How to log the use of your AutoIT script?

[Rigest]

My new script will be used by several users on the same network. I really would like to see how much they use the scripts. A simple solution would be to use Excel and each time add one. The problem with that is that when two users use the script at the same time they can't both open the same Excel document. I hope someone has encountered this problem before and found a solution, because I really can't think of anything...

[water]

Excel will slow down your script.

I would create a file for each computer on a network share and write a line each time the script is started.

Then combine all files and use it as an input to Excel.

[Rigest]

Hmm ok, tnx Water. What kind of file do you recommend? Something like a .dat file?

[water]

A simple text file. I would use FileWriteLine. As extension you can use whatever you like (.txt, .log ...)

Something like:

FileWriteLine("Y:\YourApplication\" & @ComputerName & ".txt",@YEAR & "/" & @MON & "/" & @MDAY & " " & @HOUR & ":" & @MIN & ":" & @SEC & " " & @UserName)

[Rigest]

A simple text file. I would use FileWriteLine. As extension you can use whatever you like (.txt, .log ...)

Something like:

FileWriteLine("Y:\YourApplication\" & @ComputerName & ".txt",@YEAR & "/" & @MON & "/" & @MDAY & " " & @HOUR & ":" & @MIN & ":" & @SEC & " " & @UserName)

So simple yet brilliant. Tnx m8!

[willichan]

I was doing something similar for a while, but found that my log file was corrupting. You need to do some sort of file locking while you are writing to the log, or you could have two machines writing at the same time.

Try take a look at my File Locking with Cooperative Semaphores UDF.

[water]

No problem here as long as you use a different file for each computer as suggested in my sample code.

[Mat]

If you write it to a csv file (easy to do), you can open it in excel just by clicking the file.

[saywell]

If you write it to a csv file (easy to do), you can open it in excel just by clicking the file.

That's a nifty idea if you want to use a spreadsheet.

Another possibility would be a database. Autoit has UDFs for SQLite and MySQL. Use the former if it's one for each user, but the latter if you want one databse on the network which all the users write to. Both are free.

William

[Rigest]

If you write it to a csv file (easy to do), you can open it in excel just by clicking the file.

Even better! Tnx for all your replies people