Windows deployment project: copy a file to commonappdatafolder

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I am unable to get a file to copy during installation. Here's the background.

This is a Winforms project, C# in VS2017. It connects to a local MSAccess database. I need to install this .accdb where any user running the application can read and write to it. In my Solution, I'm working with a Windows Deployment Project.

My searches indicated that the CommonAppDataFolder is the place for this. That particular folder however is not offered by in the VS IDE, but I can create it, and my installed exe's recognize it.

The installation creates the folder, but it fails to copy the file into it during installation.

How can I get this file to copy during install and so that all users of my application can read/write to it?

Thanks for helping.

What I have tried:

In my deployment project, in File System Editor, I have done:
Add Special Folder, Custom Folder, and set its properties as:
Name: CommonAppDataFolder
AlwaysCreate: True
Condition:
DefaultLocation: [CommonAppDataFolder]
Property: COMMONAPPDATAFOLDER

Then on that folder, I've done:
Add, File... and navigated to and selected my .accdb.
The file properties are (I have made no changes):
Condition:
Exclude: False
Folder: CommonAppDataFolder
Hidden: False
PackageAs: vsdpaDefault
Permanent: False
ReadOnly: False
Register: vsdrfDoNotRegister
SharedLegacyFile: False
SourcePath: C:\Users\Armstrong1\Documents\Visual Studio 2017\Projects\ArmstrongAnalytics\ArmstrongAnalytics\App_Data\DHHScreen.accdb
System: False
TargetName: DHHScreen.accdb
Transitive: False

Posted 8-Aug-19 12:40pm

Member 3906768

Updated 8-Aug-19 22:28pm

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Gerry Schmitz · Answer 1 · 2019-08-08T22:28:00

Solution 1

Keep a "master" in the installation folder and copy; or generate it in the app folder on first time use.

Posted 8-Aug-19 22:28pm

Gerry Schmitz

Comments

Member 3906768 9-Aug-19 12:23pm

Thanks Gerry. I had that same idea and in fact I did exactly that. It just seems like a hack. Still, I can't understand why I can't install directly into the CommonAppDataFolder.