Cool 'monitor Folder' Work-around

[Cory]

I have been using ME to scan thousands of documents for a client with great success and learned a cool workaround in ME. You see the high capacity scanners we are using output directly to PDF on a network folder so I wanted to monitor the folders for any new files as part of a file disposal macro. Problem is I don’t know what the file name would be as it incrementally changes. I was disappointed to find ME had no capability to monitor a folder for change and also tried Wait For File Exist with the value of *.* but it didn’t work. This would only work if the folder was empty which was my case. So I wrote an elaborate routine to do so and as I was debugging it I found a cool trick. I assumed wildcards were out but they’re not! In this case I have it waiting for *.pdf and it works! Also other wildcards like C850*.* work. The only limitation is that you must ensure that no files already exist that match that criteria in the folder of course but a lot of the time this works great if you know part of the file name.

 

Anyway I just thought I would give a little back today.

[randallc]

Hi Cory,Great to know!

 

Here is a Wait for increase number of files in a directory, longhand, for interest or improvement.

<TVAR2:01:10:><TMVAR2:19:01:00:000:000:FolderName><REP3:07:000001:000001:0001:0:01:%FolderName%><NMVAR:08:01:0:0000001:0:0000000><ENDREP><TVAR2:01:01:%N1%><TMVAR2:19:01:00:000:000:NumberFiles><REP3:08:000002:000001:0001:0:01:%NumberFiles%><IVAR2:01:01:0><IMSD:50><REP3:07:000001:000001:0001:0:01:%FolderName%><NMVAR:08:01:0:0000001:0:0000000><ENDREP><TVAR2:01:01:%N1%><ENDREP><TBOX4:T:1:CenterCenter000278000200:000:New Filethere are %N1% files in the folder

T1=%T1%

NumberFiles=%NumberFiles%

N1=%N1%>

Variable Set String %T1% from Folder Name

Variable Modify String: Save %T1% to Environment Variable

Repeat with Folder

  Variable Modify Integer: Inc (%N1%)

Repeat End

Variable Set String %T1% "%N1%"

Variable Modify String: Save %T1% to Environment Variable

Repeat Until %T1% <> "%NumberFiles%"

  Variable Set Integer %N1% to 0

  Delay 50 Milliseconds

  Repeat with Folder

    Variable Modify Integer: Inc (%N1%)

  Repeat End

  Variable Set String %T1% "%N1%"

Repeat End

Text Box Display: New File

Best, Randall