topic Style files location in ArcObjects SDK Questions

Style files location

IlyaSolovyev — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 00:31:03 GMT

Is there any function or property in ArcObjects (.NET) which resolves paths to style files location? I want to avoid hardcoding strings like "C:\Program Files\ArcGIS\Desktop10.1\Styles". I am using ArcGIS 10.1 SP1.

ArcGIS Help says there are user and system folders:

<install drive>:\Program Files\ArcGIS\Desktop10.1\Styles

On Windows XP, it is located at <install drive>:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\ESRI\Desktop10.1\ArcMap

On Windows Vista and Windows 7, it is located at <install drive>:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\ESRI\Desktop10.1\ArcMap

Re: Style files location

AlexanderGray — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 12:40:38 GMT

You can get the styles from the registry. In 10.0 it is under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\ESRI\Desktop10.0\CoreRuntime\StyleDir. I assume desktop 10.1 has something very similar.
The main annoyance of using that method is you would have to update the code every time you changed version...
You might be better off getting a reference to the ArcMap.exe through .net reflections which gives you the path to the bin directory and work your way back to styles. Of course if esri changes the location in a future version, that won't work either.

Re: Style files location

IlyaSolovyev — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 00:13:53 GMT

You can get the styles from the registry. In 10.0 it is under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\ESRI\Desktop10.0\CoreRuntime\StyleDir. I assume desktop 10.1 has something very similar.

I use this approach now. Also check user's directory.

The main annoyance of using that method is you would have to update the code every time you changed version...

That is why i dont like my approach.

You might be better off getting a reference to the ArcMap.exe through .net reflections which gives you the path to the bin directory and work your way back to styles. Of course if esri changes the location in a future version, that won't work either.

My application is standalone, it doesn't run in ArcMap.

Re: Style files location

IlyaSolovyev — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 05:46:46 GMT

I found out, that we can use IStyleGalleryStorage to retrieve style files folders.

Example:

IStyleGallery StyleGallery = new StyleGalleryClass(); IStyleGalleryStorage StyleGalleryStorage = StyleGallery as IStyleGalleryStorage;  // This is Program Files styles folder string default = StyleGalleryStorage.DefaultLocation;  // All loaded style files for (int i = 0; i < StyleGalleryStorage.FileCount; i++) {       string fullFilePath = StyleGalleryStorage.get_File(i);       // Now you can get directory       string dir = System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(fullFilePath);       if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(dir) && System.IO.Directory.Exists(dir))       {               // Do smth       } }