Set timer until files are done copying

[crayhouse]

Just to start this off right, thanks for any help.

I have a database that has network locations to documents stored as \\networkresour ceblah\document s\file.pdf in a text field.

After the user is done and presses a button. Here are the actions that it goes through after that.

1. Copies files from the network location to a temp folder on their computer.
2. Uses pdftk to join all of the documents together and name the new document (in the temp folder)
3. Looks for the new document to exist in the temp folder
4. Copies the file to a new location
5. Verifies that the named document is in the new location
6. Deletes all of the files in the temporary location.

The problem I am running in to is...if the file is large then the file name exists before the document is finished building itself. When the database sees the document name, even if it is only 0 kb, then it copies it at that point and deletes the original. I have placed this code to wait, but it doesn't always work, since the code is finite, and has a point that it quits waiting.

StartTimer:
    If fso.FileExists(SPath & FileName) Then
        Wait = Timer
        While Timer < Wait + 5
            DoEvents
        Wend
        fso.CopyFile (SPath & FileName), NPath, True
        fso.CopyFile (SPath & FileName), DPath, True
    Else
        GoTo StartTimer
    End If
    
    Wait = Timer
    While Timer < Wait + 1
    DoEvents
    Wend

StartSecondTimer:
    If fso.FileExists(DPath & FileName) Then
        Kill SPath & "*.*"
    Else
        Wait = Timer
        While Timer < Wait + 1
        DoEvents
        Wend
        GoTo StartSecondTimer
    End If

As you can see, I look for the file in the temp directory, wait 5 seconds, copy it across, wait 1 second, look for the new file in the new location, then delete the originals. This feels like an eternity sometimes. Is there a way to determine if a file is in use or "being built", prior to copying it. That would allow me to drastically reduce time to the user.

[IraComm]

You could check the size of the file every second or so.
If it does not increase after 3~5 seconds the file is done being made.
If the "pdftk" program is a seperate program invoked to combine the files, you could use a function that is able to see all the programs running. When it disapears, your done.

[NeoPa]

If you issue a DOS Rename (back to the original name of course) command to any file that is in progress then it will fail.

If your timer routine checks the file this way every time it is triggered then it should eventually detect the end of the process and be in a position to invoke the rest of the code.