I'm working on a C++ Windows Store DirectX app and I'm trying to save screenshots to disk every so often.
I am using the DirectX Tool Kit (DirectXTK) and the function SaveDDSTextureToFile which returns an HRESULT.
The problem is that the returned HRESULT is always:
E_ACCESSDENIED General access denied error.
I assume this is some permissions/capabilities thing (it being a windows store app) but I can't find what I need to ask for permission for to be able to save files to disk.
The DirectX ToolKit says it is for Windows store applications as well as desktop applications but I can't find any information on their codeplex either.
Does anyone know what I need to have permission to do for this to work?
Thanks for your time.
Windows Store apps are sandboxed and have fewer permissions than desktop apps, especially when it comes to file access. By default, apps only have access to write to the local storage directory, which isn't easily accessible from the shell. If you want to save to the Pictures or Documents library, you will need to specify this access in the package manifest. Additionally, you will need to use the WinRT file APIs to write the DDS files. To do this, use SaveDDSTextureToMemory, then write the resulting raw DDS data to the StorageFile. Check out the File access sample for more info on the WinRT APIs involved in writing this data as a file.
I've managed to find a way to do it. Basically as MooseBoys says you cannot save to anywhere because the app is sandboxed.
You can however save to the TempState folder of your apps package in AppData, which is all I need because I'm using this feature for debugging.
So the line I call is:
DirectX::SaveWICTextureToFile(deviceContext, texture2D, GUID_ContainerFormatPng, L"C:\\Users\\USERNAME\\AppData\\Local\\Packages\\PACKAGENAME\\TempState\\test.png");
And this works great.
Related
For a future project, I need to track user activity to record their productivity time. I want to detect which file is currently open in apps like Adobe Photoshop for example and detect when the user switches to other app or another file/tab.
To make my desktop app, I wish to use electron JS
Can you just give me some tracks to follow ?I don't find any nodejs library that allow me to do that, but I know that is possible because it already done with electron apps like:
Chronos https://electronjs.org/apps/chronos-timetracker
Paymo https://electronjs.org/apps/paymo-time-tracker
ScreenAware https://electronjs.org/apps/screenaware
And an other App which not seems to be built with electron :
https://desktime.com/features
Thanks for your help
node.js doesn't have the capabilities you require, however it can call external programs to get the job done. The way I see it, you would need to have a PowerShell script (or C# program) to get the active window from the operating system, and find all open file handles for the process behind that window. You would invoke this script from node, and build your gui around it.
A good starting point is this module active-window which works exacty as I described: a nodejs process calls some external scripts (in bash/PowerShell) that use OS specific primitives to get the active window.
To get the list of files opened by a process, you could use the handle utility from Sysinternals. However you may run into a small problem: apps like Photoshop usually don't keep the file handle open, they just open it when saving the file. This means that you won't always be able to detect open files. I guess trial and error is your friend here.
To find open tabs, it's more complicated. Tabs usually indicate the internal state of an app, and this information is held in memory. Some apps might offer an API, but that's not guaranteed. I guess screenshots are the way to go here.
I am developing an open source application which should mount webdav share to local drive letter just like NETDRIVE and WEBDRIVE using node.js and electron-js, so in my application at present I am downloading all files from webdav share which takes a lot of time and not reliable for heavy data. Is there any other approach so that whenever user access a file, only that particular file should be fetched from webdav share, I’ve tried to display files meta data(dummy) structure in directory and kept that directory under file-watcher. So that when user tries to open a file then watcher should capture file open event to get which file was user trying to access, so that in background of application a service will triggered to fetch that particular file using file-path as reference, but none of them are unable to capture file open event. Is there any other approach to do so, correct me if I am in wrong direction.
Thank's
I think you want virtual file-system and recommend Dokan library.
Dokan is the start point of Windows virtual file-system application.
Open Source : Dokan (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dokan_Library)
Commercial: EldoS CBFS (https://www.eldos.com/cbfs)
Google, Naver use Dokan and NetDrive, RaiDrive(mine) use CBFS.
Let say i have a cross-platform runnable application
This application create then read/write some data and preference in external files
Bundle hierarchy is as follow:
ApplicationFolder/application.jar
ApplicationFolder/database.odb
ApplicationFolder/config.xml
Whether it's on a Mac, Windows or Linux, the application knows that everything is next to her (ie: /database.odb or /config.xml)
Now comes the Self Contained Application feature provided by JavaFx 2
The application is embedded in .exe on Windows, .app on Mac and don't know yet about Linux...
As a Mac user i've tested it on Mac and saw that database.odb and config.xml are now created at the user root path
I thus agree that i should think of a cross-platform mechanism to save/read my application preferences regarding the operating system
But i'm not quite sure of what to do and how to do it (can't find any googling help either..)
On windows, the .exe is installed in a folder, so i guess i can keep the same behavior
On Mac, the .app is a folder and i should keep everything inside (how to get the .app path ?!)
Isn't there a built-in mechanism in Java/JavaFx ?
Thanks a lot for any comment, advice, documentation or else that you could give me
Badisi
There are many ways to do this. I have listed some of them here in no particular order. The recommended approach depends on the type of data being stored.
Java provides a couple of mechanisms (e.g. the properties API and the preferences API) for maintaining application preferences.
If your application is sophisticated enough to benefit from an database, then you might want to use Java EE or Spring, both of which have their own configuration mechanisms.
For read-only configuration, you can bundle the relevant files inside your application jar.
To store customized application configuration files or client application wide databases in relative to the application jar, write the required files at runtime. See How do I get the directory that the currently executing jar file is in?.
For user specific configuration, use System.getProperty("user.home") to retrieve the user's home directory, then create a subdirectory for your preference storage (for example "{$user.dir}/.myapp") with hidden file attributes so that it doesn't show up on a standard file directory list.
If your app relies on internet connectivity, then you can store some of this information server side rather than the client and make use of it from the client using internet protocols. An advantage of this approach is that user configuration and data is automatically ported across client machines.
In windows mobile 6 applications, I use code like Path.GetDirectoryName(System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetName().CodeBase)
to get the application path.
Likewise in windows phone7 application, how to get the isolated storage path and how to access the files and folders in my application?
Please give me a sample code for develop my application.
Just use IsolatedStorageFile.GetUserStoreForApplication() to get an object which can manipulate files and directories in Isolated Storage.
See this MSDN link which has plenty of example code.
have a look here: Retrieving file path from IsolatedStorage
isoStore.GetType.GetField("m_RootDir", Reflection.BindingFlags.NonPublic).GetValue(isoStore).ToString();
^ or Reflection.BindingFlags.Instance
Since 2005, when Microsoft prevented HtmlHelp functioning off a network share, e.g.:
\\appserver\tos\PointScanner.exe
\\appserver\tos\PointScanner.chm
What are we supposed to do instead?
(Given that the application is not installed locally.)
To rephrase: What is Microsoft's intended, supported, out-of-the-box, help solution?
You can allow access via the Registry setting described here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/896054/
If you don't want to open any security vulnerabilities by modifying Registry settings your application could also create a local copy of the .chm file, e.g. in the users temp folder (%TMP%) and open the help from there. You can remove the file again when your application exits (in case you don't want to leave anything behind on the user's workstation)
I started with the registry change mentioned by divo. Eventually I moved from network folder based chm files to actual "html help". This was easy for me since I use RoboHelp which can generate either format from the same source code.