Update: I revised this to include the Mac way of finding the user’s documents directory. Perhaps the Python standard library should include a way to get at the best path for storing documents.
For Windows
Yuck. Coming within 10 feet of win32 programming, you can really appreciate the need for .NET and a sane API.
For anyone needing to find the user’s “My Documents” folder on Windows with Python, here is one way that I’ve found to work based on this MSDN article. (As awful as the API is, I will say that MSDN is a great resource!)
from win32com.shell import shell
df = shell.SHGetDesktopFolder()
pidl = df.ParseDisplayName(0, None,
"::{450d8fba-ad25-11d0-98a8-0800361b1103}")[1]
mydocs = shell.SHGetPathFromIDList(pidl)
I really wanted to use shell.SHGetFolderPath but I couldn’t get a combination that works for retrieving “My Documents”. In order to get My Documents from there, you need a PyHandle for the user, and I got the method above working before I found my handle… You can get “My Pictures” easily from shell.SHGetFolderPath, however.
from win32com import shell, shellcon mypict = shell.SHGetFolderPath(0, shellcon.CSIDL_MYPICTURES, 0, 0)
I’m sure that if you do win32 programming all the time, you get used to this stuff. Knowing that doesn’t make me feel less sorry for the folks that are doing win32 programming.
For The Mac
The Mac (Carbon) way of doing this is similar to the SHGetFolderPath call on Windows. Both of these APIs make more sense than the one I went with (ParseDisplayName with that lovely GUID).
from Carbon import Folder, Folders
folderref = Folder.FSFindFolder(Folders.kUserDomain,
Folders.kDocumentsFolderType, False)
docs = folderref.as_pathname()
Entries (RSS)
August 5th, 2005 at 9:59 pm
Did you try the method in Tim Golden’s winshell.py? It is a bit more straightforward.
http://tgolden.sc.sabren.com/python/winshell.html
August 5th, 2005 at 10:26 pm
I hadn’t seen that, oddly enough. That certainly does have an API that is more pleasant.
I’d imagine that the author would be happy to fix this, but I noticed that there’s no license listed for it… which essentially renders it unusable.
Thanks for the link!
August 6th, 2005 at 3:58 am
An alternative on the mac using PyObjC:
from Foundation import *
docs = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(
NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, True)[0]
August 6th, 2005 at 7:49 am
Thank you! I was certain there was a Cocoa way to do it, and I’d rather do it the Cocoa way…
August 6th, 2005 at 7:59 am
You’re right about the lack of license for winshell.py. I’ve just emailed Tim Golden asking if he would clarify this.
August 8th, 2005 at 1:06 pm
As an alternative, on Windows — and I know, this is just crazy talk from a Linux programmer — you could do os.path.join(os.getenv(’USERPROFILE’), ‘My Documents’).
August 8th, 2005 at 1:35 pm
Microsoft strongly recommends using the style that I pointed to, for a couple of good reasons. One is that “My Documents” is apparently some kind of virtual folder and is not guaranteed to be where you think it is. The other is the “My Documents” is English… the folder itself isn’t guaranteed to be called “My Documents”.
August 17th, 2005 at 8:38 pm
It’s not that “My Documents” is a virtual folder, it’s that each user can change the location of “My Documents” to wherever he likes. Assuming it’s under the user’s profile is a big mistake. It can very easily be under the root or /temp or anything else…
February 2nd, 2007 at 12:58 pm
This bit of code worked for me:
from win32com.shell import shell, shellcon
mydocuments = shell.SHGetFolderPath(0, shellcon.CSIDL_PERSONAL, 0, 0)
I found a whole list of constants here:
http://www.theutilityfactory.com/online_help/index.html?hidd_special_folders.htm
Best,
Irwin