FileSystem Object

File("path").
Folder("path").

Description

The FileSystem object contains methods and attributes common to both File and Folder objects. A File object corresponds to a disk file, while a Folder object matches a directory or folder. "FileSystem" is a name used to refer to both Folders and Files.

These attributes and methods differ from those found under the FileSystem Class in that they cannot be applied without referring to a particular instance of a file or folder, expressed as a path to that file or folder.

You can use absolute path names and relative path names. Absolute path names start with one or two slash characters. These path names describe the full path from a root directory down to a file or folder. Relative path names start from a known location, the current directory. A relative path name starts either with a directory name or with one of the special names "." and "..". The name "." refers to the current directory, and the name ".." refers to the parent directory. The slash character is used to separate path elements. Special characters are encoded in UTF-8 notation.

The FileSystem objects support a common convention. A volume name may be the first part of an absolute path. The objects know where to look for the volume names on the Macintosh and Windows and they translate the volume names accordingly.

A path name can also start with the tilde "~" character. This character stands for the user's home directory (on Mac). On Windows, a directory with the environment variable HOME or, failing that, the desktop is used as a home directory.

The following table illustrates how the root element of a full path name is used on different file systems. In these examples, the current drive is C: on Windows and "Macintosh HD" on the Macintosh.

URI	Windows Name	Macintosh Name
/d/dir/name.ext	D:\dir\name.ext	Macintosh HD:d:dir:name.ext
/Macintosh HD/dir/name.ext	C:\Macintosh HD\dir\name.ext	Macintosh HD:dir:name.ext

Thus if you have to use a script with URI notation on both Mac and Windows, try to use relative path names, or try to originate your path names from the home directory. If that is not possible, it is recommended that you work with Mac OS X aliases andn UNC names on Windows, and store files on a machine that is remote to the Windows machine on which the script is running.

Attributes

absoluteURI	see FileSystem absoluteURI Attribute	The full path name for the object in URI notation.
alias	see FileSystem alias Attribute	Returns true if the object refers to a file system alias.
created	see FileSystem created Attribute	The creation date of the object.
error	see FileSystem error Attribute	Contains a message describing the last file system error.
exists	see FileSystem exists Attribute	Returns true if the path name of this object refers to an actually existing file or folder.
fsName	see FileSystem fsName Attribute	The file-system specific name of the object as a full path name.
modified	see FileSystem modified Attribute	The date of the object's last modification.
name	see FileSystem name Attribute	The name of the object without the path specification.
parent	see FileSystem parent Attribute	The folder object containing this object.
path	see FileSystem path Attribute	The path portion of the absolute URI.
relativeURI	see FileSystem relativeURI Attribute	The path name for the object in URI notation, relative to the current folder.

Methods

getRelativeURI()	see FileSystem getRelativeURI() Method	Calculate and return the relative URI, given a base path, in URI notation.
remove()	see FileSystem remove() Method	Delete the file or folder that this object represents.
rename()	see FileSystem rename() Method	Rename the object to the new name.
resolve()	see FileSystem resolve() Method	Attempt to resolve the file system alias that this object points to.