How Task History Works....

Playing with some screenshots, SnagIt and Microsoft's Gif Workshop, I have created an Animated GIF that shows how WatchDirectory's Task History Viewer works.

The Task History has all the (error) messages of your task, and can show you which files were detected and processed.

To view it "Full Size", click the picture below.

WatchFTP 1.0

After months of Beta's (thank you all for testing) last Tuesday we released WatchFTP 1.0 (also available in German).

WatchFTP monitors your FTP server for new and changed files and automatically downloads them to a Windows folder. After download, it can optionally start a batch file (for example, to import the new file into a database) and send an email.

Give WatchFTP a try and stop wasting time monitoring your FTP server with inadequate tools.

WatchDirectory Customers

WD Customers get a 25% discount, just contact us with proof of your previous purchase.

WD + WF = 100% Automation

Obviously, WatchDirectory and WatchFTP can work together. WatchFTP downloads a file and WatchDirectory processes it further.

A near future version of WatchFTP (free upgrade) will allow you to "directly trigger" WatchDirectory. WatchDirectory will not have to monitor the directory, but will receive a "signal" from WatchFTP after a download is complete.

Hope you will enjoy our new program!

Debugging your batch files

When you use WatchDirectory's Batch File plugin or WatchFTP's Batch File Action this tip is for you!

Bat Files are great if they work, but can be a pain to "get right", especially when they run automated by our programs. The WatchFTP help-file has a section called "Troubleshooting" with a tip to debug batch files. Basically, what you need to do, is to "wrap" the batch file with another batch file that captures all your batch file's output.
The sample debugger.bat listed can be used "as is" for WatchFTP. If you want to use the same technique with WatchDirectory, you need to make a few changes (basically, change all occurences of the string WF_ to WD_).

View the Debugging Batch Files trick here.

WatchFTP Beta 7 - Only one more to go

We just released one of the last beta versions of our new program WatchFTP.

There will be one more beta after this one to make WatchFTP more "robust" in case of intermittent Internet connection problems.

You can download WatchFTP here.