Trouble Zipping All Folder Contents While In Current Directory

Question

My program has a location that can be set by the user. This could be anywhere.

I want to use this to my advantage because if they've created/selected that location as towhere all other files are going to be created or saved then I already have the path availble via:

string uploadFolder = Properties.Settings.Default.uploadFolder;

Now, my issue is since the users can select the uploadFolder to be "C:\blah" I am trying to ZIP up all of the contents in the uploadFolder path by simply going up one directory ... the issue is in this test case the users next directory up is the direct C:\ which is not allowing me to ZIP up the folder at uploadFolder.

I am having to do this because I simply cannot stay in the uploadFolder directory and ZIP up its contents into the same folder due to the process being used/occupied/tied up already.

I am struggling to figure out a way around this.

This portion is where it is failing due to the upper directory being "C:\"

ZipFile.CreateFromDirectory(uploadFolder, outputZIPLocation + "\\DiagnosticsZIP.zip");

Here is my code for reading and an example:

        string uploadFolder = Properties.Settings.Default.uploadFolder;
        string diagnosticFolder = uploadFolder + "\\DiagnosticsFolder";
        string outputZIPLocation = Path.GetFullPath(Path.Combine(uploadFolder, @"..")); //going up one directory so that I can ZIP up the uploadFolder contents

        try
        {
            if (!Directory.Exists(diagnosticFolder))
            {
                System.IO.Directory.CreateDirectory(diagnosticFolder);
            }

            if (File.Exists(diagnosticFolder + "\\Diagnostics.pdf"))
            {
                File.Delete(diagnosticFolder + "\\Diagnostics.pdf");
                System.IO.File.WriteAllText(diagnosticFolder + "\\Diagnostics.txt", SB.ToString());
            }
            else
            {
                System.IO.File.WriteAllText(diagnosticFolder + "\\Diagnostics.txt", SB.ToString());
            }

            if (File.Exists(outputZIPLocation + "\\DiagnosticsZIP.zip"))
            {
                File.Delete(outputZIPLocation + "\\DiagnosticsZIP.zip");
                ZipFile.CreateFromDirectory(uploadFolder, outputZIPLocation + "\\DiagnosticsZIP.zip");
            }
            else
            {
                ZipFile.CreateFromDirectory(uploadFolder, outputZIPLocation + "\\DiagnosticsZIP.zip");
            }

            MessageBox.Show("Diagnostics ZIP file sent.", "Send Diagnostics", MessageBoxButton.OK);
        }
        catch (Exception errorMessage)
        {
            MessageBox.Show("Error: unable to send the ZIP file." + "Error Message : " + errorMessage, "Send Diagnostics", MessageBoxButton.OK, MessageBoxImage.Error);
        }

Answer 1

I'd say always create a directory '/uploads' in the configured folder, use this subfolder for storing the files and you can always zip this folder in configured folder.