Fetch Softworks

Download newly modified items from FTP (4 posts)

• Started 20 years ago by kumpster
• Latest reply 20 years ago from kumpster

• kumpster Member

  Hi List,

  I am having trouble creating a type of mirroring system with AppleScript and Fetch. I need to poll an FTP server every few minutes and find directories that have been modified since my last visit and download thier contents, all JPG files and one text file. Seems strightforward enough.

  I then have some applescripts perform some processing on the downloaded directories and thier contents.

  My problem is as follows:

  I list the contentents of the directory, then loop through the mod dats to determine what has changed since my last visit. If the dates are newer than the last date, I download the directory. Fetch seems to do this just fine most of the time. It doesn't list the contents of the directory it is downloading in the window, but just gets each item of that directory, and moves on to the next one.

  However, if Fetch encounters and error, like an unexpected server response, which it seems to get quite a few from this particular .NET server (another topic for discussion) it switches the file list in the window to the contents of that directory it had problems with. And it gives an error message. Further, my script wants to go to the next item of the previous directory, so it is a pain.

  What I have done is place the download command in a try and then, on error, set the remote item back to the original directory. But it still has all sorts of problems and sometimes opens news Fetch windows among other things. I simply want Fetch to ignore a problem file and move on to the next one...but this is proving more difficult than I anticipated.

  I have tried using the mirro function, but it stops on the first sign of a problem. Is there anyway to stop Fetch from display dialogs at each error and simply toignore them? Or, can I refine my code to work around this?

  Here is my code:

  tell application "Fetch 4.0.3"
  activate
  set theWindow to make new transfer window at beginning with properties {hostname:theHost, userid:theUserID, password:thePAssword}
  open remote item "theFolder"
  set view order of theWindow to byDate
  set itemCount to count theWindow each remote item

  repeat with itemIndex from 1 to itemCount
  set currentItem to (a reference to remote item itemIndex of theWindow)
  set modDate to modification date of currentItem
  --if the modDate is newer than our test date, then continue
  if modDate > Newestmoddate then
  if item type of currentItem = isDirectory then
  -- a folder, download it
  try
  with timeout of 30 seconds
  download currentItem
  end timeout
  on error--an error occured, return to the previous directory

  open remote item "/theFolder/" of theWindow
  end try
  end if
  end if
  end repeat
  end tell

  Thanks!

  Steve

  Posted 20 years ago #

• kumpster Member

  Oh - here is an example of what I mena. I began the mirroring process and left Fetch in the background to try to reduce errors. It got an error like the following:

  400 Transfer failed: Conversion buffer overflow.
  ftp_retrieve: -30000 (state == RGET_RETRIEVING)
  PWD

  and the mirroring stops. Is there a way to continue the mirroring after such an error?

  Thanks,
  Steve

  Originally posted by kumpster:

  Hi List,

  I am having trouble creating a type of mirroring system with AppleScript and Fetch. I need to poll an FTP server every few minutes and find directories that have been modified since my last visit and download thier contents, all JPG files and one text file. Seems strightforward enough.

  I then have some applescripts perform some processing on the downloaded directories and thier contents.

  My problem is as follows:

  I list the contentents of the directory, then loop through the mod dats to determine what has changed since my last visit. If the dates are newer than the last date, I download the directory. Fetch seems to do this just fine most of the time. It doesn't list the contents of the directory it is downloading in the window, but just gets each item of that directory, and moves on to the next one.

  However, if Fetch encounters and error, like an unexpected server response, which it seems to get quite a few from this particular .NET server (another topic for discussion) it switches the file list in the window to the contents of that directory it had problems with. And it gives an error message. Further, my script wants to go to the next item of the previous directory, so it is a pain.

  What I have done is place the download command in a try and then, on error, set the remote item back to the original directory. But it still has all sorts of problems and sometimes opens news Fetch windows among other things. I simply want Fetch to ignore a problem file and move on to the next one...but this is proving more difficult than I anticipated.

  I have tried using the mirro function, but it stops on the first sign of a problem. Is there anyway to stop Fetch from display dialogs at each error and simply toignore them? Or, can I refine my code to work around this?

  Here is my code:

  tell application "Fetch 4.0.3"
  activate
  set theWindow to make new transfer window at beginning with properties {hostname:theHost, userid:theUserID, password:thePAssword}
  open remote item "theFolder"
  set view order of theWindow to byDate
  set itemCount to count theWindow each remote item

  repeat with itemIndex from 1 to itemCount
  set currentItem to (a reference to remote item itemIndex of theWindow)
  set modDate to modification date of currentItem
  --if the modDate is newer than our test date, then continue
  if modDate > Newestmoddate then
  if item type of currentItem = isDirectory then
  -- a folder, download it
  try
  with timeout of 30 seconds
  download currentItem
  end timeout
  on error--an error occured, return to the previous directory

  open remote item "/theFolder/" of theWindow
  end try
  end if
  end if
  end repeat
  end tell

  Thanks!

  Steve

  Posted 20 years ago #

• Jim Matthews Administrator

  Fetch should not display a dialog if the statement being processed is in a try / end try block. I would try (no pun intended) putting a mirror command in a block, and keep retrying the command until it succeeds. So you'd have something like:

  with timeout of 3000 seconds
  set done to false
  repeat until done
  try
  mirror url "ftp://userid :password@host/path/" to alias "Hard disk:folder1:folder2:"
  set done to true
  end try
  end repeat
  end timeout

  Thanks,

  Jim Matthews
  Fetch Softworks

  [This message has been edited by JimMatthews (edited 06-03-2003).]

  Posted 20 years ago #

• kumpster Member

  Thanks Jim,

  I have reworked my script until I got it to do exactly what I need, and now it works perfectly. However, it would still be less overhead to have Fetch do a mirror and then I can have my AppleScript look at the mirrored folder to find updates and work on them. So I will give it a try.

  Thanks,
  Steve

  Originally posted by JimMatthews:

  Fetch should not display a dialog if the statement being processed is in a try / end try block. I would try (no pun intended) putting a mirror command in a block, and keep retrying the command until it succeeds. So you'd have something like:

  with timeout of 3000 seconds
  set done to false
  repeat until done
  try
  mirror url "ftp://userid :password@host/path/" to alias "Hard disk:folder1:folder2:"
  set done to true
  end try
  end repeat
  end timeout

  Thanks,

  Jim Matthews
  Fetch Softworks

  [This message has been edited by JimMatthews (edited 06-03-2003).]

  Posted 20 years ago #