Where to save data files?

[mvallevand]

GB-PVR and most plugins don't seem to follow good programming practice because they storing program data and support files with the binaries. I know it is historical but it is still bad. Many people having trouble with Vista actually are having trouble because of this and there is no reason for this problem to even exist. I'd like to see it changed but I am curious what users and developers think.

My preference from here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environment_variable is
%APPDATA% but %ALLUSERSPROFILE% works too Whatever the change I think it is best to be consistent.

Martin

[reven]

i personally liked all the data in one place, so when if i decide to uninstall an app i just have to make sure that one directory is deleted to ensure everything is gone.

i hate how firefox/flock stores things all over the place, trying to hunt down the one file you need to edit is a PITA.

but that being said, my plugin doesnt actually store that much, just a temp directory really, everything else is in a db

[mvallevand]

reven if you store your db in Program Files\devnz\GBPVR or below that is the problem I am talking about. It is not writeable by default in Vista. I am not talking about all over the place, I am talking everyone writing to a proper location.

Martin

[reven]

i use a sql server or mysql, so its not a db file

[mvallevand]

i use a sql server or mysql, so its not a db file

Yes but it would still be bad design to a) have your mysql server running with admin rights and b) write to program files.

Martin

[psycik]

I think appdata/allusers is a good idea, yes it's another directory to remember to backup, but it does make sense to me.

[sub]

Personally I run GB-PVR with all the data files in C:\Users\Public\GBPVR. It contains database, logs, plugins etc.

There is registry setting that control where the data lives, but the default install always sticks to "Program Files\devnz\GBPVR", since thats historically where GB-PVR always stored everything, and changing it was going to make upgrades complicated.

[mvallevand]

Is that a different key than InstallDir?

Martin

[sub]

"DataDir". If not specified, it defaults to the same location as InstallDir.

[mvallevand]

Sounds good. So will ".\media" etc be anchored around DataDir too?

Martin