whenever size of the notepad changes?

[arkeshtk]

hi,
is there any way to execute alpha five code whenever size of the notepad changes.

because i have to collect data from notepad and notepad contents changes very often in 1 hour(there is no fixed time,so when ever size of notepad changes i need to to some operation).

thanks

[Steve Wood]

Re: whenever size of the notepad changes?

There is noting in Alpha alone that will do this. Two options are:

- Everytime your process runs, store the datetime of the notepad file. Next time someone logs in (the triggering event) include code to check the datetime of the notepad file against the stored value, and run your operation if needed. That uses a login as the trigger, probably not adequate for you.

- Use this product to schedule events to trigger instantly when the notepad file changes - http://www.watchdirectory.net/

- Use CRONTAB and CURL to run a procedure every X minutes, checking if the notepad file changed. You will find both of those utilities by searching the web.

[Al Buchholz]

Re: whenever size of the notepad changes?

FILE.WATCH_CREATE()

[MikeC]

Re: whenever size of the notepad changes?

I tried the file.watch_create() function and it generated an error to send to Alpha tech support.

But if there is a problem with that function another possible way is to use the file.size() function. Have a variable set initially when first opening/logging on to equal the file.size()...then check it somehow with a timer if available--don't know what is available on the webside for this...could even be done when certain buttons are pressed, pages are brought up, whatever....then something along the lines of

dim fsize as n
fsize=file.size("C:\test.txt")

if fsize>vfile_size
  your code here to process
  vfile_size=fsize

end if

Sure seems doable.



Al,
do you have a working example I could see sometime?

[MikeC]

Re: whenever size of the notepad changes?

Al,
I just got the file.watch_create() to work...talk about a misnomer---should be called folder.watch_create() !! Apparently it is only to be used on a folder basis and whatever files are contained within.

[ColinJD]

Re: whenever size of the notepad changes?

folder.watch_create() !! :-) :)
Yes you are right about that.
After reading the help on file.watch_create()
I was lucky enough that my brain reinterpreted it to be watch_4_files_created()
-
I use it on the basis of Creating a specific folder, and watching for new files to appear in 'said folder. At aprox 3000 files a day it has worked flawlessly

[Steve Wood]

Re: whenever size of the notepad changes?

The first thing I said when I saw this file.watch_create() solution is phooey, it won't work on the web. But I was wrong! It does work!

To test I created an A5W page with the following code, and then simply ran the page in a browser once. I ran it on my server to make sure that my local copy of Alpha was not making it work. My server only has the web app server running.

batch = <<%txt%
file.append_line("c:\testwatch1.txt",time())
file.create("c:\testwatch2.txt",FILE_RW_EXCLUSIVE)
%txt%
file.watch_create("testwatch","c:\watch","F",batch)

I wanted to have two lines in my executed code (the 'batch' variable) to ensure it runs multiple lines of instructions.

The above sets the watch in the server memory and, if I create or destroy a file in the c:\watch folder, it absolutely executes the two lines of code.

Of course, you need to execute that first A5W that sets the watch somehow. And that has to be manually or as an 'autoexec' if the server reboots, or like said here earlier, triggered if someone logs in or something.

One potential problem I noticed is that you MUST include some check on the A5W page to see if the watch is already running, and if so NOT launch it again. If you take the above code as is and refresh the browser 10 times, then ten copies of the watch are in memory. And so when a file is created in c:\watch, those two lines of code fire ten times. I guess you would use FILE.WATCH_ENUMERATE() to see if your watch is in the list, and then not run it a subsequent time if it were.

This 'discovery' is good timing for me as I have two web apps the need scheduled operations. I will have to determine if this adds any overhead or causes other problems. The server must have to retain those lines of code in memory. If it works, it removes the need to use that fancy WatchDirectory I've made such a fuss about.

Another potential problem is that whatever you set is applied to the whole server, not a particular application or logged in user.

[Al Buchholz]

Re: whenever size of the notepad changes?

Al,
I just got the file.watch_create() to work...talk about a misnomer---should be called folder.watch_create() !! Apparently it is only to be used on a folder basis and whatever files are contained within.

No it is watching files - perhaps within a folder.

I think in this case we want to see if user has saved something new, so we need to set the flag to:

T  Date/time stamp on a file changed.

I'm thinking that the user may have changed some data, saved the file, but the size of the file may not have changed, but the date/time stamp would.

[MikeC]

Re: whenever size of the notepad changes?

Al,

No it is watching files - perhaps within a folder.

Exactly what I wanted to point out...

More specifically, the only files that are looked at are within a specified folder....they cannot be looked at individually. That is, if there are multiple files within a folder that is being watched, if any of them change for whatever is being watched for, the code will run. A file that is located within the drive root and not within a folder cannot be checked by itself, any file that is changed on the root will trigger the code.

[Al Buchholz]

Re: whenever size of the notepad changes?

Al,
Exactly what I wanted to point out...

More specifically, the only files that are looked at are within a specified folder....they cannot be looked at individually. That is, if there are multiple files within a folder that is being watched, if any of them change for whatever is being watched for, the code will run. A file that is located within the drive root and not within a folder cannot be checked by itself, any file that is changed on the root will trigger the code.

Good point.

Or you have to apply a filter within the code to determine if t he file should be processed.

I am interested if others run into the situation where they want to monitor a folder and it's subfolders. I'm working on a solution for that - it takes another program running to monitor windows functions to watch the folder(s).