ClickOnce Application user settings locations

Question

I am currently developing a ClickOnce application that converts CSV files for a database update. The program requires the user to have the ability to change the configuration files for a database change, and change an XML file which populates a drop-down list in the app.

Now I understand that the files are kept in the user/appdata folder to ensure there have the correct privileges, but do I have any influence as to what those folders are called, or where they are saved?

By default, the files are saved in AppData\Local\Apps\2.0\LD7ZEJK0.7AE\NJ42PEPW.1QX\csvt...exe_169e1a4011fbe7ec_0001.0000_none_04507fe9e077ae84

Can I change that to say Documents\CSV_Files or something similar? And if I do, how would I reference the XML file in the configuration file so the program knows where it is?

Answer 1

Normally, you shouldn't have to care about the location yourself. Just mark your XML file as data in the ClickOnce manifest and access it using the well-known:

ApplicationDeployment.CurrentDeployment.DataDirectory

Here's an MSDN article describing it: Accessing Local and Remote Data in ClickOnce Applications

Answer 2

I would never store any data that is important to be retained in the case of an update in the actual ClickOnce deployment directories -- it is too dangerous. You should copy those files out to ApplicationData and access them there. This article shows you how to do that.