ASP Tutorials - Herong's Tutorial Examples
Dr. Herong Yang, Version 5.00

"FileSystemObject" Class - File System

This section provides a tutorial example on how to use the FileSystemObject class that represents the file system on the Web server. FileSystemObject class is provided in the Scripting Runtime DLL, scrrun.dll.

FileSystemObject: A class represents the file system of the operating system where the Web server is running. Major methods and properties include:

  • "Drives": Property to return a read-only collection of "Drive" objects representing all drives in the current file system.
  • "GetDrive(drivePath)": Method to return a Drive object of the specified drive path (driver letter with ':').
  • "GetFolder(folderPath)": Method to return a Folder object of the specified folder path name.
  • "GetFile(filePath)": Method to return a File object of the specified file path name.
  • "CreateTextFile(pathname,[override[,unicode]])": Method to create a new text file and return a TextStream object connected to the new file. "override=true|false" specifies if the new file can override an existing file. "unicode=false|true" specifies if the new should written with unicode encoding.
  • "OpenTextFile(pathname[,io_mode[,create[,tristate]]])": Method to open a file and returns a TextStream object connected to the file. "create=false|true" specifies that if a new can be created when the specified file does not exists. io_mode(=1|2|8: ForReading|ForWriting|ForAppending) specifies how the file should be openned. tristate(=-2|-1|0: TristateUserDefault|TristateTrue|TristateFalse) specifies if the file should be open as Unicode or not.
  • "CopyFile(from_pathname, to_pathname)": Method to copy a file specified by the from_pathname to the to_pathname.
  • "DeleteFile()": Method to delete a file.
  • "MoveFile()": Method to move a file.
  • "FileExists()": Method to check if a file exists.
  • "CreateFolder": Method to create a folder.
  • "CopyFolder()": Method to copy a folder.
  • "DeleteFolder()": Method to delete a folder.
  • "MoveFolder()": Method to move a folder.
  • "FolderExists()": Method to check if a folder exists.
  • "DriveExists": Method to check if a drive exists.

Below is a simple ASP page to how to create a folder and copy a file by using the FileSystemObject class.

<script language="vbscript" runat="server">
'  file_sytem.asp
'  Copyright (c) 1999 by Dr. Herong Yang
'  This program shows how to use the FileSystemObject class.
'
   response.write("<html><body>")
   response.write("<b>Tests on the FileSystemObject class</b>:<br/>")
   ' Getting the FileSystemObject object
   set fs = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
   if fs.FolderExists("c:\temp\backup") then 
      fs.DeleteFolder("c:\temp\backup")
   end if
   set d = fs.CreateFolder("c:\temp\backup")
   fs.CopyFile "c:\inetpub\wwwroot\file_system.asp", _
      "c:\temp\backup\file_system.asp"
   response.write("File copied: c:\temp\backup\file_system.asp<br/>")
   response.write("</body></html>")
</script>

Output:

Tests on the FileSystemObject class:
File copied: c:\temp\backup\file_system.asp

It's interesting to note that:

  • VBScript statements can be continued to the next line with "_" as the end character.
  • File name must be specified in the to_pathname for the CopyFile() method.

Last update: 2002.

Table of Contents

 About This Book

 ASP (Active Server Pages) Introduction

 IIS (Internet Information Services) 5.0

 MS Script Debugger

 VBScript Language

 ASP Built-in Run-time Objects

 ASP Session

 Creating and Managing Cookies

 Managing Sessions with and without Cookies

scrrun.dll - Scripting Runtime DLL

 What Is scrrun.dll?

 "Dictionary" Class - Collection of Key-Value Pairs

"FileSystemObject" Class - File System

 "Drive" Class - Disk Drive

 "Folder" Class - File Folder

 "File" Class - File Folder

 "TextStream" Class - Input or Output Stream

 Managing Response Header Lines

 Calculation Speed and Response Time

 ADO (ActiveX Data Object) DLL

 Working with MS Access Database

 Guest Book Application Example

 References

 PDF Printing Version

Dr. Herong Yang, updated in 2010
"FileSystemObject" Class - File System