Feature:

Ability to create a condition that will be checking file size.

Thanks

We are working on a general filter for all kinds of Tasks/Conditions which will be used in version 5 of VisualCron. Currently we are looking at the below values - please tell us if you need anything more or can think of anything more that would be interesting.

# file name filter
* File name inclusion mask - "*?" etc or RegEx
* File name exclusion mask - "*?" etc or RegEx
* Case sensitivity

# file content match
File content in text files - "?*" or RegEx match

# date modified or created filter ( do you need AND? )
* NewerThanDate x - specified date or variable
* OlderThanDate x - specified date or variable

# file size
* larger or smaller than x size

# file attributes
* including a list of attributes
* excluding a list of attributes

---

These additions will remove a number of batch jobs I currently have that I use VC to execute. One of which checks to see if the file date is more then 30 days old. If so, then I have the file moved to an archive area for backup. This will make VC more versatile. I look forward to this update.

I'm especially interested in being able to search file content for a condition.

1) There are times that I want to check a certain column in a certain row for content. An example of this would be checking a specific location in the file - specific line(s) and column(s) - for non-zero content; or checking it for a certain date; or that it has a number content greater, equal, or less than a certain value.

2) Checking a file that "contains" a certain string is limited when the string occurs more than once in the file, and I'm interested in a specific instance.

I may need to know not only that the string occurs once, but that it occurs "x" times. Or I may need to know that it appears at the bottom of the file.

When I want to identify a particular string that occurs towards the top of the file, in that case, it will generally have the same line number each time. However, if I want to check a particular line towards the bottom of the file, the line number will vary from day-to-day, but the relative position will always be the same (for example, it may always be the second to the last line in the file.)

Or I might be able to identify the string by context - the instance I'm interested in may always be immediately preceded or followed by another string on the line above or line below. (And it's important to know that they occurred together, since the other string may also have more than one instance in the file, and the relevant instance will be when they're together.)

lal, I think what you mention is very specific an requires too much logic. I am thinking about when you are talking about numbers etc. Remember that there has to be an easy configuration to this as well.

I am also thinking about 1). Are you thinking of other document than a text document? If you are talking about a text document then we need special settings for column and row delimiters. If you are talking about other document like excel, then the project will be to huge - parsing different kind of formats. We have thought of some Excel tasks which will be used specifically for retrieving a certain cell or row. But this is not part of the file filter.

---

Where this would be helpful is in text files that have a defined format (i.e. machine-readable, with a tab delimiter.) So, if I want to check a particular field in the file, it can be identified by which row and and column(s) it appears in (especially if it's at the top of the file. The bottom of the file is trickier, because the number of rows will vary from day-to-day, but the relative position in the file is the same - i.e. always the last line, or second to the last line, for example.) Perhaps if it's possible to identify particular rows/columns to read into output, rather than the whole file, then perhaps conditions could be used to determine what to do with the information, especially if the existing conditions are expanded on?

I think that it could be a good addition - but it should be a separate Task for that as it is more complex and not so generic as the rest of the items in the file filter.

---

Check out this version regarding the Variable Condition and new Variables:

http://www.visualcron.co....aspx?g=posts&t=1158 

Also, please give us feedback regarding an idea of future development.

---