Can't Get Files of Desktop with LOVE2D

[BukkitmanMC]

Hey There! I am new to the LOVE Forums even though I have programmed with this Library before, so I am pretty used to it ! However, Right now, I am working on a game using this framework, and it supposed to access the files of your Desktop! however every string says "nil" in the files!. Also, when I ask it to print out an entire table, it only shows some stuff I don't understand like: "table: 0x03059638" ! can you figure out why it does that? if yes, thanks!

The Code of the only file that really has something, since I can't figure out how to add a file:

Code: Select all

function love.load()
  require "player" -- Not Really Anything Right Now

  -- Lets add Some Variables!
  -- Some Directory Suff first for Variables...
  DesktopDirectory = love.filesystem.getUserDirectory().."Desktop"
  DesktopFiles = love.filesystem.getDirectoryItems(DesktopDirectory)

  -- These are the Images!
  images = {
    background = love.graphics.newImage("gfx/desktop.png")
  }

  players = {player.new(10, 10, 10, 10, "gfx/stickman.png", true)}

  print(DesktopFiles)
end

function love.update(dt)

end

function love.draw()
  love.graphics.draw(images.background)
end

[pedrosgali]

You are trying to print a table, that's why it says 'tableX0...'. Try

Code: Select all

for k in pairs(desktopFiles) do
  print(desktopFiles[k])
end

Don't think love can read from your desktop though without using FFI. I've not used it before, maybe someone else can help with that.

[zorg]

Löve has three ways to do filesystem stuff:
- love.filesystem functions, which are the recommended way, support utf-8 encoding, work the same on all OS-es, and can only access the game's own directory and the save directory that's set with your project's identity.
- the lua io functions, which can access any folder and file anywhere on your computer, but it doesn't really guarantee utf-8 support on all OS-es. (windows)
- Advanced stuff: Using the FFI to call the PhysFS functions löve uses directly, in a way to circumvent their "allowed folder" limitations, akin to how file and folder dropping works.

For starters, i'd recommend forgetting every other folder apart from the save folder and the game's own, and using the love.filedropped and love.directorydropped functions to "support" files elsewhere, like on the desktop.

As for tables, you need to print their contents, as pedrosgali said above, otherwise, you'll print the reference's memory location, which is pretty much useless unless you want to compare if two variables point to the same table.

[BukkitmanMC]

Löve has three ways to do filesystem stuff:
- love.filesystem functions, which are the recommended way, support utf-8 encoding, work the same on all OS-es, and can only access the game's own directory and the save directory that's set with your project's identity.
- the lua io functions, which can access any folder and file anywhere on your computer, but it doesn't really guarantee utf-8 support on all OS-es. (windows)
- Advanced stuff: Using the FFI to call the PhysFS functions löve uses directly, in a way to circumvent their "allowed folder" limitations, akin to how file and folder dropping works.

For starters, i'd recommend forgetting every other folder apart from the save folder and the game's own, and using the love.filedropped and love.directorydropped functions to "support" files elsewhere, like on the desktop.

As for tables, you need to print their contents, as pedrosgali said above, otherwise, you'll print the reference's memory location, which is pretty much useless unless you want to compare if two variables point to the same table.

Thanks! I didn't know about that before! so this will definitely be useful! guess I'll be trying to figure out how to use lua's io functions later!

Also,

You are trying to print a table, that's why it says 'tableX0...'. Try

Code: Select all

for k in pairs(desktopFiles) do
  print(desktopFiles[k])
end

Don't think love can read from your desktop though without using FFI. I've not used it before, maybe someone else can help with that.

Thanks for the help, but for some reason, the file names won't show up. does it have to do with the directory it is looking at?
EDIT: Thanks For The Info!

[BukkitmanMC]

Löve has three ways to do filesystem stuff:
- love.filesystem functions, which are the recommended way, support utf-8 encoding, work the same on all OS-es, and can only access the game's own directory and the save directory that's set with your project's identity.
- the lua io functions, which can access any folder and file anywhere on your computer, but it doesn't really guarantee utf-8 support on all OS-es. (windows)
- Advanced stuff: Using the FFI to call the PhysFS functions löve uses directly, in a way to circumvent their "allowed folder" limitations, akin to how file and folder dropping works.

For starters, i'd recommend forgetting every other folder apart from the save folder and the game's own, and using the love.filedropped and love.directorydropped functions to "support" files elsewhere, like on the desktop.

As for tables, you need to print their contents, as pedrosgali said above, otherwise, you'll print the reference's memory location, which is pretty much useless unless you want to compare if two variables point to the same table.

Last of all, if I were to use love.directoryDropped(), how would I use it to get the file names? I am guessing it uses love.filesystem.mount, but how would I convert it into file names in an array?

[zorg]

'UniqueName' is whatever you want to call the mounted directory's root inside löve.

Code: Select all

function love.directorydropped( path )
love.filesystem.mount(path, 'UniqueName')
files = love.filesystem.getDirectoryItems('UniqueName')
end

[BukkitmanMC]

'UniqueName' is whatever you want to call the mounted directory's root inside löve.

Code: Select all

function love.directorydropped( path )
love.filesystem.mount(path, 'UniqueName')
files = love.filesystem.getDirectoryItems('UniqueName')
end

Ah! Thanks! With this, I was able to get that part to work! When I get the Beta Build of the Game Complete, I might as well show the game to you all!