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VirtualDirectory Class

Represents a directory object in a virtual file or resource space.

System.Object
  System.MarshalByRefObject
    System.Web.Hosting.VirtualFileBase
      System.Web.Hosting.VirtualDirectory

Namespace:  System.Web.Hosting
Assembly:  System.Web (in System.Web.dll)
public abstract class VirtualDirectory : VirtualFileBase

The VirtualDirectory type exposes the following members.

  Name Description
Protected method VirtualDirectory Initializes a new instance of the VirtualDirectory class.
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  Name Description
Public property Children Gets a list of the files and subdirectories contained in this virtual directory.
Public property Directories Gets a list of all the subdirectories contained in this directory.
Public property Files Gets a list of all files contained in this directory.
Public property IsDirectory Gets a value that indicates that this is a virtual resource that should be treated as a directory. (Overrides VirtualFileBase.IsDirectory.)
Public property Name Gets the display name of the virtual resource. (Inherited from VirtualFileBase.)
Public property VirtualPath Gets the virtual file path. (Inherited from VirtualFileBase.)
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  Name Description
Public method CreateObjRef Creates an object that contains all the relevant information required to generate a proxy used to communicate with a remote object. (Inherited from MarshalByRefObject.)
Public method Equals(Object) Determines whether the specified Object is equal to the current Object. (Inherited from Object.)
Protected method Finalize Allows an object to try to free resources and perform other cleanup operations before it is reclaimed by garbage collection. (Inherited from Object.)
Public method GetHashCode Serves as a hash function for a particular type. (Inherited from Object.)
Public method GetLifetimeService Retrieves the current lifetime service object that controls the lifetime policy for this instance. (Inherited from MarshalByRefObject.)
Public method GetType Gets the Type of the current instance. (Inherited from Object.)
Public method InitializeLifetimeService Gives a VirtualFileBase instance an infinite lifetime by preventing a lease from being created. (Inherited from VirtualFileBase.)
Protected method MemberwiseClone() Creates a shallow copy of the current Object. (Inherited from Object.)
Protected method MemberwiseClone(Boolean) Creates a shallow copy of the current MarshalByRefObject object. (Inherited from MarshalByRefObject.)
Public method ToString Returns a string that represents the current object. (Inherited from Object.)
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The VirtualDirectory class is the base class for objects that represent directories in a virtual file system. Typically, you would implement a descendent of the VirtualDirectory class for each VirtualPathProvider class descendent in your Web application.

Notes to Inheritors

When you inherit from the VirtualDirectory class, you must override the Children, Directories, and Files properties to return an object implementing the IEnumerable interface.

If your virtual-directory structure contains moderate to large numbers of virtual resources, you should take care to minimize the system resources consumed when enumerating the virtual directory by calling the Children, Directories, or Files properties.

The following code example is a VirtualDirectory class implementation that returns virtual directory information stored in a DataSet object. This code works with the code examples for the VirtualPathProvider and VirtualFile classes to provide virtual resources from a data store that is loaded into a DataSet object. For the complete instructions for compiling and running the example, see the Example section of the VirtualPathProvider class overview.

This example has two parts, the VirtualDirectory class implementation and the XML data file used to populate the DataSet object.

The first code example is an implementation of the VirtualDirectory class. In the constructor it uses a method on a custom VirtualPathProvider object to return a DataSet object. It then searches the DataSet object to retrieve the directory information associated with the virtual path provided.


using System;
using System.Collections;
using System.Data;
using System.Security.Permissions;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Hosting;

namespace Samples.AspNet.CS
{
  [AspNetHostingPermission(SecurityAction.Demand, Level = AspNetHostingPermissionLevel.Minimal)]
  [AspNetHostingPermission(SecurityAction.InheritanceDemand, Level = AspNetHostingPermissionLevel.Minimal)]
  public class SampleVirtualDirectory : VirtualDirectory
  {
    SamplePathProvider spp;

    private bool exists;
    public bool Exists
    {
      get { return exists; }
    }

    public SampleVirtualDirectory(string virtualDir, SamplePathProvider provider)
      : base(virtualDir)
    {
      spp = provider;
      GetData();
    }

    protected void GetData()
    {
      DataSet ds = spp.GetVirtualData();

      // Clean up the path to match data in resource file.
      string path = VirtualPath.Replace(HostingEnvironment.ApplicationVirtualPath, "");
      path = path.TrimEnd('/');

      // Get the virtual directory from the resource table.
      DataTable dirs = ds.Tables["resource"];
      DataRow[] rows = dirs.Select(
        String.Format("(name = '{0}') AND (type='dir')", path));

      // If the select returned a row, the directory exists.
      if (rows.Length > 0)
      {
        exists = true;

        // Get children from the resource table.
        // This technique works for small numbers of virtual resources.
        //   Sites with moderate to large numbers of virtual
        //   resources should choose a method that consumes fewer
        //   computer resources.
        DataRow[] childRows = dirs.Select(
          String.Format("parentPath = '{0}'", path));

        foreach (DataRow childRow in childRows)
        {
          string childPath = (string)childRow["path"];

          if (childRow["type"].ToString() == "dir")
          {
            SampleVirtualDirectory svd = new SampleVirtualDirectory(childPath, spp);
            children.Add(svd);
            directories.Add(svd);
          }
          else
          {
            SampleVirtualFile svf = new SampleVirtualFile(childPath, spp);
            children.Add(svf);
            files.Add(svf);
          }
        }
      }
    }

    private ArrayList children = new ArrayList();
    public override IEnumerable Children
    {
      get { return children; }
    }

    private ArrayList directories = new ArrayList();
    public override IEnumerable Directories
    {
      get { return directories; }
    }

    private ArrayList files = new ArrayList();
    public override IEnumerable Files
    {
      get { return files; }
    }
  }
  


The second example is the XML data file used to populate the DataSet object returned by the custom VirtualPathProvider object. This XML data is used to demonstrate using the VirtualPathProvider, VirtualFile, and VirtualDirectory classes to retrieve data from external data, and is not intended to represent a production-quality data store.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
  <resource type="dir" 
    path="/vrDir" 
    parentPath="" 
    content="">
    <resource type="file" 
      path="/vrDir/Level1FileA.vrf"
      parentPath="/vrDir" 
      content="This is the content of file Level1FileA." >
    </resource>
    <resource type="file" 
      path="/vrDir/Level1FileB.vrf"
      parentPath="/vrDir" 
      content="This is the content of file Level1FileB.">
    </resource>
    <resource type="dir" 
      path="/vrDir/Level2DirA" 
      parentPath="/vrDir" 
      content="">
        <resource type="file" 
          path="/vrDir/Level2DirA/Level2FileA.vrf" 
          parentPath="/vrDir/Level2DirA" 
          content="This is the content of file Level2FileA." >
        </resource>
        <resource type="file" 
          path="/vrDir/Level2DirA/Level2FileB.vrf"
          parentPath="/vrDir/Level2DirA" 
          content="This is the content of file Level2FileB.">
        </resource>
    </resource>
    <resource type="dir" 
      path="/vrDir/Level2DirB" 
      parentPath="/vrDir" 
      content="">
      <resource type="file" 
        path="/vrDir/Level2DirB/Level2FileA.vrf" 
        parentPath="/vrDir/Level2DirB" 
        content="This is the content of file Level2FileA." >
      </resource>
      <resource type="file" 
        path="/vrDir/Level2DirB/Level2FileB.vrf"
        parentPath="/vrDir/Level2DirB" 
        content="This is the content of file Level2FileB.">
       </resource>
    </resource>
  </resource>

.NET Framework

Supported in: 4, 3.5, 3.0, 2.0

Windows 7, Windows Vista SP1 or later, Windows XP SP3, Windows XP SP2 x64 Edition, Windows Server 2008 (Server Core not supported), Windows Server 2008 R2 (Server Core supported with SP1 or later), Windows Server 2003 SP2

The .NET Framework does not support all versions of every platform. For a list of the supported versions, see .NET Framework System Requirements.
Any public static (Shared in Visual Basic) members of this type are thread safe. Any instance members are not guaranteed to be thread safe.
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