Accessing Sandbox Directories

Solar2D iOS
#1

Is it possible to access directories other than the Corona constants (base, resource, documents, temp, and cache), within the app sandbox?

For example, the following is the Documents directory:

/var/mobile/Containers/Data/Application/<unique_id>/Documents

At the same level is the Library directory, which leads to the Caches dir:

/var/mobile/Containers/Data/Application/<unique_id>/Library/Caches/Caches

In order to use CloudKit assets I need to access this directory:

/var/mobile/Containers/Data/Application/<unique_id>/Library/Caches/CloudKit/

 

But as far as I can tell, system.pathForFile only accepts the Corona constant directory values. This would be an extremely easy fix from Corona’s end to allow access to this directory.

 

Thanks!

#2

We support system.ApplicationSupportDirectory https://docs.coronalabs.com/api/library/system/ApplicationSupportDirectory.html This should be the /var/mobile/Containers/Data/Application/<unique_id>/Library directory. At that point you can use known paths or use LFS to look for other directories.

Rob

#3

/var/mobile/Containers/Data/Application/<unique_id>/Library/Application Support is what I’m getting for applicationSupportDirectory, its almost there, but I can’t go “up one level” in the directory.

#4

Have you tried using LFS and going up a directory. Do a system.pathForFile("…", system.ApplicationSupportDirectory)?

Rob

#5

Yeah, I can use LFS to get to the directory I need, but the issue comes when I want to load the image at that location.

display.newImage() only accepts a constant as the baseDir parameter. If I were able to give it a string or the LFS working directory it would work…

#6

Have you tried:

local img = display.newImage( “…/someimage.png”, system.ApplicationSupportDirectory)
 

Rob

#7

Tried that… doesn’t seem to work, going to keep testing things…

#8

In Unix based file systems / divides folders from sub folders. There are three (well four) special strings you can prefix a path with:

~/ – start at the user’s home directory

./ – start in the current directory and work down. This is pretty much the same as leading the first slash off.

…/ – move up one directory and start there

/ – start at the root directory of the device.

macOS, iOS, tvOS and Android are all based on Unix or Linux (that uses the same directory path system). Windows has a different file/directory naming scheme, but ./, …/ and / should work.  ~/ won’t work because the apps are sandboxed and you can’t get to the user’s home directory.

Rob

#9

Got it working! Thanks! 

display.newImage( “…/someimage.png”, system.ApplicationSupportDirectory) did the trick. It didn’t work the first time because I had the wrong base in there. 

#10

We support system.ApplicationSupportDirectory https://docs.coronalabs.com/api/library/system/ApplicationSupportDirectory.html This should be the /var/mobile/Containers/Data/Application/<unique_id>/Library directory. At that point you can use known paths or use LFS to look for other directories.

Rob

#11

/var/mobile/Containers/Data/Application/<unique_id>/Library/Application Support is what I’m getting for applicationSupportDirectory, its almost there, but I can’t go “up one level” in the directory.

#12

Have you tried using LFS and going up a directory. Do a system.pathForFile("…", system.ApplicationSupportDirectory)?

Rob

#13

Yeah, I can use LFS to get to the directory I need, but the issue comes when I want to load the image at that location.

display.newImage() only accepts a constant as the baseDir parameter. If I were able to give it a string or the LFS working directory it would work…

#14

Have you tried:

local img = display.newImage( “…/someimage.png”, system.ApplicationSupportDirectory)
 

Rob

#15

Tried that… doesn’t seem to work, going to keep testing things…

#16

In Unix based file systems / divides folders from sub folders. There are three (well four) special strings you can prefix a path with:

~/ – start at the user’s home directory

./ – start in the current directory and work down. This is pretty much the same as leading the first slash off.

…/ – move up one directory and start there

/ – start at the root directory of the device.

macOS, iOS, tvOS and Android are all based on Unix or Linux (that uses the same directory path system). Windows has a different file/directory naming scheme, but ./, …/ and / should work.  ~/ won’t work because the apps are sandboxed and you can’t get to the user’s home directory.

Rob

#17

Got it working! Thanks! 

display.newImage( “…/someimage.png”, system.ApplicationSupportDirectory) did the trick. It didn’t work the first time because I had the wrong base in there.