Can i Write to Embedded Resource Text File? - c++

im stucking with Writing to Text File in the Resource, i can read from
the specified file, but cant write, its says Stream is not writeable.
there is any way to fix it ? i do it for my program builder, thanks in advice!

You can not write the the application bundle, pick another location, perhaps the Documents directory on iOS or the Application Support directory in OSX.
On iOS the resource bundle is also signed, another reason writing to it is not allowed.

Related

How to attach MS word document in Qt GUI application?

I wrote a Qt widget application. In the file menu I want to insert an MS word document as a user manual. Is there any way to do it? I checked Qt help and various blogs but none of them gave me a clear solution.
If it is only manual then it is not necessary to embed MS Word inside your app. Maybe try to open needed document with Word installed in computer. Try this code:
QDesktopServices::openUrl(QUrl("file:///G:/tst.docx"));
Just set needed path. As doc said:
If the URL is a reference to a local file (i.e., the URL scheme is
"file") then it will be opened with a suitable application instead of
a Web browser.
If you want to embed it in your application executable, just insert your .docx file as a resource file. To open the docx file from resources, you should first copy it to some location for example in the application directory path :
QFile HelpFile("qrc:/myFile.docx");;
HelpFile.copy(qApp->applicationDirPath().append("/myFile.docx"));
Next you can open it by :
QDesktopServices::openUrl(QUrl::fromLocalFile(qApp->applicationDirPath().append("/myFile.docx")));

Avoiding Users to Access Text Resources in C++ Project with Boost

I am working on a project in C++ with Eclipse Helios, QT 4.6.1 integration plugin and boost 1.52 libraries. I'd like to extract some information to work with from a xml file and I'm currently doing so by calling boost function const read_xml(std::string &, Ptree &, int = 0, const std::locale & = std::locale()).
The point is that I'd like to avoid final users to access that xml resource from the release folder and I have no idea of how to do it. Is there any (easy) way I could possibly treat that xml content from inside the executable in order to load it into memory and carry on with the rest of the process as I'm already doing with the xml file being treated as a project resource? Any tips would me more than appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
If you want to prevent the users of your program from modifying the XML file, you should use resources, to compile the file inside the executable.
If you are already using Qt, then by all means have a look at qrc in Qt 4.6. Qt provides a nice system independent way of embedding resource files into the executable. If your project is not already using Qt, then you probably don't want to add it just for that.
If you want a Windows-specific resource file, you can have a look at .rc files documentation. To check what was inside compiled resource files, I used ResEdit in the past and found it really useful. You can even create resource files with it.
If you are targeting Mac OS, you probably want to have a look at bundles, which are sort of a directory where you can put your resources. If you sign your application you can prevent the user to modify any file in the bundle (I'm not sure signing it is required though, I don't have much experience on Mac OS development).
And if you are targeting Linux or similar, you can try doing this trick which seems to work quite well.
All these methods aim to only embed your XML file into your executable, so that your users cannot easily modify it (well, in theory it is still possible but Muggles won't be able to do so). Reading the file may depend on the solution you choose. I personally dislike the Windows resource system and use it only when I really have to, avoiding the Win32 API like plague. If you choose to use Qt, it is quite easy to read the file, and you can do it with boost if you want to. Instead of reading the file at "resources/config.xml", you point to the resource file using ":/config.xml". Here would be the resource file:
<!DOCTYPE RCC><RCC version="1.0">
<qresource>
<file>config.xml</file>
</qresource>
</RCC>
Then when you read it, I'm not sure if you have to use a Qt class to access it or not, but even if you do, you can open the file using QFile and call readAll, then use the result with boost:
QFile myConfigFile(":/config.xml");
if (!myConfigFile.open(QIODevice::ReadOnly | QIODevice::Text))
return;
read_xml(QString(myConfigFile.readAll()), [...]);
I haven't tested it but it should work with something like that.
The read_xml is overloaded. You are probably refering to this function:
read_xml(filename ... )
but there is also
read_xml(stream ...)
where stream is any std::istream object produced in any way. You could even have a hard-coded string in your source converted to a stream.
Thanks again for your tip Uflex. The point with my application was using QT but only for the GUI functionality, avoiding its use in the application controller underneath...
I've just checked your approach and it is mostly what I was looking for, except for the last line, since read_xml function accepts strings with the path to the xml file or stringstreams with the content of that xml. So, after combining your explanation with these two links:
How to feed Boost.PropertyTree with a string, not a file?
http://doc.qt.digia.com/4.6/resources.html
we are ready to go...
istringstream ss;
QFile file (QString::fromStdString(pathString));
if(file.open(QIODevice::ReadOnly | QIODevice::Text)){
ss.str(QString(file.readAll()).toStdString());
read_xml(ss, ...)
...
}

Cannot access INI files in "Program Files"

I wrote this C++ application that needs to check an INI file (“preference.ini”), and eventually modify it (e.g. if the user does not want to see the introduction form anymore). I created it in WinXP, and it works fine on the system where I compiled it (in many locations, including “Program Files”).
Problem:
In Win 7, it works fine if I put the complete program folder under “C”:\” (e.g. “C:\MyProgram”), but if I put it in “C:\Program Files (x86)\MyProgram”, it just retrieves some mysterious data (values not present in my INI file). When I change some settings and save them to file, it (apparently) save the changes (get no errors, but the changes are not there when I go and open the file...
I had some similar issue on a system with another WinXP system (not the one where I compiled it.
I used 'getcwd' to define the path at runtime, and I verified that it is getting it right, even under "Program Files (x86)":
char currentPath[MAXPATH];
getcwd(currentPath, MAXPATH);
std::string licensePath(currentPath);
licensePath.append("\\dat\\preference.ini");'
Any ideas? Thanks in advance for your help.
The answer is as #Kirill has already said - Win7 won't let you write data into Program Files unless you have higher than normal permissions (Run as Administrator). In this case it may be redirecting your file writes so that they still apear to work, but the data itself is not stored in Progam Files.
To add to his answer: In general (unless you want to run your app as an administrator), you should not write any program data to the Program Files folder.
Application settings should be stored in one of the AppData folders. You can get to your user's appdata manually by going to your start menu Search box (Vista/Win7) and typing %appdata%.
To find this location in your code, use SHGetFolderPath with CSIDL_APPDATA (current user) or CSIDL_COMMON_APPDATA (all users).
It could be related to that Windows use virtualization of the file system. You could read here about it. Check if your INI file is located in <root>\Users\<User_name>\AppData\Local\VirtualStore.
Seems to me that the licensePath: getcwd() + "\\dat\\preference.ini" is not what you would expect.
Log this value (console or in a log file) and see what exactly is the value of licencePath is when running you program from different folders.
This article is about game development but has the best description of how and why this happens that I've been able to find
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee419001(VS.85).aspx
This paragraph from the article describes what is happening most likely -
Attempting to create or write a file
or directory under a folder which does
not grant write permission to the
process will fail under Windows Vista
if the application does not have
administrative privileges. If your
32-bit game executable is running in
legacy mode, because it did not
declare a requested execution level,
its write operations will succeed, but
they will be subjected to
virtualization as described in the
section "UAC Compatibility with Older
Games" later in this article.

Intercept windows open file

I'm trying to make a small program that could intercept the open process of a file.
The purpose is when an user double-click on a file in a given folder, windows would inform to the software, then it process that petition and return windows the data of the file.
Maybe there would be another solution like monitoring Open messages and force Windows to wait while the program prepare the contents of the file.
One application of this concept, could be to manage desencryption of a file in a transparent way to the user.
In this context, the encrypted file would be on the disk and when the user open it ( with double-click on it or with some application such as notepad ), the background process would intercept that open event, desencrypt the file and give the contents of that file to the asking application.
It's a little bit strange concept, it could be like "Man In The Middle" network concept, but with files instead of network packets.
Thanks for reading.
The best way to do it to cover all cases of opening from any program would be via a file system filter driver. This may be too complex for your needs though.
You can use the trick that Process Explorer uses to replace itself with task manager. Basically create a key like this:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\taskmgr.exe
Where you replace 'taskmgr.exe' with the name of the process to intercept. Then add a string value called 'Debugger' that has the path to your executable. E.g:
Debugger -> "C:\windows\system32\notepad.exe"
Every a process is run that matches the image name your process will actually be called as a debugger for that process with the path to the actual process as an argument.
You could use code injection and API redirection. You'd start your target process and then inject a DLL which hooks the windows API functions that you want to intercept. You then get called when the target process thinks it's calling OpenFile() or whatever and you can do what you like before passing the call on to the real API.
Google for "IAT hooking".
Windows has an option to encrypt files on the disk (file->properties->advanced->encrypt) and this option is completely transparent to the applications.
Maybe to encrypt decrypt file portions of a disk you should consider softwares like criptainer?
There is this software as well http://www.truecrypt.org/downloads (free and open source) but I haven't tried it.
Developing a custom solution sounds very difficult.

modify an open file c++

Under Windows is there a way to modify a file/executable opened by another process using c++?
Is there a way to modify an open executable in windows?
No.
Is there a way to modify an open file in windows using c++?
Yes. If it has been opened with the proper share permissions. See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa363858(VS.85).aspx FILE_SHARE_WRITE
It may be possible but perhaps not easy to achieve. You need inject thread in destination process and know PE format for correctly edit opened file and modify it.
All information is on web.
Good Luck.
I find this freeware tool, it proposes to unlock files and folders.
The OS holds the executable file open for read-only sharing as long as it's running, so there's no way to modify it directly. You can, however, open it for reading (if you specify read-sharing in your CreateFile call), and make a modified copy of it, while it's running.
I don't know if that's what you had in mind, but if it's your own program you're doing this to, you can start the new copy and have it pick up where the previous one left off... not straightforward, but not all that difficult either.