The FileSystemObject
contains several collections. Each of these collections contains
information on a particular aspect of the web server's file system. These collections include:
Drives
- The various drives on the computer's file system. Include floppy drives, CD-ROMs, tape drives, etc., as well as hard drives.
SubFolders
- The immediate subfolders of a given folder.
Files
- The list of files in a particular folder.
There are, not surprisingly, three objects, one associated with each collection. These objects are the
Drive
object, the Folder
object, and the File
object. It helps
to imagine your file system as a hierarchy, like so:

Note that the FileSystemObject
contains all of the drive, folder, and files information
indirectly. Directly, it contains just the Drives
collection- that is Drive 1 through Drive N.
Each Drive
object in the Drives
collection contains a series of Folder
objects, while each Folder
object contains a Files
collection.
The FileSystemObject
also contains three functions to retrieve specific Drive
,
Folder
, and File
objects: GetDrive
, GetFolder
, and
GetFile
, respectively. Each of these three functions returns the appropriate object type.
So, if you want to obtain specific information about a particular file (for example, it's last modified
date, or its file size), you can use the GetFile
method to retrieve the File
object that represents that particular file.
|
Note: in your applications, you should alway use the FileExists
method to determine whether or not
a particular file exists before using the GetFile
method. See the
second FSO FAQ for more information on FileExists
.
A complete listing of the File
object properties can be found at:
Microsoft's Scripting Site.
To get a specific folder, use the GetFolder
object. You can then iterate through each of
the files in that folder by using the Files
collection. For example, the following code
will list the files in the directory C:\InetPub\wwwroot
.
|
Again, your application code should first use the FolderExists
method to make sure
the folder you are trying to obtain with the GetFolder
method exists. (
View a list of the Folder
object properties.)
You can use these collections to iterate through the entire file system of your web server! Two good
article on 4Guys that discuss using these collections are: A Text-Based
Search Engine, and Using the FileSystemObject
for
Website Maintainence.
Happy Programming!
FAQ Table of Contents |
![]() |
Using FSO to Access a File on a Remote Computer ![]() |