FileOpen

Opens an existing file for reading and writing.

Note: The file functions should not be used to implement configuration files. It is encouraged to use the XML functions for this instead.

Syntax

Click to collapse [-]

Server

file fileOpen ( string filePath [, bool readOnly = false ])

Required Arguments

• filePath: The filepath of the file in the following format: ":resourceName/path". 'resourceName' is the name of the resource the file is in, and 'path' is the path from the root directory of the resource to the file.

For example, if there is a file named 'coolObjects.txt' in the resource 'objectSearch', it can be opened from another resource this way: fileOpen(":objectSearch/coolObjects.txt").

If the file is in the current resource, only the file path is necessary, e.g. fileOpen("coolObjects.txt").

Optional Arguments

• readOnly: By default, the file is opened with reading and writing access. You can specify true for this parameter if you only need reading access.

Click to collapse [-]

Client

file fileOpen ( string filePath [, bool readOnly = false, string accessType = "public" ] )

Required Arguments

• filePath: The filepath of the file in the following format: ":resourceName/path". 'resourceName' is the name of the resource the file is in, and 'path' is the path from the root directory of the resource to the file.

For example, if there is a file named 'coolObjects.txt' in the resource 'objectSearch', it can be opened from another resource this way: fileOpen(":objectSearch/coolObjects.txt").

If the file is in the current resource, only the file path is necessary, e.g. fileOpen("coolObjects.txt").

Optional Arguments

• readOnly: By default, the file is opened with reading and writing access. You can specify true for this parameter if you only need reading access.
• accessType : This setting determines whether to open the public or private version of the file at filePath
  • "public" will open the file that is shared by all servers.
  • "private" will open the file that only the current server is allowed to access. Note: It is only possible to open a private file if it was previously saved as "private" by the current server.

Returns

If successful, returns a file handle for the file. Otherwise returns false (f.e. if the file doesn't exist).

Example

This example opens the file test.txt that is in the root of the current resource, and outputs its contents to the console.

local hFile = fileOpen("test.txt", true)       -- attempt to open the file (read only)
if hFile then                                  -- check if it was successfully opened
    local buffer
    while not fileIsEOF(hFile) do              -- as long as we're not at the end of the file...
        buffer = fileRead(hFile, 500)          -- ... read the next 500 bytes...
        outputConsole(buffer)                  -- ... and output them to the console
    end
    fileClose(hFile)                           -- close the file once we're done with it
else
    outputConsole("Unable to open test.txt")
end

Notice that you can't simply do buffer = fileRead("test.txt", 500). Instead, file functions operate on a file handle, which is a special object representing an open file. fileOpen gives us such a handle.

It is also important to remember to close a file after you've finished all your operations on it, especially if you've been writing to the file. If you don't close a file and your resource crashes, all changes to the file may be lost.

See Also

• fileClose
• fileCopy
• fileCreate
• fileDelete
• fileExists
• fileFlush
ADDED/UPDATED IN VERSION 1.6.0 r21938:
fileGetContents
• fileGetPath
• fileGetPos
• fileGetSize
• fileIsEOF
• fileOpen
• fileRead
• fileRename
• fileSetPos
• fileWrite