Create new file in user directory (with InstalledFileLocator on NB Platform) - netbeans

Question

How to create new file in a user directory on NetBeans Platform application? I used:
System.getProperty("netbeans.user", "user.home") + "/myfile");
But the NB IDE 7.1.1 told me that it is depreceated and I should use InstalledFile Locator instead. Ok, I tried this:
File file = InstalledFileLocator.getDefault().locate("myfile", null, false);
It works fine, if the file already exists. I cannot see any way, how to create new with the InstalledFileLocator. But the javadoc say, this method allows to get folder. So I tried this:
File file = InstalledFileLocator.getDefault().locate("myfile", null, false);
if (file == null) {
file = new File(InstalledFileLocator.getDefault().locate("", null, false), "myfile");
}
Again without success, the method locate now fails that it can't find anything (the "/" is forbidden and does not work too).
So my question is, how to corectly load in my NetBeans Platform application an existing file in the user directory (it is for writing also, so it should not be in the program directory) and if it does not exist, create it?

Answer 1

You could use Places.getUserDirectory().
File file = InstalledFileLocator.getDefault().locate("myfile", null, false);
if (file == null)
{
file = new File(Places.getUserDirectory() + File. separator + "myfile");
}

Answer 2

From the netbeans platform docs InstalledFileLocator should not be used to find resources on the system filesystem. To find data in the system filesystem, use the Filesystems API. Ex:
FileObject fo = FileUtil.getConfigFile(myfile);
if (fo == null) {
fo = FileUtil.getConfigRoot().createData(myFile,ext);
}

Answer 3

Probably the easiest thing you can do is to include a simple empty file (say "here.txt") in your module that will be installed in the user directory automatically. You can see an example of this here (see the section "Lessons learned: bundling files with your NetBeans modules").
Basically you include the file in the "release/modules/ext/here.txt" directory of your module.
When the module is installed the platform will install the 'here.txt' file included in your module in the user directory automatically for you, so you don't have to worry about this.
Once your module is installed an running you want to locate the file like this:
File hereTXT = InstalledFileLocator.getDefault()
.locate("modules/ext/here.txt",
"a.b.c",
false);
(Where "a.b.c" is your module identifier.)
And then from that 'hereTXT' file you can get the directory with 'hereTXT.getParent()', and you're all set.