Question

I have files that I want to delete. Connection can be from file sharing, http, and ftp.

Example of files to delete:

//mytest//delete//filename.bin
ftp://mytest/delete/filename.bin
http://mytest/delete/filename.bin

Here’s what I did:

Uri target = new Uri(@"ftp://mytest/delete/filename.bin");
FileInfo fi = new FileInfo(target.AbsoluteUri);
fi.Delete();

The error I get is:

The given paths format is not supported

Is there a single code that can delete in all these file types?

I have created a simple code for this task(based on thread response).
This is the input:

Uri target = new Uri(@"ftp://tabletijam/FileServer/upload.bin");
Uri target = new Uri(@"http://tabletijam/FileServer/upload.bin");
Uri target = new Uri(@"\\tabletijam\FileServer\upload.bin");

This is the code:

bool DeleteFileOnServer(Uri serverUri)
{
    if (serverUri.Scheme == Uri.UriSchemeFtp)
    {
        FtpWebRequest request = (FtpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(serverUri);
        request.Method = WebRequestMethods.Ftp.DeleteFile;

        FtpWebResponse response = (FtpWebResponse)request.GetResponse();
        lblStatus.Content = response.StatusDescription;

        response.Close(); 

        return true;
    }
    else if (serverUri.Scheme == Uri.UriSchemeFile)
    {
        System.IO.File.Delete(serverUri.LocalPath);

        return true;
    }
    else if (serverUri.Scheme == Uri.UriSchemeHttp || serverUri.Scheme == Uri.UriSchemeHttps)
    {
        HttpWebRequest request = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(serverUri);
        request.Method = WebRequestMethods.Http.DeleteFile;

        HttpWebResponse response = (HttpWebResponse)request.GetResponse();
        lblStatus.Content = response.StatusDescription;

        response.Close();

        return true;
    }
    else
    {
        lblStatus.Content = "Unknown uri scheme.";
        return false;
    }
}

Ftp and File deleted successfully. WebRequestMethods.Http does not contain DeleteFile.

So my question is, how do I delete file from this URI?

http://tabletijam/FileServer/upload.bin

Answer 1

Because FileInfo only works with local files. For each connection you will need a special implementation.

For FTP: (example from MSDN)

public static bool DeleteFileOnServer(Uri serverUri)
{
    // The serverUri parameter should use the ftp:// scheme.
    // It contains the name of the server file that is to be deleted.
    // Example: ftp://contoso.com/someFile.txt.
    // 

    if (serverUri.Scheme != Uri.UriSchemeFtp)
    {
        return false;
    }
    // Get the object used to communicate with the server.
    FtpWebRequest request = (FtpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(serverUri);
    request.Method = WebRequestMethods.Ftp.DeleteFile;

    FtpWebResponse response = (FtpWebResponse) request.GetResponse();
    Console.WriteLine("Delete status: {0}",response.StatusDescription);  
    response.Close();
    return true;
}