Question

I’ve put together a function that creates a sharepoint folder in a document library based on the url that’s past in as an argument. The code works and the folder shows up in sharepoint from the webapplication.

However, when I query the SPWeb object for the folder afterward, it says the folder doesnt exist. Which makes no sense to me. Stranger still, is that this very same code worked no too long ago. I had been using it to create tree structures in sharepoint.

Even if the query folder fails, the GetFolder still returns a the folder, but when I add files to the returned folder, I get a runtime exception indicating that the file doesn’t exist…which I assume means the folder I am trying to add it to doesn’t exist since the file I am adding, doesn’t exist yet. Which is why I am adding it.

So my question is, why am I getting this error, and why does FolderExists return false when the folder actually exists? We know it exists because GetFolder actually returns it…

I’ve included some actual code from the app to make things clear.

If someone could have a look at the code and see and anything jumps out at them, that would be fantabulous…Thanks

Code to build folders:

    public void CreateFolder(SPUriBuilder url)
    {
        try
        {
            Log.Instance.WriteToLog("CreateFolder({0})", url);

            var library = GetLibrary(url.Library);
            if (library != null)
            {                    
                //  parse out string data
                //                    
                var parent = library.RootFolder.ServerRelativeUrl;
                var segments = url.Account.Split(new char[] { '/' }, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);
                var path = parent;

                //  get default folder collection
                //
                SPFolderCollection subFolders = _web.GetFolder(parent).SubFolders;

                //  check for sub-folders to create
                //
                if (segments.Length > 0)
                {
                    int i = 0;
                    do
                    {
                        //  check for folder and create if non-existant
                        //
                        var buildPath = String.Format("{0}/{1}", path, segments[i]);

                        if (_web.GetFolder(buildPath).Exists == false)
                            _web.GetFolder(path).SubFolders.Add(segments[i]);                            

                        //  retrieve new sub-folder collection
                        //
                        subFolders = _web.GetFolder(buildPath).SubFolders;                            
                        path = buildPath;

                        //  next folder in path
                        //
                        i++;
                    }
                    while (i < segments.Length);

                }

                //  finally, add folder of interest
                //
                subFolders.Add(url.Folder);                    

            }
        }
        catch (Exception e)
        {
            throw new SPImportException("Exception: {0}, creating folder: {1} in Library: {2}", e.Message, url.Folder, url.Library);
        }
    }

Code to Query folder:

    public bool FolderExists(SPUriBuilder url)
    {
        return _web.GetFolder(url.Uri.LocalPath).Exists;
    }

Code to Get Folder:

    private SPFolder GetFolder(SPUriBuilder url)
    {
        return _web.GetFolder(url.Uri.LocalPath);
    }

The SPUriBuilder is a custom class I created to assemble the Uri:

public class SPUriBuilder
{
    public string SiteUrl { get; private set; }        
    public string Library { get; private set; }
    public string Parent { get; private set; }
    public string Folder { get; private set; }
    public string File { get; private set; }
    public string Account { get; private set; }

    public Uri Uri { get; private set; }

    public SPUriBuilder(string siteUrl, string library, string account, string parent, string folder)
    {
        this.SiteUrl = siteUrl;
        this.Library = library;
        this.Account = account;
        this.Parent = parent.Replace("\\", "/");
        this.Parent = this.Parent.StartsWith("/") ? this.Parent.Substring(1) : this.Parent;
        this.Folder = folder;

        StringBuilder url = new StringBuilder();

        url.AppendFormat("{0}/{1}/{2}", SiteUrl, Library, Account);
        if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(Parent) == false)
            url.AppendFormat("/{0}", Parent);
        url.AppendFormat("/{0}", Folder);

        this.Uri = new Uri(url.ToString());

    }

    public SPUriBuilder(SPUriBuilder uri, string file)
        : this(uri.SiteUrl, uri.Library, uri.Account, uri.Parent, uri.Folder)
    {
        this.File = file;

        StringBuilder url = new StringBuilder();

        url.AppendFormat("{0}/{1}", this.Uri.ToString(), this.File);

        this.Uri = new Uri(url.ToString());

    }

    public override string ToString()
    {
        return Uri.ToString();
    }
}

Answer 1

I found the answer this to this myself. The problem was in the code used to create the folder.

      var parent = library.RootFolder.ServerRelativeUrl;

      //  This line of code is incorrect, so it returned the wrong data, thus building the folder path incorrectly.
      //
      var segments = url.Account.Split(new char[] { '/' }, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);
      var path = parent;


      //   This is the replacement line of code that fixed the issue.
      //
      var segments = url.Uri.LocalPath.Substring(parent.Length+1).Split(new char[] { '/' }, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);

    //   as well, this line had to be removed since it was no longer needed
    //
    //  finally, add folder of interest
            //
            subFolders.Add(url.Folder);  

Ultimately the issue turned out be that the folder structure did not exist that I was attempting to create the file in. One or more segments in the path were missing.

So if you ever see this error, make sure you’re the folder exists that you are adding the file to. If it isn’t, you will certainly experience this error.