File Watcher Simple

About File Watcher Simple

File Watcher Simple is a simple file watcher application with a grahical user interface. It allows the user to create file watchers easily without manual editing of XML configuration files. You can use XML configuration files from any other File Watcher Utilities application.

File Watcher Simple options

Application

**Select this**	**To do this**
Synchronous execution of all started processes	To run only one process at once.
Run queued process when all file watchers are stopped	To run all processes that are queued after stopping the file watchers.
Process batch size x	To limit number of simultaneously running process to x.
Start all enabled file watchers at startup	To start all file watchers automatically when the File Watcher Simple application is launched.

Advanced

**Select this**	**To do this**
Amount of log messages to display x	To limit amount of log messages displayed in Log messages tab to x.

File Watcher properties

General

**Select this**	**To do this**
File watcher daemon name	To give unique name to your file watcher.
Enable daemon	To enable daemon so that it can be started.
Path to the directory to watch	To specify the directory to monitor.
Monitor subdirectories	To specify if the file watcher should monitor subdirectories.
Generate file system events at startup for each found file	To generate artificial file change event for each file in the monitored directory.

File system events

**Select this**	**To do this**
File or folder changed	To monitor file or folder change.
File or folder created	To monitor file or folder creation.
File or folder deleted	To monitor file or folder deletion.
File or folder renamed	To monitor file or folder renaming.
Attribute (changed event)	To monitor file or folder attribute change.
Creation time (changed event)	To monitor file or folder creation time change.
Directory name (created, deleted and renamed event)	To monitor directory name change.
File name (created, deleted and renamed event)	To monitor file name change.
Last access (changed event)	To monitor file or folder last access change.
Last write (changed event)	To monitor file or folder last write change.
Security (changed event)	To monitor file or folder security change.
Size (changed event)	To monitor file or folder size change.

Filters

**Select this**	**To do this**
Main file name filter string	To globally filter file or folder changed, created, deleted and renamed events. This is a like expression and it is applied before any regular expression filters. The filter uses the file or folder name.
File or folder changed filter	To filter file or folder changed type events. This is a regular expression. The filter uses the full path of the file or folder when it is filtering the values.
File or folder created filter	To filter file or folder created type events. This is a regular expression. The filter uses the full path of the file or folder when it is filtering the values.
File or folder deleted filter	To filter file or folder deleted type events. This is a regular expression. The filter uses the full path of the file or folder when it is filtering the values.
File or folder renamed filter	To filter file or folder renamed type events. This is a regular expression. The filter uses the full path of the file or folder when it is filtering the values.
System generated event filter	To filter system generated events. This is a regular expression. The filter uses the file name when it is filtering the values.

Call service

**Select this**	**To do this**
Call service whne file system change is detected	To call WCF service when file change is detected.
Stream file to service	To stream changed file to WCF service.

Process

**Select this**	**To do this**
Process executable	To specify process executable which is launched when a file changed detected.
Start process when file system change is detected	To enable process to be launched when a file change is detected.
Process verb	To specify a verb for the process.
Process working directory	To specify working directory for the process.
Process window style	Process window style to be used. This can be ignored by the process.
Process batch size x	To limit number of simultaneously running process launched by this file watcher to x.

Process arguments

**Select this**	**To do this**
Process arguments	To specify process arguments for the process.
Process arguments file name escape string	To specify an escape string for the file name that can be used in 'Process arguments' as a placeholder.
Use file name as argument	To replace string specified in 'Process arguments file name escape string' from 'Process arguments' with the file name.
Process arguments old file name escape string	To specify an escape string for the old file name that can be used in 'Process arguments' as a placeholder.
Use old file name as argument	To replace string specified in 'Process arguments file name escape string' from 'Process arguments' with the old file name.
Process arguments change type escape string	To specify an escape string for the change type that can be used in 'Process arguments' as a placeholder.
Use change type as argument	To replace string specified in 'Process arguments change type escape string' from 'Process arguments' with the change type.

Process advanced

**Select this**	**To do this**
Use shell execute method	To use shell execute method.
Create no window	To not to create a window. Ignored if 'Use shell execute method' is selected.
Process redirect standard output	To redirect process standard output to this application. Cannot be used if 'Use shell execute method' is not selected.
Process redirect standard error	To redirect process standard error to this application. Cannot be used if 'Use shell execute method' is not selected.
Synchronized execution of process	To execute this process synchronized. Blocks other processes until the process is done.
Synchronized process maximum wait time in milliseconds x	To specify amount of time in milliseconds to wait for the synchronized process to exit. -1 to wait infinite.
Load user profile	To use the specified user profile to execute the process.
Domain	To specify the domain.
User name	To specify the user. Must be empty if 'Use shell execute method' is selected.
Password	To specify the password. Saved as plain text. Must be empty if 'Use shell execute method' is selected.

File processing

**Select this**	**To do this**
Do not run the process or call the service if the file does not exist.	To not to call service or execute process if the changed file no longer exists.
Process or service delay in milliseconds x	To delay execution or service call by x milliseconds.
Test for file lock	To try open the changed file before handing it to process or service.
Retries (zero value for infinite) x	To specifity how many times the file is tried to be opened.
Preserve processes (even if retries count is reached) x	To preserve x processes even if the file lock retries count is met. The specified value is compared to the global process queue size shared among all file watchers. If the value is not greater than the global queue size the process is re-enqueued. Otherwise the process is removed from the queue.
The file last write time must occur milliseconds before x	To specify that the file last write time must occur x milliseconds before. The process will be requeued if the last write time condition is not met. This counts as a retry. Otherwise the file is tested for a file lock.

File renaming

**Select this**	**To do this**
Rename file before processing it	To try to rename file before processing it.
Rename retries x	To specify how many times the file is tried to be renamed.

Logging and messages

**Select this**	**To do this**
Log file system change	To log file system change.
Log process start	To log proces start.
Log process end	To log process end.
Log file system search error	To log errors when file watcher is searching files.
Log file system search progress	To log progress when file watcher is searching files.
Display file system change message	To display message when file system changes (File Watcher Console only).
Display file system search error message	To display error messages when file system is searching files (File Watcher Console only).
Display file system search progress message	To display progress messages when file system is searching files (File Watcher Console only).

Advanced

**Select this**	**To do this**
File watcher internal buffer size x	To set file watcher internal buffer size to x.
Display and log error messages on buffer overflow	To display and log error messages on buffer overflow.

Logging

See Log file for more details.

File Watcher Simple installation

No installation is required to use this application.