Another timer option

[BCJKiwi]

While implementing a website for our data I thought another configurable timer option might be useful.

At present in the Internet Settings we have:-
In "Web Settings";
Realtime (in seconds)
Autoupdate (in minutes)

In "External Programs"
Program - same as Web Settings Autoupdate time
Realtime
Daily.

Currently I have the Realtime file being sent by Cumulus and the Files Section configured to process and FTP a Tags file within Cumulus,
and,
use the External Programs options to run two 'batch' files which use ncFTPput to;
send selected images on the Program/Autoupdate timer
and
send the dayfile once per day on the Daily timer.

Obviously since these are batch files they could be used to do any number of other things on those times.

However an additional timer interval (or two) might be useful to send data or do other things on the PC at other intervals.
e.g. I would send the tags more often and the graphs less often.

One could use the Windows scheduler but it is messy to set up multiple timers per day and would not be synchronised to events within Cumulus.

I have also tested Cumuls Toolbox but found it unreliable.

ncFTP is free, very reliable and very fast. It also has the ability to rename/replace after uploading - (same as the Cumulus rename option) as well as the ability to add to an existing file which opens up the possibility of reducing the amount of data sent over the internet.

any thoughts?

[steve]

Yes, making the scheduling more flexible is definitely on the list of things to look at, at some point.

[BCJKiwi]

Great,
Thanks

[mcrossley]

You could get your 'update interval' batch file to only perform FTPs every X number of times it is called (for the graphs for instance) by using a bit of batch code such as this (untested) which should run every 4th invocation?

Code: Select all

IF "%loopCounter%"=="" (SET loopCounter=1) ELSE (SET /A loopCounter=%loopCounter%+1)
IF %loopCounter% GEQ 4 (SET loopCounter=1) ELSE goto :eof

:: Do you stuff here

[BCJKiwi]

You could get your 'update interval' batch file to only perform FTPs every X number of times it is called (for the graphs for instance) by using a bit of batch code such as this (untested) which should run every 4th invocation?

Code: Select all

IF "%loopCounter%"=="" (SET loopCounter=1) ELSE (SET /A loopCounter=%loopCounter%+1)
IF %loopCounter% GEQ 4 (SET loopCounter=1) ELSE goto :eof

:: Do your stuff here

Thanks, I'll have a look at that.

It's a long time since I worked in detail with batch files but did do a lot with the various batchfile functions in the past to create menu structures and errorlevel testing etc.

Time to dust off some of my old DOS techniques again!

However extra timers would still be an advantage as there are effectively only the realtime and one other at present.

[mcrossley]

Thinking about it you may have to store the counter in a file, the evnironment variable may not persist across invocations - its a long time since I did any batch scripts too!