File Watcher Simple

File Watcher Simple is a simple file watcher application with a grahical user interface. It allows the user to create file watchers easily without manual editing of XML configuration files . You can use XML configuration files from any other File Watcher Utilities application.

File Watcher Simple
File Watcher Simple

Tabs

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File wathcers To display list of configured file watchers and their state.
Log messages To display frequently updated list of log messages.

Menus

File

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Exit To exit the application.

Edit

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New... To create and configure new file watcher.
Delete... To delete the selected file watcher.
Properties... To configure the selected file watcher.

Run

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Start To start the selected file watcher
Start all To start all enabled file wathcers.
Stop To stop the selected file watcher.
Stop all To stop all running file watchers.

Tools

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Options... To configure the application.

Help

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Help To get help.
License To view application license.
About To view application version information.

Options window

Application

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Synchronous execution of all started processes To run only one process at once.
Run queued processes when all file watchers are stopped To run all processes that are queued after stopping the file watchers.
Process batch size x To limit number of simultaneously running process to x.
Start all enabled file watchers at startup To start all file watchers automatically when the File Watcher Simple application is launched.

Advanced

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Amount of log messages to display x To limit amount of log messages displayed in Log messages tab to x.

Properties window

General

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File watcher daemon name To give unique name to your file watcher.
Enable daemon To enable daemon so that it can be started.
Path to the directory to watch To specify the directory to monitor.
Monitor subdirectories To specify if the file watcher should monitor subdirectories.
Generate file system events at startup for each found file To generate artificial file change event for each file in the monitored directory.
Poll directory for new (created) and changed files To poll directory for new (created) and changed files. Changed or created file system events must be monitored. Only new/changed files since the last poll will generate artificial file change event. Generated events can be filtered and duplicate created or/and changed events can be suppressed.
Directory polling interval in minutes: To specify directory poll interval in minutes. This time should be longer than 'Duplicate file system event suppression timeout' if duplicate file system event suppression is used.
Allow file watcher recycling To allow file watcher recycling. File watcher can be recycle on error or when directory is not found or when recycle timeout elapses.
Always recycle file watcher after x minutes To always recycle file watcher after x minutes. File watcher will be recycle whenever possible.

File system events

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File or folder changed To monitor file or folder change.
File or folder created To monitor file or folder creation.
File or folder deleted To monitor file or folder deletion.
File or folder renamed To monitor file or folder renaming.
Attribute (changed event) To monitor file or folder attribute change.
Creation time (changed event) To monitor file or folder creation time change.
Directory name (created, deleted and renamed event) To monitor directory name change.
File name (created, deleted and renamed event) To monitor file name change.
Last access (changed event) To monitor file or folder last access change.
Last write (changed event) To monitor file or folder last write change.
Security (changed event) To monitor file or folder security change.
Size (changed event) To monitor file or folder size change.

Filters

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Main file name filter string To globally filter file or folder changed, created, deleted and renamed events. This is a like expression and it is applied before any regular expression filters. The filter uses the file or folder name.
File or folder changed filter To filter file or folder changed type events. This is a regular expression. The filter uses the full path of the file or folder when it is filtering the values.
File or folder created filter To filter file or folder created type events. This is a regular expression. The filter uses the full path of the file or folder when it is filtering the values.
File or folder deleted filter To filter file or folder deleted type events. This is a regular expression. The filter uses the full path of the file or folder when it is filtering the values.
File or folder renamed filter To filter file or folder renamed type events. This is a regular expression. The filter uses the full path of the file or folder when it is filtering the values.
System generated event filter To filter system generated events. This is a regular expression. The filter uses the file name when it is filtering the values.

Filtered mode

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Suppress duplicate created, changed and deleted file system events To suppress duplicate created, changed and deleted file system events. The filter uses the full path of the file or folder and the file system event type to filter duplicate file system events.
Duplicate file system event suppression timeout in minutes x To specify how long the file system event for a specific file or folder will be suppressed. This value should always be set as low as possible to minimize the use of system resources.

Call service

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Call service when file system change is detected To call Windows Communication Foundation service when file change is detected.
Stream file to service To stream changed file to Windows Communication Foundation service.

Process

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Process executable To specify process executable which is launched when a file changed detected. Not applied when 'Call service when file system change is detected' is selected.
Start process when file system change is detected To enable process to be launched when a file change is detected. Not applied when 'Call service when file system change is detected' is selected.
Process verb To specify a verb for the process. If not specified the default verb "open" is used. Not applied when 'Call service when file system change is detected' is selected.
Process working directory To specify working directory for the process. Not applied when 'Call service when file system change is detected' is selected.
Process window style Process window style to be used. This can be ignored by the process. Not applied when 'Call service when file system change is detected' is selected.
Process batch size x To limit number of simultaneously running service calls or processes launched by this file watcher to x.

Process arguments

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Process arguments To specify process arguments for the process. Not applied when 'Call service when file system change is detected' is selected.
Process arguments file name escape string To specify an escape string for the file name that can be used in 'Process arguments' as a placeholder. Not applied when 'Call service when file system change is detected' is selected.
Use file name as argument To replace string specified in 'Process arguments file name escape string' from 'Process arguments' with the file name. Not applied when 'Call service when file system change is detected' is selected.
Process arguments old file name escape string To specify an escape string for the old file name that can be used in 'Process arguments' as a placeholder. Not applied when 'Call service when file system change is detected' is selected.
Use old file name as argument To replace string specified in 'Process arguments file name escape string' from 'Process arguments' with the old file name. Not applied when 'Call service when file system change is detected' is selected.
Process arguments change type escape string To specify an escape string for the change type that can be used in 'Process arguments' as a placeholder. Not applied when 'Call service when file system change is detected' is selected.
Use change type as argument To replace string specified in 'Process arguments change type escape string' from 'Process arguments' with the change type. Not applied when 'Call service when file system change is detected' is selected.

Process advanced

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Use shell execute method To use shell execute method.
Create no window To not to create a window. Ignored if 'Use shell execute method' is selected. Not applied when 'Call service when file system change is detected' is selected.
Process redirect standard output To redirect process standard output to this application. Cannot be used if 'Use shell execute method' is not selected. Not applied when 'Call service when file system change is detected' is selected.
Process redirect standard error To redirect process standard error to this application. Cannot be used if 'Use shell execute method' is not selected. Not applied when 'Call service when file system change is detected' is selected.
Synchronized execution of process To execute this process synchronized. Blocks other processes until the process is done. Not applied when 'Call service when file system change is detected' is selected.
Synchronized process maximum wait time in milliseconds x To specify amount of time in milliseconds to wait for the synchronized process to exit. -1 to wait infinite. Not applied when 'Call service when file system change is detected' is selected.
Load user profile To use the specified user profile to execute the process. Not applied when 'Call service when file system change is detected' is selected.
Domain To specify the domain. Not applied when 'Call service when file system change is detected' is selected.
User name To specify the user. Must be empty if 'Use shell execute method' is selected. Not applied when 'Call service when file system change is detected' is selected.
Password To specify the password. Saved as plain text. Must be empty if 'Use shell execute method' is selected. Not applied when 'Call service when file system change is detected' is selected.

File processing

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Do not run the process or call the service if the file does not exist. To not to call service or execute process if the changed file no longer exists.
Process or service delay in milliseconds x To delay execution or service call by x milliseconds.
Test for file lock To try open the changed file before handing it to process or service.
Retries (zero value for infinite) x To specifity how many times the file is tried to be opened.
Preserve processes (even if retries count is reached) x To preserve x processes even if the file lock retries count is met. The specified value is compared to the global process queue size shared among all file watchers. If the value is not greater than the global queue size the process is re-enqueued. Otherwise the process is removed from the queue.
The file last write time must occur milliseconds before x To specify that the file last write time must occur x milliseconds before. The process will be requeued if the last write time condition is not met. This counts as a retry. Otherwise the file is tested for a file lock.

File renaming

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Rename file before processing it To try to rename file before processing it.
Rename retries x To specify how many times the file is tried to be renamed.

Logging and messages

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Log file system change To log file system change.
Log process start To log proces start.
Log process end To log process end.
Log file system search error To log errors when file watcher is searching files.
Log file system search progress To log progress when file watcher is searching files.
Display file system change message To display message when file system changes (File Watcher Console only).
Display file system search error message To display error messages when file system is searching files (File Watcher Console only).
Display file system search progress message To display progress messages when file system is searching files (File Watcher Console only).

Advanced

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File watcher internal buffer size x To set file watcher internal buffer size to x.
Display and log error messages on buffer overflow To display and log error messages on buffer overflow.

Logging

See Log file for more details.

Installation

Unzip the fws_x.x.x.x_bin.zip to a directory. The application can be installed to different directories multiple times to allow multiple instances of the application to run simultaneously.


Copyright © 2006-2013 Jussi Hiltunen