File-Monitoring via Lua Script - csv

Good evening,
I am currently developing a way to import machine created data from a csv sheet into a database.
The question I have is, is there a way to react to a change in a csv file with Lua.
The file gets a line in this format:
17162H,"801234500001",9/23/2016 12:33:30 PM,"INV"
Every time a scanner is finishing a scan process, added under the old lines, but there is no direct connection to the database, to trigger the script.
It doesn't matter if the change is detected via different file size, foldersize (of the folder that contains the file) or a change within the file information (like date of last opening), but I can't open and read in it permanently due performance reasons.
Also this is the first time I ask here, so sorry for my clunky way, I'll try to improve myself with that over time.

Take a look at linotify, it has lua bindings for inotify and looks like it should do the trick, using the "modify" event to trigger your script.

I use LibUV based variant in my spylog apllication
Usage:
file_monitor(path_to_file, {eol = '\r?\n'}, function(line)
...
end)

If you need to run this on Windows, you can use winapi library, which supports file watchers. Here is an example of how it's used in one of my projects; you'll need to call winapi.sleep() to allow time for the check to trigger.

Related

Verify a Tif with ApprovalTests

I have been asked to update a system where header information gets injected into a tif via a 3rd party console application. I don't need to worry about that bit.
The part I have been asked to look at it the merge process that generates the header information.
The current file generated by the process is assumed as correct, before I make any changes, so I want to add this as an approved result, from that I can then check that the changes I make will alter the file as expected.
I thought this would be a good opportunity to look at using ApprovalTests
The problem I have is that for what ever reason the links to the videos are considered corruptible (Possibly show me kittens jumping into boxes or something, which will stop me working, which ironically means I slow down my work done because I cannot see any help videos).
What I have been looking at is the Approvals.Verify and Approvals.VerifyFile extensions.
But what appears to be happening is confusing me.
using VerifyFile creates a received file, but the contents of the file are just a line the name of the file I have asked it to verify.
using Verify(new FileInfo("FileNameHere")) does not appear to generate the received file that I need to flag as approved, but the test does return saying that it cannot find the approved tif file.
I am probably using VerifyFile completely wrong and might be looking at using Verify wrong as well.
useful info?
Might be useful to know, that as this is a legacy application, running as a windows service, I have wrapped the service in a harness that allows me to call the routines, so the files are physically being written elsewhere on the machine outside of my control (well there is a config, but the return of the service I call generates a file in a fixed location if it is successful). I have tried copying that into the Unit Test project, but that doesn't appear to help.
Verify(File) and VerifyFile(string) are both meant to verify an existing file. As such they merely setting the received file to the file you pass in. You will still need to move/approval/create the approved file.
Here is the pseudo code and process.
[UseReporter(typeof(DiffReporter), typeof(ClipboardReporter)]
public void TestTiff()
{
string tif = YourProcessToCreateTifFile();
Approvals.VerifyFile(tif);
}
[Note: if you don't have an image diff installed, like TortoiseDiff, you might want to use the FileLauncherReporter]
Run this, once you get the result, move the file over by pasting your clipboard into a cmd window.
It will move the temporary tif to your test directory with the name ClassName.TestTiff.approved.tif
After that the test should pass until something changes.
Happy Testing!

as3 store an external variable and keep it

I dont know if this is possible, but i have an SWF file which i want it to get info from an xml file only one time and then store it(keep it) there until a "newer" data will push into it
I know it sounds stupid but maybe there is a solution i don't know of...
1) i don't want to load the xml every time because of loads of traffic we have(a lot...will cost a lot to refresh everytime from amazon s3)
but how do we get a newer data without checking the external xml file?
2) if there was a way to broadcast(to "ping") to the swf that an update of the xml is ready to load....
if anything i believe there should be an AS3 script for that.
thanks!
but how do we get a newer data without checking the external xml file?
You could implement data file versioning. For example: urlToXmlData + "?version=" + myCurrentVesion As soon you ship new version of the application with extended data, it will work. It's global solution, so every new version of your product will work with latest data.
As for ping, you could create update strategy, for example: link is valid for 1 day. Idea is the same, concatenate stuff to the link, so browser will evaluate it as new: urlToXmlData + "?stamp=" + timestampForToday Tomorrow will be another timestamp, and browser will download updated version.
Use second xml which will contain the version first xml
I think you don't get the real subject.
You can't update a flash project without using any external update platform.
Because you cannot save all new XML data to a shared object because of "limitation of mb per data", so, flash going to delete all loaded data when application closed.
You cannot make a "permament update" in flash for "big files"...
BUT
You can update your main swf file with "EMBEDDED XML" files. Only that keeps your data updated when application is closed.
BUT that's not enough alone, also you need a "PRE-CHECK for Version of SWF" file, and that's what you can't do alone. You need a web platform featuring that way.
Mochi's "Live Updates" was offering that, but i couldn't make it work. But mochi is shutdown now... So forget about it...
I understand that your XML is BIG and you want to save trafic.
But how about small calls ?
You can have a call just to get the MD5 of your xml which is stored on the server.
Something like: myserver.com/getMD5
Once the server will return you a different md5 than the one you have already stored, then you reload xml and save new MD5.

Set file date with managed code in WP8

Is it possible to change the file creation date or file last write date from managed code in WP8?
I can read the date stamps using FileInfo, but these properties are read only. Using native code it looks like I can use the SetFileInformationByHandle api. My project does use native code so I can add a little helper function, but this seems like a lot of over kill.
Reason: I've got an online multiplayer game (4sFear) that lets people upload their own avatars. Currently I just set the source of an image to the http address of the avatar but I would like to be a little smart and cache the images locally. I can return the last time an avatar was updated before it needs to be displayed. I know I can store the dates that the avatars were updated separately, but it makes sense that I should just be able to set the last write date of file after creating it.
The SetFileInformationByHandle API is supported via DLL api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-0.dll More info here: https://msdn.microsoft.com/library/windows/apps/jj662956%28v=vs.105%29.aspx#BKMK_ListofsupportedWin32APIs which can be called using DLLImports.
I don't have a machine to test but you could try the following: How to update the change time of a file from c#?

Protect Air application content

On Mac Os, I see that all content on my application can be readable (mxml and as files).
Indeed with right clic on application, you can see all application content and so all files.
So It's very dangerous for a company to distribute air application like that.
Is a solution exist to protect those files.
Thanks
It is not possible to protect 100% your code. After all, if the computer can run it, it can be decompiled, regardless of the language. However, you can make it more difficult.
One method is to encrypt the swf as stated in another answer. But all the "attacker" needs to do is find the key and then they can decrypt all your swfs.
Another method is to use obfuscators. Obfuscators don't depend on encryption, nor they prevent decompiling, they just make it harder to understand what gets decompiled.
For example if you had a method called saveInvoice() the obfuscator would rename it to aa1() or something like that, so it would make it diffucult to guess what that function does. It basically turns everything into spaguetti code.
You can use a decompiler to see what can be obtained from a SWF file (which is alot), and play with obfuscators to see if they meet your espectations.
An example of one is http://www.kindi.com/ which I'm not endorsing btw, it just shows up quickly on google.
Although there are loads of decompilers which can read all your code. There is one guy who came up with encryption solution it might worth a try. (It's for Desktop AIR applications)
Have a look at this post: http://forums.adobe.com/message/3510525#3510525
Quoted text (in case of page being erased)
The method I use will allow you encrpyt most of your source code using
a key that is unique to every computer. The initial download of my
software is a simple air app that does not contain the actual program.
It is more like a shell that first retreaves a list of the clients mac
addresses and the user entered activation code that is created at time
of purchase. This is sent to server and logged. The activation code
is saved to a file client side. At the server the mac address and
activation key are used to create the encryption key. The bulk of the
program code is then encrypted using that key, then divided into parts
and sent back to the client. The client puts the parts back together
and saves the encrypted file. At runtime the shell finds the mac
address list and the activation key, then using same method as server
gets the encryption key and decrypts the program file. Run simple
check to make sure it loaded. For encyption i found an aes method that
works in php and javascript.
Next I use this code to load the program
var loader = air.HTMLLoader.createRootWindow(true, options, true, windowBounds);
loader.cacheResponse=false;
loader.placeLoadStringContentInApplicationSandbox=true;
loader.loadString(page);
This method makes it very difficult to copy
to another computer although since I wrote it i know there are some
weeknesses in the security but to make it harder i obv. the shell
code. It at least keeps most from pirating. However there are issues
with this that I have found. First i was using networkInfo to get the
list of mac address but this failed in a test windows XP computer.
When the wireless was off it did not return the MAC. I was not able
to recreate this in VISTA or 7. Not sure if it could happen. Was not
tested on a mac computer. To fix this (at least for windows). I
wrote a simple bat file that gets the MAC list, then converted it to
an exe which is included. This does force you to create native
installers. call the exe with this
var nativeProcessStartupInfo = new air.NativeProcessStartupInfo();
var file = air.File.applicationDirectory.resolvePath("findmac.exe");
nativeProcessStartupInfo.executable = file;
process = new air.NativeProcess();
process.start(nativeProcessStartupInfo);
process.addEventListener(air.ProgressEvent.STANDARD_OUTPUT_DATA, onOutputData);
process.addEventListener(air.ProgressEvent.STANDARD_ERROR_DATA, onErrorData);
process.addEventListener(air.NativeProcessExitEvent.EXIT, onExit);
process.addEventListener(air.IOErrorEvent.STANDARD_OUTPUT_IO_ERROR, onIOError);
process.addEventListener(air.IOErrorEvent.STANDARD_ERROR_IO_ERROR, onIOError);
put the list together in the onOutputData event using array.push and
continue on the onExit event using the findmac.exe will return the
same info every time (that i know of) beware thought that using the
native install will break the standard application update process so
you will have to write your own. My updates are processed the same way
as above. This is contents of the .bat file to get the mac list
#Echo off
SETLOCAL SET MAC = SET Media = Connected
FOR /F "Tokens=1-2 Delims=:" %%a in ('ipconfig /all^| FIND "Physical Address"') do #echo %%b ENDLOCAL
using this method makes it simple to implement at try before you by
method. at runtime if no activation code get try me version from
server instead of full version.

How can I get a Windows batch or Perl script to run when a file is added to a directory?

I am trying to write a script that will parse a local file and upload its contents to a MySQL database. Right now, I am thinking that a batch script that runs a Perl script would work, but am not sure if this is the best method of accomplishing this.
In addition, I would like this script to run immediately when the data file is added to a certain directory. Is this possible in Windows?
Thoughts? Feedback? I'm fairly new to Perl and Windows batch scripts, so any guidance would be appreciated.
You can use Win32::ChangeNotify. Your script will be notified when a file is added to the target directory.
Checking a folder for newly created files can be implemented using the WMI functionality. Namely, you can create a Perl script that subscribes to the __InstanceCreationEvent WMI event that traces the creation of the CIM_DirectoryContainsFile class instances. Once that kind of event is fired, you know a new file has been added to the folder and can process it as you need.
These articles provide more information on the subject and contain VBScript code samples (hope it won't be hard for you to convert them to Perl):
How Can I Automatically Run a Script Any Time a File is Added to a Folder?
WMI and File System Monitoring
The function you want is ReadDirectoryChangesW. A quick search for a perl wrapper yields this Win32::ReadDirectoryChanges module.
Your script would look something like this:
use Win32::ReadDirectoryChanges;
$rdc = new Win32::ReadDirectoryChanges(path => $path,
subtree => 1,
filter => $filter);
while(1) {
#results = $rdc->read_changes;
while (scalar #results) {
my ($action, $filename) = splice(#results, 0, 2);
... run script ...
}
}
You can easily achieve this in Perl using File::ChangeNotify. This module is to be found on CPAN: http://search.cpan.org/dist/File-ChangeNotify/lib/File/ChangeNotify.pm
You can run the code as a daemon or as a service, make it watch one or more directories and then automatically execute some code (or start up a script) if some condition matches.
Best of all, it's cross-platform, so should you want to switch to a Linux machine or a Mac, it would still work.
It wouldn't be too hard to put together a small C# application that uses the FileSystemWatcher class to detect files being added to a folder and then spawn the required script. It would certainly use less CPU / system resources / hard disk bandwidth than polling the folder at regular intervals.
You need to consider what is a sufficient heuristic for determining "modified".
In increasing order of cost and accuracy:
file size (file content can still be changed as long as size is maintained)
file timestamp (If you aren't running ntpd time is not monotonic)
file sha1sum (bulletproof but expensive)
I would run ntpd, and then loop over the timestamps, and then compare the checksum if the timestamp changes. This can cover a lot of ground in little time.
These methods are not appropriate for a computer security application, they are for file management on a sane system.