Downtown Programmer's Corner   -  

Folderwatcher

Slogan	:	Tiny tool to monitor file events in a directory and eventually act on certain events (shift certain files away after creation)
Project status	:	Embryonic but applicable for one specific purpose. At least suited as example code for using the .NET FileSystemWatcher class.
Platform	:	Windows
Requirements	:	.NET Framework 3.5
Programming language	:	C#
License	:	MIT / X11
Subversion repository	:	http://downtown.trilo.de/svn/folderwatcher (~ 400 KB)
Download binary	:	folderwatcher.exe v.0.1.1 embryonic (24 576 bytes)

What is Folderwatcher?

Folderwatcher is a little tool to watch file events in a directory and act on them.

For now, Folderwatcher does exactly one action: If a file *.err is created, this file will be shifted away to another directory.

Great help for the initial idea was Jaish Mathews article at www.c-sharpcorner.com/UploadFile/jaishmathews/946.

Folderwatcher is developed and build with SharpDevelop, an open source IDE for C# an other languages, available at http://www.icsharpcode.net/opensource/sd/download. You can also run SharpDevelop from you USB drive via our Gipsydrive project.

Instructions

Just download the one single binary file folderwatcher.exe. Put it into the folder to be watched. Start it.

It will create a folder named *.FOLDERWATCHER parallel to the folder it resides in. There it puts it's log file and the files it eventually shifts away.

If you want to start it automatically on Windows startup, drag a link to it into Window's autostart folder.

Q&A

Where does the owl logo come from? The owl logo for this page comes from the Open Clip Art Library 1.9. It is created by 'Jonny Automatic'. It's license is the CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0 (# 20110222.0021)

Why did we make this program? Occasionally, for a customer we needed some method to automatically remove files from a folder and shift it to another one. Though there are quite some products out there, which do such job, we decided to roll our own project, because it seems like a simple task, suited for some .NET finger exercises. Then having own colde allows for very specific adaption.

The name 'Folderwatcher' is pretty generic. Wouldn't a more specific name be better? Sure, there already exist quite many 'Folderwatchers' out there, and this name is not specific enough to tell them from one another. Anyway.

References

There are quite some articles out there about the .NET FileSystemWatcher class:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.io.filesystemwatcher%28v=VS.90%29.aspx	The original Microsoft FileSystemWatcher documentation (english version for .NET 3.5) (# 20110222.0241)
www.c-sharpcorner.com/.../FileSystemWatcherIOExceptionClass.aspx	Article "FileSystemWatcher in C#" by Puran Mehra (# 20110212.2301)
www.c-sharpcorner.com/.../FileSystemWatcher.aspx	Article "Detecting File Changes using FileSystemWatcher" by Thiagarajan Alagarsamy (# 20110212.2251)
www.c-sharpcorner.com/.../jaishmathews/946	Jaish Mathews article "How to: Use FileSystemWatcher to listen to local drives". This article was our guide for the initial code. (# 20110212.2241)
www.c-sharpcorner.com/.../hrojasara/2483	Article "Monitoring File system in c# like file created changed, deleted, renamed" by Hiren Soni. (# 20110212.2231)
www.c-sharpcorner.com/.../FSWatcherDesMA.aspx	Article "Monitoring File System using FileSystemWatcher Class - Part 1 and Part 2" by Mokhtar B. (# 20110212.2221)
www.eggheadcafe.com/.../moving-files-from-one-folder-to-another.aspx	Article "moving files from one folder to another" by toink toink (# 20110215.2321)

And there exist quite some ready made programs doing such job. Here an incomplete list after a quick search:

www.datamystic.com/filewatcher.html	FileWatcher (v2.9.2) by Datamystic, costs e.g. Single User License about 24.94 USD, with 30 day evaluation period (# 20110221.1202)
www.folderwatcher.com	Folder Watcher by Titan Consulting Group Inc., costs per computer 89.95 USD, free trial available. (# 20110221.1211)
www.artfulbits.com/Products/PublicFolderWatcher.aspx	... (# 20110221.1221)
www.boxoft.com/folder-watcher	Boxoft Folder Watcher, costs 27 USD, free trial available. (# 20110221.1232)
www.softpedia.com/get/System/File-Management/Folder-Watcher-GeorgeOakes.shtml	Folder Watcher by George Oakes, Freeware. (# 20110221.1241)
www.brothersoft.com/file-and-folder-watcher-185952.html	File and Folder Watcher (v2.9.2 24.95 USD) (Check - is it the same as above FileWatcher by Datamystic?) (# 20110221.1251)
www.deskshare.com/help/dmcpro/FolderWatcher.aspx	FolderWatcher, just a feature inside the Digital Media Converter Pro (3.27) (# 20110221.1252)

Todo and bug list

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