Files, Folders and Paths

 OverviewPaths

A path is a string of text that describes where a file or folder is stored in a hierarchical directory structure. There are three kinds of paths you can use in AutoPlay Media Studio: full paths, relative paths and UNC paths.

Full Paths

Full or "absolute" paths provide "complete" directions to locate a file, starting right from the drive letter that the file is located on. A full path begins with the drive letter and includes the name of each folder that would need to be opened, in turn, in order to access the desired folder or file. The folder names are separated by backslash characters (\). Full paths have the following general format:

<drive letter>:\<folder name>\<folder name>\<filename>

For example:

• The path to the root folder on the C: drive is:
  C:\

• The path where AutoPlay Media Studio is installed by default is:
  C:\Program Files\AutoPlay Media Studio X

• The path to Notepad.exe on your system is probably something like:
  C:\Windows\Notepad.exe

Relative Paths

Relative paths provide "partial" directions to locate a file starting from a given folder (often the current working directory). Relative paths look just like full paths, but they're missing the drive name and possibly some folder names too. The simplest relative paths consist of a single folder or filename. Relative paths have the following general format:

<folder name>\<folder name>\<filename>

For example:

• The relative path to a Data folder in the current working directory would be:
  Data

• The relative path to the AutoPlay Media Studio application from the Program Files folder would be:
  AutoPlay Media Studio X\AutoPlayDesign.exe

• The relative path to a readme file in a sub-folder named Docs would be:
  Docs\readme.txt

• The relative path to the root folder on the same drive is always:
  \

Dots and dot-dots

There are two special folder names that you can use in relative paths:

One dot (.) always refers to the current folder.
Two dots (..) refers to the folder that is one level higher than the current folder.

For example:

• The relative path to a program named foo.exe in a folder two levels above the current folder is:
  ..\..\foo.exe

• The relative path to a folder named Images in a folder three levels above the current folder is:
  ..\..\..\Images

• The relative path to a file named whatsup.doc in the current folder can either be written as:
  whatsup.doc
  
  or as:
  .\whatsup.doc

UNC Paths

The Universal Naming Convention (UNC) is a standard method of describing the location of files and other resources shared over a network. In Windows, UNC paths begin with two backslashes (\\), followed by the server name, which is the name assigned to the computer where the shared resources are located. The server name is followed by another backslash (\) and the share name, which is simply the name that was given to the volume or storage device when it was shared. This is then followed by the path to the desired file or folder on that shared volume.

UNC paths have the following general format:

\\<server name>\<share name>\<folder name>\<filename>

For example:

• The UNC path to the AutoPlay Media Studio X folder on a C: drive which is shared as "D2" on a computer named "R2" would be:
  \\R2\D2\Program Files\AutoPlay Media Studio X

• The UNC path to a file named foo.txt in the temp folder of a drive which is shared as "MAIN" on a computer named "DOROTHY" would be:
  \\DOROTHY\MAIN\temp\foo.txt

Next: Overview