Finding where to store application data portably

[Trent Mick]

> > > I'm using pygame to write a game called Bombz which needs to save some
> > > data in a directory associated with it. In Unix/Linux I'd probably use
> > > "~/.bombz", in Windows something like
> > > "C:\Documents And Settings\<user>\Applicacation Data\Bombz".
> > 
> > In Windows, you shouldn't hard-code the drive letter. I don't know how you
> > find out what the correct value is, but hard-coding it is just Bad.
> > 
> 	XP Pro seems to take
> 
> >>> print os.environ["APPDATA"]
> C:\Documents and Settings\Dennis Lee Bieber\Application Data
> 
> 	Though the more consistent might be to hit the registry:
> 
> HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell
> Folders\AppData
> 
> and to confuse matters, there is also a "Local AppData" entry

It isn't just the drive letter you shouldn't hardcode. In different
locales the phrases "Documents and Settings" and "Application Data"
are often different. The canonical way to get this dir on Windows is by
using the SHGetFolderPath Windows API call with the CSIDL_APPDATA
constant:
    
    http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/shellcc/platform/shell/reference/functions/shgetfolderpath.asp

In Python code that is:

    from win32com.shell import shellcon, shell
    path = shell.SHGetFolderPath(0, shellcon.CSIDL_APPDATA, 0, 0)

Unfortunately that either means having the PyWin32 extensions installed
(which not all Python installations on Windows have) or building your
own small binary extension to make that call. Failing that, using the
registry location or the environment variable above might suffice
Note that on some older Windows flavours -- not sure exactly which --
the APPDATA env. var. might not be defined.

Also note that Windows app guidelines encourage you to have an
additional vendor/owner directory level before the app name. So:

    %APPDATA%\<company-or-vendor-name>\Bombz

I have a little working script that I use for this kind of stuff which
you are welcome too, if it helps. (attached)

Trent

-- 
Trent Mick
TrentM at ActiveState.com
-------------- next part --------------
# Copyright (c) 2005 ActiveState Corp.
# License: MIT
# Author:  Trent Mick (TrentM at ActiveState.com)

"""Cross-platform application utilities:

Utility Functions:
    user_data_dir(...)      path to user-specific app data dir
    site_data_dir(...)      path to all users shared app data dir
"""
#TODO:
# - Add cross-platform versions of other abstracted dir locations, like
#   a cache dir, prefs dir, something like bundle/Contents/SharedSupport
#   on OS X, etc.
#       http://developer.apple.com/documentation/MacOSX/Conceptual/BPRuntimeConfig/Concepts/UserPreferences.html
#       http://developer.apple.com/documentation/MacOSX/Conceptual/BPFileSystem/index.html
#       http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/shellcc/platform/shell/reference/enums/csidl.asp
#

import sys
import os


class Error(Exception):
    pass



def user_data_dir(appname, owner=None, version=None):
    """Return full path to the user-specific data dir for this application.
    
        "appname" is the name of application.
        "owner" (only required and used on Windows) is the name of the
            owner or distributing body for this application. Typically
            it is the owning company name.
        "version" is an optional version path element to append to the
            path. You might want to use this if you want multiple versions
            of your app to be able to run independently. If used, this
            would typically be "<major>.<minor>".
    
    Typical user data directories are:
        Windows:    C:\Documents and Settings\USER\Application Data\<owner>\<appname>
        Mac OS X:   ~/Library/Application Support/<appname>
        Unix:       ~/.<lowercased-appname>
    """
    if sys.platform.startswith("win"):
        # Try to make this a unicode path because SHGetFolderPath does
        # not return unicode strings when there is unicode data in the
        # path.
        if owner is None:
            raise Error("must specify 'owner' on Windows")
        from win32com.shell import shellcon, shell
        path = shell.SHGetFolderPath(0, shellcon.CSIDL_APPDATA, 0, 0)
        try:
            path = unicode(path)
        except UnicodeError:
            pass
        path = os.path.join(path, owner, appname)
    elif sys.platform == 'darwin':
        from Carbon import Folder, Folders
        path = Folder.FSFindFolder(Folders.kUserDomain,
                                   Folders.kApplicationSupportFolderType,
                                   Folders.kDontCreateFolder)
        path = os.path.join(path.FSRefMakePath(), appname)
    else:
        path = os.path.expanduser("~/." + appname.lower())
    if version:
        path = os.path.join(path, version)
    return path


def site_data_dir(appname, owner=None, version=None):
    """Return full path to the user-shared data dir for this application.
    
        "appname" is the name of application.
        "owner" (only required and used on Windows) is the name of the
            owner or distributing body for this application. Typically
            it is the owning company name.
        "version" is an optional version path element to append to the
            path. You might want to use this if you want multiple versions
            of your app to be able to run independently. If used, this
            would typically be "<major>.<minor>".
    
    Typical user data directories are:
        Windows:    C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\<owner>\<appname>
        Mac OS X:   /Library/Application Support/<appname>
        Unix:       /etc/<lowercased-appname>
    """
    if sys.platform.startswith("win"):
        # Try to make this a unicode path because SHGetFolderPath does
        # not return unicode strings when there is unicode data in the
        # path.
        if owner is None:
            raise Error("must specify 'owner' on Windows")
        from win32com.shell import shellcon, shell
        shellcon.CSIDL_COMMON_APPDATA = 0x23 # missing from shellcon
        path = shell.SHGetFolderPath(0, shellcon.CSIDL_COMMON_APPDATA, 0, 0)
        try:
            path = unicode(path)
        except UnicodeError:
            pass
        path = os.path.join(path, owner, appname)
    elif sys.platform == 'darwin':
        from Carbon import Folder, Folders
        path = Folder.FSFindFolder(Folders.kLocalDomain,
                                   Folders.kApplicationSupportFolderType,
                                   Folders.kDontCreateFolder)
        path = os.path.join(path.FSRefMakePath(), appname)
    else:
        path = "/etc/"+appname.lower()
    if version:
        path = os.path.join(path, version)
    return path


if __name__ == "__main__":
    print "applib: user data dir:", user_data_dir("Komodo", "ActiveState")
    print "applib: site data dir:", site_data_dir("Komodo", "ActiveState")