Question

I am trying to write a c# console application that recursively reads through a certain folder.
In these folders are thousands of .jpg images

The folder structure is very deep in some levels and an example look like this:

Scc-LocalPhoto/testfiles/1997/JAN-JUN
1997/APRIL 1997/7.4.97 –
11.4.97/FRI11.4.97/

As you can see the folder structure is quite messy, however I do not have control over this.

My task is to read through all the folders. Retract the Meta data from the images and store in XML file. I then need to copy all the folders in the same layout and paste them in a new folder.

I think I will be able to read though all the directories and extract the meta data from the images and save it to an xml file.

What I do not know how to do is copy and past all the folders and images and paste them in a new directory maintaining the same folder structure.

Does anybody know of an efficient way to perform this task or is there any project, code available I could use as a starting point.

I am fairly new to C# and writing console apps.
Thanks for your time.

Answer 1

Parsing Directories Recursively

static void ParseDirectories(string root)
{
    ProcessDirectory(new DirectoryInfo(root));

    string[] subDirectories = Directory.GetDirectories(root);

    // No more directories to explore
    if (subDirectories.Length == 0)
        return;

    foreach (string subDirectory in subDirectories)
    {
        ParseDirectories(subDirectory);
    }
}

Processing the Files in a Directory

static void ProcessDirectory(DirectoryInfo directory)
{
    foreach (FileInfo file in directory.EnumerateFiles("*.jpg")
    {
        // record metadata and do other work on each file here
    }
}

Copying a Directory tree

static void CopyDirectoryTree(DirectoryInfo source, DirectoryInfo dest)
{
    if (!Directory.Exists(dest.FullName))
        Directory.CreateDirectory(dest.FullName);

    bool overwrite = true;

    // Copy files
    foreach (FileInfo file in source.EnumerateFiles())
    {
        file.CopyTo(Path.Combine(dest.ToString(), file.Name), overwrite);
    }

    // Copy Sub-directories
    foreach (DirectoryInfo subDirectory in source.GetDirectories())
    {
        DirectoryInfo newDirectory = destination.CreateSubdirectory(subDirectory.Name);
        CopyDirectoryTree(subDirectory, newDirectory);
    }
}

Sample usage

static void Main(string[] args)
{
    // Process each directory
    string initialDirectory = @"C:\path_to_folder";
    ParseDirectories(initialDirectory);

    // Copy directory tree
    string destinationDirectory = @"C:\path_to_new_root_directory";
    CopyDirectoryTree(
        new DirectoryInfo(initialDirectory),
        new DirectoryInfo(destinationDirectory));
}

Hope this helps!