Desktop in VB

[thepla]

I have been converting a VB for Excel to VB for Calc program I developed. Things are really starting to fall into place and I am trying to save my new spreadsheet into a folder on the desktop.

In VB the term "desk" pointed to the desktop under Calc I am having a problem. I am fairly confident the save process is working because I can save to "C:\STEVE\STEVE.ODS" and it works. If I do desk & "\STEVE\STEVE.ODS" I get a runtime error. STEVE is a valid folder on the desktop.

Thanks,

[FJCC]

In OOo basic I would have to use the full path name
C:\Documents and Settings\username\Desktop\Steve\Steve.ods.
If you try the analogous path on your system, does it work? I'm using Windows XP and I can get the path by right clicking on any file on the desktop and selecting Properties. On the General tab there is a Location listed that shows the whole directory path.

[thepla]

desk in VB gives the path to the desktop on the machine running my app.

There are more than one user that my app is going to be using and their desktop is addressed with a different user. I was quite surprised desk did not work like it did in my vb program with Excel. I would think a directory would not matter which spreadsheet it is creating.

In you example you are hard coding the user I cannot do that in mine.

[B Marcelly]

Hi,

In VB the term "desk" pointed to the desktop under Calc I am having a problem. I am fairly confident the save process is working because I can save to "C:\STEVE\STEVE.ODS" and it works. If I do desk & "\STEVE\STEVE.ODS" I get a runtime error. STEVE is a valid folder on the desktop.

What is the resulting address ? OpenOffice cannot understand Windows nicknames, you have to provide a complete and correct address. Use environment variables to find it.
______
Bernard

[thepla]

Figured out my own answer. In a previous program I developed, for Excel, I had line in code to get desktop. Here it is in case someone needs the line.

desk = CreateObject("WScript.Shell").Specialfolders(10)

[B Marcelly]

Better code :

Code: Select all

desk = CreateObject("WScript.Shell").SpecialFolders("Desktop")

[thepla]

Better code :

Code: Select all

desk = CreateObject("WScript.Shell").SpecialFolders("Desktop")

I agree, changed my program and it works. Much easier to read in the future.

Thanks

[rudolfo]

I might mention that CreateObject("Wscript.Shell") shows some inconsistencies from time to time. See the discussion in this thread http://user.services.openoffice.org/en/ ... 41#p110342

Edit: Ooops, sometimes I am blinded by the bare wish to spread my knowledge. I looked at the title again, and I realised, that you are working inside MS Visual Basic. Of course CreateObject("Wscript.Shell") works inside VB without any flaws. On second thought this means that this thread talks about how to figure out the MS Windows User's Desktop path with MS Visual Basic. This has nothing to do with OOo BASIC and nothing with any of the OpenOffice applications. So you should have better chosen a different forum for your question.

[B Marcelly]

I might mention that CreateObject("Wscript.Shell") shows some inconsistencies from time to time. See the discussion in this thread http://user.services.openoffice.org/en/ ... 41#p110342

I will answer here because the other thread is a mess.

Collections, like SpecialFolders, have a property Item from which you get the item corresponding to an index.
In VB, VBScript or JScript this is a default property, it can be omitted.
In OOoBasic you cannot omit the property Item.

Code: Select all

Option Explicit

Sub Main  ' --- This is OpenOffice.org Basic ---
Dim wsh As Variant
Dim folderName As String

wsh = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
folderName = "Desktop"
MsgBox(wsh.SpecialFolders.Item(folderName), 0, folderName)
End Sub

[rudolfo]

Thanks Bernard,
this spreads a lot of light on the behaviour of CreateObject. As it is often emphasized that OOo does not fully support VBA (or rather that the support is very limited) I assumed that the support for OLE/COM/ActiveX objects on Windows systems isn't complete, either.
My assumption is wrong. And your answer makes perfectly sense because the COM interface doesn't depend on the programming language that is used to work with it. The crucial point is that there are a lot of pitfalls if your thinking is VB biased. I will keep this in mind for the future.