realtime.txt updating sporadically

[Solorize]

Hi Steve,

Does the REALTIME.TXT file that gets generated locally within the Cumulus folder, get updated
at exact regular intervals? or does it only get updated when the data has changed?

The reason I ask this is that when I look at the file, in windows explorer, sometimes the "date modified" time
is about 5mins off the actual time i.e. Current time 07:10, and the file "date modified" time is 07:05,
(even if I refresh Windows Explorer), but other times it seems to update at more frequent intervals.

Mark

[steve]

It gets modified at the specified interval, whether the data has changed or not. The way to check this is to look at the timestamp in the file. I don't know anything about how Windows decides when to update the 'date modified' timestamp. I've just looked at mine, which updates every 10 seconds on my WHS 2011 system, and if I repeatedly hit F5 in Windows Explorer, the 'date modified' time changes each time the clock minute changes, once Cumulus has updated the file. I see the same thing viewing the same file via the network from Windows 8.

[Solorize]

Hi Steve,

Thanks for confirming.

I think I found out why it was updating sporadically for me.

I am also running my program "Cumulus Realtime Data Grabber" on the same PC as Cumulus,
but had it grabbing the realtime.txt file from the local c:\cumulus folder. Which must have
been clashing when cumulus was writing to the file.

Therefore, I have now entered my remote URL, (to my FTP server where realtime.txt
also gets upload to), and now the local realtime.txt file is updating correctly at a constant
period

Mark

[steve]

In theory, as long as you are opening the file for reading only, it shouldn't cause a problem. But Cumulus isn't appending to the file (as with the log files), it's recreating the file each time, so perhaps this makes a difference.

[Solorize]

Thanks Steve,

I will double check my code and make sure I was opening the file in read only.

Mark