Detect file opened by Notepad

[Dean Earley]

Re: Detect file opened by Notepad

Don wrote:

I wrote an app that alerts a user who attempts to open a file that the
file is currently in use. It works fine except when the file is
opened by Notepad. If a text file is opened, most computers are
configured to use Notepad to open the file by default and if they are
configured to use Notepad by default I want it to remain that way
rather than retrieve the text into my app or force the user to use
another app to read the file. I'm using the following code I found
online and lErrNum returns a value of zero if Notepad has the file
open but returns 70 when most other files are open using another
application.
>
Don
>
Open sPathFile For Input Lock Read As #iFileNum
Close iFileNum
lErrNum = Err.Number
On Error GoTo 0
>
Select Case lErrNum
Case 0 'No error occurred. File is NOT already open by another
user.
FileIsOpen = False
Case 70 'Error number for "Permission Denied." File is already
opened by another user.
FileIsOpen = True
Case 53 'File not found
FileIsOpen = False
Case Else 'Another error occurred.
FileIsOpen = True
MsgBox Error(lErrNum)
End Select

As mentioned numerous times through this thread, notepad doesn't keep
the file open.
You may be able to do it with a tiny stub exe that opens the file, then
shells out to notepad and waits for the process to exit.
That will break if they then use that notepad process to open other files.

--
Dean Earley (dean.earley@ic ode.co.uk)
i-Catcher Development Team

iCode Systems

[Don]

Re: Detect file opened by Notepad

On Mon, 15 Sep 2008 06:06:51 -0700, "Bob Butler" <noway@nospam.e ver>
wrote:

>
>"Don" <dsarvas@yahoo. comwrote in message
>news:48ce5ae2. 2596437@news.we st.cox.net...

>On Sun, 14 Sep 2008 14:14:07 -0400, "expvb" <nobody@cox.net wrote:

><cut>

>So I will probably go back to exactly what you are suggesting above or
>create a detour to another app I konw they have on their system that
>will open a text file and keep the file open.

>
>How about opening the file exclusively from your app, copying the contents
>to a temp file, shelling the default editor on that copy and waiting for it
>to terminate, then updating the original and deleting the temp file?
>

Hey, I like that.

I was already using a simlar function to work on a temp file, but I
was using my own app and I wasn't locking the original with my own app
while doing so. But to allow the user to use Notepad, if that's their
default app for a text file, and monitor its use so the original file
remains locked during the interim sounds interesting.

Although this has great possibilites, I'm not sure how confident I
will be using it due to concerns I mentioned previously regarding the
consequences that might result if the program shuts down unexpectedly
and we're left with the original file locked . . .OR would the file
detect that my app has shut down and revert back to being available?

Although I have decided to either detour the user to another app or
use my own app to read the file and either of those solves the
problem, I'm going to have to give your suggestion some thought. I
have a long ride to work so I have a long way to think about this.
Don

[Don]

Re: Detect file opened by Notepad

Although it has absolutely NO relevence to this thread, in researching
ways to get around my problem with Notepad I discovered something I
didn't know.

If you type "Bush hid the facts" (no quotes and no period) in Notepad
and save the file, when you open the file you won't see the phrase. I
won't spoil it by giving the explanation here, but you can Google your
way to the explanation. Try Googling "Things you can't type in
Notepad" and I think you'll find it.

Don


On Sat, 13 Sep 2008 17:28:13 GMT, dsarvas@yahoo.c om (Don) wrote:

>
>I wrote an app that alerts a user who attempts to open a file that the
>file is currently in use. It works fine except when the file is
>opened by Notepad. If a text file is opened, most computers are
>configured to use Notepad to open the file by default and if they are
>configured to use Notepad by default I want it to remain that way
>rather than retrieve the text into my app or force the user to use
>another app to read the file. I'm using the following code I found
>online and lErrNum returns a value of zero if Notepad has the file
>open but returns 70 when most other files are open using another
>application.
>
>Don
>
>Open sPathFile For Input Lock Read As #iFileNum
>Close iFileNum
>lErrNum = Err.Number
>On Error GoTo 0
>
>Select Case lErrNum
Case 0 'No error occurred. File is NOT already open by another
>user.
FileIsOpen = False
Case 70 'Error number for "Permission Denied." File is already
>opened by another user.
FileIsOpen = True
Case 53 'File not found
FileIsOpen = False
Case Else 'Another error occurred.
FileIsOpen = True
MsgBox Error(lErrNum)
>End Select
>
>

[dpb]

Re: Detect file opened by Notepad

PeterD wrote:
....

Rename *what* file? No where did I suggest renaming files. What file
are you opening? A .TXT file?

....

I think multiple suggestions are getting mixed up...iirc somebody did
suggest renaming in some fashion would allow an individual user to make
changes. Of course, that raises the issue of then having to try to
somehow merge the changes or simply ignoring some over the acceptance of
others.

>receive so many files from so many sources it would have to be done
>this way rather than renaming every file as we receive them manually.

>
OK, so what is the purpose of this exercise?

Absolutely no clues to that have been offered, but it's clear they need
to check each received file into a version control system and only
retrieve/use files from that repository via a single-user-at-a-time
option for check out for modifications although allowing multiple
viewing might be desirable.

With that, I'm now going to mark the thread "ignore"...

....

--

[Bob Butler]

Re: Detect file opened by Notepad

"Don" <dsarvas@yahoo. comwrote in message
news:48ce6af9.6 715546@news.wes t.cox.net...

Although this has great possibilites, I'm not sure how confident I
will be using it due to concerns I mentioned previously regarding the
consequences that might result if the program shuts down unexpectedly
and we're left with the original file locked . . .OR would the file
detect that my app has shut down and revert back to being available?

If there is a crash or your app aborts for any reason then recovery would
depend on whether you've saved the state of "user x is editing text y in
location z" somewhere. If you didn't then any changes are lost and if you
did you can decide to restart the editing session (maybe asking the user in
case it's an endless loop).

If the user's text editor crashes then you should see it terminate and can
take precautions -- maybe check the return value of the editor app and if
not 0 then ask the user to confirm that it is OK to update.... maybe compare
the before & after versions and if the sizes aren't close ask the user to
confirm... nothing is ever going to be foolproof so it's up to you to
decide how many hoops you want to jump through and how many you want to
force your users through.

As soon as you do this you're going to find users editing the text on the
originals while your app is not running. Unless you're encrypting the text
and putting it in a difficult-to-find location the users are going to find a
way around any restrictions you set. Even if you do those things somebody
probably still will. *&%^&^%^& users!

[Steve Gerrard]

Re: Detect file opened by Notepad

Don wrote:

>
That is how my app originally functioned and the purpose of this
thread. Since Notepad is a default on most systems I wanted to take
advantage of allowing the user to remain using Notepad, but prevent
other users from accessing the file.
Don
>

But two users can both use Notepad on the same file. Your app has nothing to do
with it. That is the problem.

[Mike Williams]

Re: Detect file opened by Notepad

"Don" <dsarvas@yahoo. comwrote in message
news:48ce6da7.7 401281@news.wes t.cox.net...

If you type "Bush hid the facts" (no quotes and no period) in
Notepad and save the file, when you open the file you won't
see the phrase. I won't spoil it by giving the explanation here,
but you can Google your way to the explanation. Try Googling
"Things you can't type in Notepad" and I think you'll find it.

Actually I can't reproduce that problem in the version of NotedPad that
comes with Vista, either on that phrase or on any of the other phrases I've
just discovered on the Internet. I must make a mental note to try it on
other systems though when I get the time. Never come across it before.
Sounds vaguely interesting :-)

Mike