When is it appropriate to use "file://" for a QUrl?

fcarney

We have an object that uses this object to provide SaveAs dialogs for QML:

class FileSaveDialog : public QQuickItem

Inside the object we define 2 more objects to facilitate this:

QPlatformFileDialogHelper *m_dlgHelper;
...
QSharedPointer<QFileDialogOptions> m_options;

At some point I get a path:

C:\\ProgramData\\XM Editor\\RnD\\programs

I set that path on m_options:

m_options->setInitialDirectory(folderUrl_);

QML is involved in this chain of events. It sets the path of the folderUrl property on our object.

Problems:

If I set this path on the object, which is a QUrl (folderUrl_) then it opens up the dialog to an appropriate place. It however throws a message in the console:

shellItem : Unhandled scheme:  "c"

If I append "file://" to the beginning it grinds away and puts a network access error in the console and then finally shows the dialog and the correct path:

shellItem: SHCreateItemFromParsingName()) failed (The network path was not found.)

*if I append "file:///" to the beginning I don't see any messages in the console and it appears to open to the correct directory.

So, it seems like I should be using "file://", but by doing so I have to prepend an extra "/" to the directory for Windows systems only. I believe under Linux our directories are absolute so already have a "/". This makes it so I have to have conditional code for Windows systems:

#ifdef Q_OS_WIN
    emit saveLocalFile("/" + cell_info->progDir(), filename);
#else
    emit saveLocalFile(cell_info->progDir(), filename);
#endif

This seems like it should not require this conditional code. I have tried changing the directory to:

QDir(cell_info->progDir()).canonicalPath()
...
C:/ProgramData/XM Editor/RnD/programs

This gives the same output and results for all 3 cases as with the output and results of the escaped windows string.

aha_1980

@fcarney I recently stumbled over the same, and yes, Windows requires 3 slashes after file:

Have you tried QUrl::fromLocalFile?
I guess it should handle it correctly.

JonB

@fcarney , @aha_1980
EDIT I think I was indeed wrong!** I could well be wrong on this :) But I thought I have come across cases where you're not supposed to put a : after the drive letter when inside a file:... protocol? So it should be more like:

~~ file:///C/ProgramData/XM Editor/RnD/programs ~~

(Not sure about the /// vs //.) Take my comment with a pinch of salt, throw it over your shoulder if it's nonsense....

aha_1980

@JonB

(Not sure about the /// vs //.) Take my comment with a pinch of salt, throw it over your shoulder if it's nonsense....

Done.

PS: QUrl::fromLocalFile() really works :)

fcarney

@aha_1980 said in When is it appropriate to use "file://" for a QUrl?:

Have you tried QUrl::fromLocalFile?

Wow, I used this as a filter:

QUrl().fromLocalFile(cell_info->progDir()).toString()

It produced:

file:///C:/ProgramData/XM Editor/RnD/programs

So, yes, just tried it. That should be how I handle url local paths from now on. What a great find, thank you.

SGaist

Just in case, QUrl::fromLocalFile is a static method so no need to instantiate a QUrl object to use it.