NodeJs: Getting MyDocuments Path on Windows - windows

Question

How can I retrieve the MyDocuments path with NodeJS.
So I would like to get something in NodeJs with the following C# code:
Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.MyDocuments)
Thx & Regards
Stefan

Answer 1

Found the answer:
var Q = require('Q');
var getUserDoc = function(callback) {
var Winreg = require('winreg');
var deferred = Q.defer();
var regKey = new Winreg({
hive: Winreg.HKCU,
key: '\\Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Explorer\\User Shell Folders'
});
var myDocFolder = regKey.values(function(err, items) {
for (var i in items) {
if (items[i].name === 'Personal') {
deferred.resolve(items[i].value);
}
}
});
deferred.promise.nodeify(callback);
return deferred.promise;
}
getUserDoc().then(function(result) {
console.log(result);
});

Answer 2

You should use the environment variable instead :
function getUserDoc() {
return process.env.USERPROFILE+'\\Documents';
}
This assumes that you run Win7 or above. For Win XP, it'd be \\My Documents. You can easily check for one or the other in your function.
Also, you can use the package path-extra which offers the shortcut homedir()
In this case you'd have to do :
var path = require('path-extra');
function getUserDoc() {
return path.homedir()+'\\Documents';
}
Both of these solutions allow you to not give your app the credentials for checking the registry.
And run way faster than the promise + registry hack you've found.
Update: path-extra do not supports homedir any more. https://github.com/jprichardson/node-path-extra/commit/ce7a0b67ce07ca06ca2eeabf62621e1327b1d113
+1 for ingenuity though, I've saved that snippet for possible use ;-)