File Monitor Controller

Sepasoft MES Module Suite

File Monitor Controller

An invisible component that handles detecting, reading and parsing functions to provide reading data in files. The term invisible component means that this component appears during design time, but is not visible during runtime.

Not intended for very large files. Parsed Files are loaded into memory.

Component Palette

Example 1

File monitor component can be used to move a file to a specific location. For this, first give the current location of the file in the File Path property of the component. Now specify the destination location in Move To Directory Path property.

Property Name	Value
File Path	C:\Users\Sarah\Downloads\aaa.txt
Move To Directory Path	C:\Users\Sarah\Desktop\
File Processing Priority	0
After Processing Handling	1

Example 2

File monitor component can be used to parse a file.

For this, right click on the component and hit scripting. Select the OnAfterParse event handler and click on the Script Editor tab. Copy the following script so that the contents inside the parsed text file is rendered with the label component.

Copy Code

Code

parseResults = event.getParseResults()
if parseResults.isValid():
 event.source.parent.getComponent('LabelDate').text = str(parseResults.getValue("Date"))
 event.source.parent.getComponent('LabelTime').text = str(parseResults.getValue("Time"))
 event.source.parent.getComponent('LabelSampleNo').text = str(parseResults.getValue("Sample No"))
 event.source.parent.getComponent('LabelAlcohol').text = str(parseResults.getValue("Alcohol"))
 event.source.parent.getComponent('LabelDensity').text = str(parseResults.getValue("Density"))
 event.source.parent.getComponent('LabelCalories').text = str(parseResults.getValue("Calories"))

In the preview mode, the Ignition designer appears as the following.

Features

In design time, the last raw data read from a file can be sent to the selected template defined by the Instrument Interface Name by right clicking on the component in the Ignition designer and selecting the Send to Template menu item. This will also select and display the template and replace the existing textual data with the last raw data read.

If the Enable Monitoring property is selected and the designer is preview mode or client has the window open that contains a file monitor component, this component will actively look for files to process. The files that it will process are specified by the File Path property and can contain wildcard characters.

Component Properties

Properties are provided that can be set to affect the operation and look of the component. They can be set through the Property Editor in the Designer or through scripting.

Example

Copy Code

Code

event.source.parent.getComponent('File Monitor Controller').enableMonitoring = True

Info

	In design time, the last raw data read from a file can be sent to the selected template defined by the Instrument Interface Name by right clicking on the component in the Ignition designer and selecting the Send to Template menu item. This will also select and display the template and replace the existing textual data with the last raw data read. If the Enable Monitoring property is selected and the designer is preview mode or client has the window open that contains a file monitor component, this component will actively look for files to process. The files that it will process are specified by the File Path property and can contain wildcard characters. This component will perform a test lock on the file prior to processing to insure that writing to the file is complete. This prevents processing a file before it is ready. This is an important feature, if processing of a file starts and data is still being written to the file it will wither cause errors or incomplete data will be processed.

File Path Config

Name	Scripting	Property Type	Description
File Path	filePath	String	File path or directory path of file(s) to process.
Move To Directory Path	moveToDirectoryPath	String	If After Processing Handling is set to Move File, the directory to move processed file to.

Monitor File Config

Name	Scripting	Property Type	Description
Instrument Interface Name	instrumentInterfaceName	String	Name of the instrument interface configuration name to use.
File Name Date Format	fileNameDateFormat	String	Date format used when determining the order to process files.
Encoding	encoding	String	Character encoding.
Enable Monitoring	enableMonitoring	Boolean	If true, presents of files will be monitored.
Monitor Rate	monitorRate	int	Interval in milliseconds to monitor file existence.

Status

Name	Scripting	Property Type	Description
Last File Read At	lastFileReadAt	DateTime	Date and time the last file was read at.
Last File Processed	lastFileProcessed	String	Name and path of the last file processed.
Error Message	errorMessage	String	Error message.

Event Handlers

Event handlers provide the ability to add custom script when a user interacts with a component.

monitorFile

onError

Is fired when an error occurs during reading file contents. The errorMessage property can be read to get the error message.

Property	Description
.source	The component that fired this event.
.errorMessage	Is fired when an error occurs on the the serial communication port. The errorMessage property can be read to get the error message.

parse

onBeforeParse

Is fired before raw data is sent to the parsing engine to be parsed. This provides a method for the raw data to be modified before being parsed. It can be useful to remove unwanted characters or merging more data into the raw data before parsing.

Property	Description
.source	The component that fired this event.
.data	Modified data to send to the parsing engine.

onAfterParse

Is fired after the raw data has been parsed.

Property	Description
.source	The component that fired this event.
.parseResults	Object containing all the values that were parsed from the raw data.
.data	Parsed data.

Code Snippets

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Code

parseResults = event.getParseResults()
if parseResults.isValid():
 event.source.parent.getComponent('LabelDate').text = str(parseResults.getValue("Date"))
 event.source.parent.getComponent('LabelTime').text = str(parseResults.getValue("Time"))
 event.source.parent.getComponent('LabelSampleNo').text = str(parseResults.getValue("Sample No"))
 event.source.parent.getComponent('LabelAlcohol').text = str(parseResults.getValue("Alcohol"))
 event.source.parent.getComponent('LabelDensity').text = str(parseResults.getValue("Density"))
 event.source.parent.getComponent('LabelCalories').text = str(parseResults.getValue("Calories"))

Extension Functions

This component does not have extension functions associated with it.

Custom Methods

Custom methods allow you to add your own component functions to a component that can be called through scripting. This is a useful and clean method of re-using script that is specific to the component (say you want to update a visual aspect of the component in the same way whether a user clicks on the component or a window property value changes).

Customizers

This component does not have any custom properties.

Component Functions

This component provide the following functions that can be called on it. If this component has been dropped onto the windows root container, the path and an example call would be event.source.parent.getComponent('File Monitor Controller').read().

read()

Description

Check existence of and process one files. If multiple files exist only one file is processed because the ParseResults are returned.

Parameters

None

Return

ParseResults - Returns a ParseResults object containing all the values that were parsed from the raw data.

Scope

Client

read(fileName)

Description

Check existence of and process one files. If multiple files exist only one file is processed because the ParseResults are returned.

Parameters

String fileName - File path to file to process if it exists.

Return

ParseResults - Returns a ParseResults object containing all the values that were parsed from the raw data.

Scope

Client

parseText(template, text)

Description

Parses the given text by using the template of templateName.

Parameters

String templateName - The template to use for parsing the text.

String text - The text to be parsed.

Return

ParseResults object

Scope

Client

Sepasoft MES Module Suite