Document Class

Description

.creationDate

History

Version	Changes
v17 R5	Added

.creationDate : Date

Description

The .creationDate property returns the creation date of the file.

This property is read-only.

.creationTime

History

Version	Changes
v17 R5	Added

.creationTime : Time

Description

The .creationTime property returns the creation time of the file (expressed as a number of seconds beginning at 00:00).

This property is read-only.

.exists

History

Version	Changes
v17 R5	Added

.exists : Boolean

Description

The .exists property returns true if the file exists on disk, and false otherwise.

This property is read-only.

.extension

History

Version	Changes
v17 R5	Added

.extension : Text

Description

The .extension property returns the extension of the file name (if any). An extension always starts with ".". The property returns an empty string if the file name does not have an extension.

This property is read-only.

.fullName

History

Version	Changes
v17 R5	Added

.fullName : Text

Description

The .fullName property returns the full name of the file, including its extension (if any).

This property is read-only.

.hidden

History

Version	Changes
v17 R5	Added

.hidden : Boolean

Description

The .hidden property returns true if the file is set as "hidden" at the system level, and false otherwise.

This property is read/write.

.isAlias

History

Version	Changes
v17 R5	Added

.isAlias : Boolean

Description

The .isAlias property returns true if the file is an alias, a shortcut, or a symbolic link, and false otherwise.

This property is read-only.

.isFile

History

Version	Changes
v17 R5	Added

.isFile : Boolean

Description

The .isFile property returns always true for a file.

This property is read-only.

.isFolder

History

Version	Changes
v17 R5	Added

.isFolder : Boolean

Description

The .isFolder property returns always false for a file.

This property is read-only.

.isWritable

History

Version	Changes
v17 R5	Added

.isWritable : Boolean

Description

The .isWritable property returns true if the file exists on disk and is writable.

The property checks the ability of the 4D application to write on the disk (access rights), it does not solely rely on the writable attribute of the file.

This property is read-only.

Example

 $myFile:=File("C:\\Documents\\Archives\\ReadMe.txt";fk platform path)
 If($myFile.isWritable)
    $myNewFile:=$myFile.setText("Added text")
 End if

.modificationDate

History

Version	Changes
v17 R5	Added

.modificationDate : Date

Description

The .modificationDate property returns the date of the file's last modification.

This property is read-only.

.modificationTime

History

Version	Changes
v17 R5	Added

.modificationTime : Time

Description

The .modificationTime property returns the time of the file's last modification (expressed as a number of seconds beginning at 00:00).

This property is read-only.

.name

History

Version	Changes
v17 R5	Added

.name : Text

Description

The .name property returns the name of the file without extension (if any).

This property is read-only.

.original

History

Version	Changes
v17 R5	Added

.original : 4D.File
.original : 4D.Folder

Description

The .original property returns the target element for an alias, a shortcut, or a symbolic link file. The target element can be:

• a file object
• a folder object

For non-alias files, the property returns the same file object as the file.

This property is read-only.

.parent

History

Version	Changes
v17 R5	Added

.parent : 4D.Folder

Description

The .parent property returns the parent folder object of the file. If the path represents a system path (e.g., "/DATA/"), the system path is returned.

This property is read-only.

.path

History

Version	Changes
v17 R5	Added

.path : Text

Description

The .path property returns the POSIX path of the file. If the path represents a filesystem (e.g., "/DATA/"), the filesystem is returned.

This property is read-only.

.platformPath

History

Version	Changes
v17 R5	Added

.platformPath : Text

Description

The .platformPath property returns the path of the file expressed with the current platform syntax.

This property is read-only.

.size

History

Version	Changes
v17 R5	Added

.size : Real

Description

The .size property returns the size of the file expressed in bytes. If the file does not exist on disk, the size is 0.

This property is read-only.

.copyTo()

History

Version	Changes
v17 R5	Added

.copyTo( destinationFolder : 4D.Folder { ; newName : Text } { ; overwrite : Integer } ) : 4D.File

Parameter	Type		Description
destinationFolder	4D.Folder	->	Destination folder
newName	Text	->	Name for the copy
overwrite	Integer	->	fk overwrite to replace existing elements
Result	4D.File	<-	Copied file

Description

The .copyTo() function copies the File object into the specified destinationFolder .

The destinationFolder must exist on disk, otherwise an error is generated.

By default, the file is copied with the name of the original file. If you want to rename the copy, pass the new name in the newName parameter. The new name must comply with naming rules (e.g., it must not contain characters such as ":", "/", etc.), otherwise an error is returned.

If a file with the same name already exists in the destinationFolder, by default 4D generates an error. You can pass the fk overwrite constant in the overwrite parameter to ignore and overwrite the existing file

Constant	Value	Comment
fk overwrite	4	Overwrite existing elements, if any

Returned value

The copied File object.

Example

You want to copy a picture file from the user's document folder to the application folder:

var $source; $copy : Object
$source:=Folder(fk documents folder).file("Pictures/photo.png")
$copy:=$source.copyTo(Folder("/PACKAGE");fk overwrite)

.getContent()

History

Version	Changes
v19 R2	Returns 4D.Blob
v17 R5	Added

.getContent( ) : 4D.Blob

Parameter	Type		Description
Result	4D.Blob	<-	File content

Description

The .getContent() function returns a 4D.Blob object containing the entire content of a file. For information on BLOBs, please refer to the BLOB section.

Returned value

A 4D.Blob object.

Example

To save a document's contents in a BLOB field:

 var $vPath : Text
 $vPath:=Select document("";"*";"Select a document";0)
 If(OK=1) //If a document has been chosen
    [aTable]aBlobField:=File($vPath;fk platform path).getContent()
 End if

.getIcon()

History

Version	Changes
v17 R5	Added

.getIcon( { size : Integer } ) : Picture

Parameter	Type		Description
size	Integer	->	Side length for the returned picture (pixels)
Result	Picture	<-	Icon

Description

The .getIcon() function returns the icon of the file.

The optional size parameter specifies the dimensions in pixels of the returned icon. This value actually represents the length of the side of the square containing the icon. Icons are usually defined in 32x32 pixels (“large icons”) or 16x16 pixels (“small icons”). If you pass 0 or omit this parameter, the "large icon" version is returned.

If the file does not exist on disk, a default blank icon is returned.

Returned value

File icon picture.

.getText()

History

Version	Changes
v17 R5	Added

.getText( { charSetName : Text { ; breakMode : Integer } } ) : Text
.getText( { charSetNum : Integer { ; breakMode : Integer } } ) : Text

Parameter	Type		Description
charSetName	Text	->	Name of character set
charSetNum	Integer	->	Number of character set
breakMode	Integer	->	Processing mode for line breaks
Result	Text	<-	Text from the document

Description

The .getText() function returns the contents of the file as text .

Optionally, you can designate the character set to be used for reading the contents. You can pass either:

• in charSetName, a string containing the standard set name (for example "ISO-8859-1" or "UTF-8"),
• or in charSetNum, the MIBEnum ID (number) of the standard set name.

For the list of character sets supported by 4D, refer to the description of the CONVERT FROM TEXT command.

If the document contains a Byte Order Mark (BOM), 4D uses the character set that it has set instead of the one specified in charSetName or charSetNum (this parameter is then ignored). If the document does not contain a BOM and if charSetName or charSetNum is omitted, by default 4D uses the "UTF-8" character set.

In breakMode, you can pass a number indicating the processing to apply to end-of-line characters in the document. The following constants of the "System Documents" theme are available:

Constant	Value	Comment
Document unchanged	0	No processing
Document with native format	1	(Default) Line breaks are converted to the native format of the operating system: CR (carriage return) under OS X, CRLF (carriage return + line feed) under Windows
Document with CRLF	2	Line breaks are converted to Windows format: CRLF (carriage return + line feed)
Document with CR	3	Line breaks are converted to OS X format: CR (carriage return)
Document with LF	4	Line breaks are converted to Unix format: LF (line feed)

By default, when you omit the breakMode parameter, line breaks are processed in native mode (1).

Returned value

Text of the file.

Example

Given the following text document (fields are separated by tabs):

id name price vat
3 thé 1.06€ 19.6
2 café 1.05€ 19.6

When you execute this code:

 $myFile:=Folder(fk documents folder).file("Billing.txt") //UTF-8 by default
 $txt:=$myFile.getText()

... you get the following for $txt:

"id\tname\tprice\tvat\r\n3\tthé\t1.06€\t19.6\r\n2\tcafé\t1.05€\t19.6"

with \t (tab) as separator and \r\n (CRLF) as line delimiter.

Here is another example with the same file, but a different line delimiter:

 $txt:=$myFile.getText("UTF-8"; Document with LF)

In this case, the contents of $txt are as follows:

"id\tname\tprice\tvat\n3\tthé\t1.06€\t19.6\n2\tcafé\t1.05€\t19.6"

This time \n (LF) is used as line delimiter.