Java
- Dependencies
- New project
- Finding the repository
- Building
- Exploring the library
- AppDirs
- Testing the library
How to get local application data folder in Java? [duplicate]
Stack Overflow for Teams Where developers & technologists share private knowledge with coworkers , Stack Overflow Public questions & answers ,I’m looking for a way to get the location of the local application data folder, which is a special Windows folder, in Java. Unfortunately, the following only works for English versions of Windows XP with default settings:, Meta Stack Overflow
Answer by Tori McClure
Possible Duplicate: What is the cross-platform way of obtaining the path to the local application data directory? ,I’m looking for a way to get the location of the local application data folder, which is a special Windows folder, in Java. Unfortunately, the following only works for English versions of Windows XP with default settings:,(there seems to be no env variable for the «Local Settings» folder, but this will give you the ‘Application Data’ folder),Is there a way to do it without having to call SHGetSpecialFolderLocation of the Windows Shell API?
I’m looking for a way to get the location of the local application data folder, which is a special Windows folder, in Java. Unfortunately, the following only works for English versions of Windows XP with default settings:
System.getProperty("user.home") + "\\Local Settings\\Application Data"
What I’d like to have is something like this in .NET:
System.Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.LocalApplicationData)
Answer by Stella Burton
I’m looking into capsule and I wondered how you figured out the path to AppData under Windows.,So basically it looks for %LOCALAPPDATA%, and then \AppData\Local, and then \Local Settings\Application Data.,This is actually a hard problem, because the concept of «userhome» changed a lot during windows-versions. The most reliable way of getting the correct folder is making a library-call using jna., Notifications
Path localData; final String localAppData = System.getenv("LOCALAPPDATA"); if (localAppData != null) < localData = Paths.get(localAppData); if (!Files.isDirectory(localData)) throw new RuntimeException("%LOCALAPPDATA% set to nonexistent directory " + localData); >else
Answer by Kira Branch
In this short tutorial, we’re going to describe a cross-platform solution to access the application data folder. On Windows, this folder is known as %appdata% — C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\\, on Linux it’s /home//.local/share/ and in MacOS, the path should be approximately /Users//Library/Application Support/. Because of the diversity of these paths, there’s no native solution in Java that would request access to these folders easily.,The AppDirs class is the main communication interface we use to access the folders. The class contains the following methods for accessing the folders:,That would be all. I hope I saved you long hours of researching how to access the application data folder universally on all operating systems.,Based on the os.name system property the code determines whether it’s MacOS, Windows, or any Linux. True, now you may be wondering why to use the library when you can write all this yourself. The point is there are directory separator issues and other things already resolved by the library. For example, to get the path to the %appdata% folder on Windows, we must use native method calls. The library will take care of all this for us.
For those who don’t want to go to the website, I attach the dependency below, you can just copy it:
// https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/net.harawata/appdirs compile group: 'net.harawata', name: 'appdirs', version: '1.0.3'
Since it’s a GitHub project, we can see how this logic works:
public static AppDirs getInstance() < String os = System.getProperty("os.name").toLowerCase(); if (os.startsWith("mac os x")) < logger.debug("os.name <>is resolved to Mac OS X", os); return new MacOSXAppDirs(); > else if (os.startsWith("windows")) < logger.debug("os.name <>is resolved to Windows", os); WindowsFolderResolver folderResolver = new ShellFolderResolver(); return new WindowsAppDirs(folderResolver); > else < // Assume other *nix. logger.debug("os.name <>is resolved to *nix", os); return new UnixAppDirs(); > >
Now let’s create a simple console application where we’ll create an AppDirs class instance to get to the various application folders.
import net.harawata.appdirs.AppDirs; import net.harawata.appdirs.AppDirsFactory; public class App < private static final String CREDENTIALS_APP_NAME = "testApplication"; private static final String CREDENTIALS_AUTHOR = "ict.social"; private static final String CREDENTIALS_VERSION = "v1.0"; public static void main(String[] args) < final AppDirs appDirs = AppDirsFactory.getInstance(); final String userDataDir = appDirs.getUserDataDir(CREDENTIALS_APP_NAME, CREDENTIALS_VERSION, CREDENTIALS_AUTHOR); final String userConfigDir = appDirs.getUserConfigDir(CREDENTIALS_APP_NAME, CREDENTIALS_VERSION, CREDENTIALS_AUTHOR); final String userCacheDir = appDirs.getUserCacheDir(CREDENTIALS_APP_NAME, CREDENTIALS_VERSION, CREDENTIALS_AUTHOR); System.out.printf("UserDataDir: %s%n", userDataDir); System.out.printf("UserConfigDir: %s%n", userConfigDir); System.out.printf("UserCacheDir: %s%n", userCacheDir); >>
The result of the application on Linux looks like this:
Console application UserDataDir: /home/peter/.local/share/testApplication/v1.0 UserConfigDir: /home/peter/.config/testApplication/v1.0 UserCacheDir: /home/peter/.cache/testApplication/v1.0
Answer by Zaire Newman
Use the ApplicationData.TemporaryFolder property to get the files. The next steps use the temporaryFolder variable from this step.,Before you can read or write local app data, you must retrieve the local app data store. To retrieve the local app data store, use the ApplicationData.LocalSettings property to get the app’s local settings as an ApplicationDataContainer object. Use the ApplicationData.LocalFolder property to get the files in a StorageFolder object. Use the ApplicationData.LocalCacheFolder property to get the folder in the local app data store where you can save files that are not included in backup and restore.,Developers can lock their device in order to trigger a synchronization of roaming app data. If it seems that the app data does not transition within a certain time frame, please check the following items and make sure that:,Use settings to store user preferences and application state info. The app data API enables you to easily create and retrieve settings (we’ll show you some examples later in this article).
Before you can read or write local app data, you must retrieve the local app data store. To retrieve the local app data store, use the ApplicationData.LocalSettings property to get the app’s local settings as an ApplicationDataContainer object. Use the ApplicationData.LocalFolder property to get the files in a StorageFolder object. Use the ApplicationData.LocalCacheFolder property to get the folder in the local app data store where you can save files that are not included in backup and restore.
Windows.Storage.ApplicationDataContainer localSettings = Windows.Storage.ApplicationData.Current.LocalSettings; Windows.Storage.StorageFolder localFolder = Windows.Storage.ApplicationData.Current.LocalFolder;
To create or write a setting, use the ApplicationDataContainer.Values property to access the settings in the localSettings container we got in the previous step. This example creates a setting named exampleSetting .
// Simple setting localSettings.Values["exampleSetting"] = "Hello Windows";
To retrieve the setting, you use the same ApplicationDataContainer.Values property that you used to create the setting. This example shows how to retrieve the setting we just created.
// Simple setting Object value = localSettings.Values["exampleSetting"];
To create or write a composite value, create an ApplicationDataCompositeValue object. This example creates a composite setting named exampleCompositeSetting and adds it to the localSettings container.
// Composite setting Windows.Storage.ApplicationDataCompositeValue composite = new Windows.Storage.ApplicationDataCompositeValue(); composite["intVal"] = 1; composite["strVal"] = "string"; localSettings.Values["exampleCompositeSetting"] = composite;
This example shows how to retrieve the composite value we just created.
// Composite setting Windows.Storage.ApplicationDataCompositeValue composite = (Windows.Storage.ApplicationDataCompositeValue)localSettings.Values["exampleCompositeSetting"]; if (composite == null) < // No data >else < // Access data in composite["intVal"] and composite["strVal"] >
Answer by Malcolm Scott
Universal access to the AppData folder in Java
In this short tutorial, we’re going to describe a cross-platform solution to access the application data folder. On Windows, this folder is known as %appdata% — C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\\ , on Linux it’s /home//.local/share/ and in MacOS, the path should be approximately /Users//Library/Application Support/ . Because of the diversity of these paths, there’s no native solution in Java that would request access to these folders easily.
Dependencies
If we want to do things easily, we have to reach for a third-party library. Certainly there are more, but I’ll describe just one I have experience with. It’s the appdirs project on GitHub. To manage dependencies, we’ll use Gradle, but for Maven the procedure would be very similar.
New project
I’ll create the project in IntelliJ Idea. Let’s start the IDE and click on the Create New Project button:
In the menu, we’ll choose we want a Java project managed by Gradle:
In the first field, we’ll enter the name of the organization or other identifier. The second field is for the application name:
In the Gradle settings, we’ll check the AutoImport checkbox to avoid synchronizing the project manually:
Finally, we’ll set the path to the project:
Finding the repository
Once we have successfully set up the project, we’ll go to the Maven repository page, enter the name of the library: appdirs in the search box and choose Search. We’ll choose the first option, the library in the net.harawata.appdirs package, and select the latest version:
On the next page, we’ll switch to the Gradle tab and copy the dependency that we’ll add to the dependencies list in Gradle:
For those who don’t want to go to the website, I attach the dependency below, you can just copy it:
// https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/net.harawata/appdirs compile group: 'net.harawata', name: 'appdirs', version: '1.0.3'
Building
Open the buid.gradle file and paste the copied line from the website to the dependency list at the end of the file:
In a few moments, the project should update automatically and download the necessary dependencies. A total of 4 libraries will be downloaded:
- net.harawata:appdirs:1.0.3
- net.java.dev.jna:jna-platform:4.5.2
- net.java.dev.jna:jna:4.5.2
- org.slf4j:slf4j-api:1.7.25
The first is the library we requested. This library has two dependencies: jna and slf4j . The first one is used to access system function calls. The second one is used for logging.
Exploring the library
Before we start programming, it’d be nice to get to know the library first. We’ll see what classes/interfaces the library offers and what we can do with them.
AppDirs
The AppDirs class is the main communication interface we use to access the folders. The class contains the following methods for accessing the folders:
- getUserDataDir() — Returns the system folder for the application data
- getUserConfigDir() — The folder for application configuration files
- getUserCacheDir() — The application cache folder
- getUserLogDir() — The application log folder
To create an instance, we need the AppDirs.getInstance() factory method, which has its own logic to decide how to create the instance. First of all, it looks which OS the program is running on and selects one of these three implementations accordingly:
Since it’s a GitHub project, we can see how this logic works:
public static AppDirs getInstance() < String os = System.getProperty("os.name").toLowerCase(); if (os.startsWith("mac os x")) < logger.debug("os.name <> is resolved to Mac OS X", os); return new MacOSXAppDirs(); > else if (os.startsWith("windows")) < logger.debug("os.name <> is resolved to Windows", os); WindowsFolderResolver folderResolver = new ShellFolderResolver(); return new WindowsAppDirs(folderResolver); > else < // Assume other *nix. logger.debug("os.name <> is resolved to *nix", os); return new UnixAppDirs(); > >
Based on the os.name system property the code determines whether it’s MacOS, Windows, or any Linux. True, now you may be wondering why to use the library when you can write all this yourself. The point is there are directory separator issues and other things already resolved by the library. For example, to get the path to the %appdata% folder on Windows, we must use native method calls. The library will take care of all this for us.
Testing the library
Now let’s create a simple console application where we’ll create an AppDirs class instance to get to the various application folders.
import net.harawata.appdirs.AppDirs; import net.harawata.appdirs.AppDirsFactory; public class App < private static final String CREDENTIALS_APP_NAME = "testApplication"; private static final String CREDENTIALS_AUTHOR = "ict.social"; private static final String CREDENTIALS_VERSION = "v1.0"; public static void main(String[] args) < final AppDirs appDirs = AppDirsFactory.getInstance(); final String userDataDir = appDirs.getUserDataDir(CREDENTIALS_APP_NAME, CREDENTIALS_VERSION, CREDENTIALS_AUTHOR); final String userConfigDir = appDirs.getUserConfigDir(CREDENTIALS_APP_NAME, CREDENTIALS_VERSION, CREDENTIALS_AUTHOR); final String userCacheDir = appDirs.getUserCacheDir(CREDENTIALS_APP_NAME, CREDENTIALS_VERSION, CREDENTIALS_AUTHOR); System.out.printf("UserDataDir: %s%n", userDataDir); System.out.printf("UserConfigDir: %s%n", userConfigDir); System.out.printf("UserCacheDir: %s%n", userCacheDir); > >
The result of the application on Linux looks like this:
Console application UserDataDir: /home/peter/.local/share/testApplication/v1.0 UserConfigDir: /home/peter/.config/testApplication/v1.0 UserCacheDir: /home/peter/.cache/testApplication/v1.0
That would be all. I hope I saved you long hours of researching how to access the application data folder universally on all operating systems.