FileWrite to Notepad

[rezz]

I'm currently using filewrite to create and write to a text file like a log entry.

Notepad is open with the created file displayed.

Is there a way to get notepad to refresh itself to show any newly added text that filewrite may have sent??

Right now I am closing and reopening Notepad completely in order to accomplish a refresh.

Is there another way?

[BrewManNH]

Try using an Edit box instead of Notepad and updating it and the file at the same time.

[somdcomputerguy]

Notepad ++ has a 'Reload from disk' feature.

[rezz]

I'll try the edit later and see how that goes.

Notepad ++ is not an option at the moment but will keep it in mind.

Thanks for the ideas.

[Varian]

You could try this:

• Open notepad

• start a loop

Read contents of file

copy contents to clipboard

use ControlCommand() with "EditPaste" into the EDIT control of notepad

restart the loop

[rezz]

Thanks Varian. That sounds better than what I'm currently doing.

I'll test some combinations this evening.

I also thought about using an autoit created text editor in some way but that would bring me back to the original problem again.

[BrewManNH]

Here's an example of what I came up with using an Edit control on a GUI.

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#include <Constants.au3>
#include <GUIConstantsEx.au3>
#include <EditConstants.au3>
Opt("GUIOnEventMode", 1)
Global $Day, $sFile = ""
Global Const $File = @DesktopDir & "\SomeLogFile.txt"
Switch @WDAY
    Case 1
        $Day = "Sunday"
    Case 2
        $Day = "Monday"
    Case 3
        $Day = "Tuesday"
    Case 4
        $Day = "Wednesday"
    Case 5
        $Day = "Thursday"
    Case 6
        $Day = "Friday"
    Case 7
        $Day = "Saturday"
EndSwitch
$GUI = GUICreate($File, 650, 650, -1, -1)
GUISetOnEvent($GUI_EVENT_CLOSE, "GUICLOSE")
$Edit = GUICtrlCreateEdit("", 10, 10, 630, 630, BitOR($GUI_SS_DEFAULT_EDIT, $ES_READONLY))
GUICtrlSetFont($Edit, 10, 400, -1, "Courier New")
GUISetState()
$sFile = "At " & @HOUR & ":" & @MIN & ":" & @SEC & " on " & $Day & " " & @MON & "/" & @MDAY & "/" & @YEAR & @CRLF & @CRLF
For $I = 1 To 10
    $sFile &= "Line " & $I & " Some information you want placed into the file" & @CRLF
    $hFile = FileOpen($File, 2)
        FileWriteLine($hFile, $sFile)
    GUICtrlSetData($Edit, $sFile)
    Sleep(2000)
Next
FileClose($hFile)
Func GUICLOSE()
    Exit
EndFunc   ;==>GUICLOSE
While 1
    Sleep(100)
WEnd

All it does is, in this example, is to create a text file called SomeLogFile.txt on your desktop, and will write a line of text to it every 2 seconds, and will also update the Edit box at the same time. It can be adapted to whatever use you need to do for your log file. I used the FileOpen command using flag 2 to recreate the file every time it loops through otherwise your text file looks kind of funky after a while. I could have just as easily have used a different method of writing text to the file, but this was the quickest way that I thought of at the time.

Edited January 13, 2011 by BrewManNH

[rezz]

Thanks everyone.

I ended up creating an edit box within the existing GUI.

Then used the existing filewrite to create the actual text file.

Then used

_FileWriteToLine($sTxtFile, 1, $LOGTEXT, 0)
    $Log = FileRead($sTxtFile)
    FileClose($sTxtFile)
    ClipPut($Log)

and finally:

GUICtrlSetData($TextBox[3], $Log)

That displays the log contents in the gui for viewing.

Now to figure out if I want to allow editing within the edit field and try to save it back to the text file.....probably not.

[rezz]

It ended up being a hybrid of BrewManNH's edit idea and Varian's Clipput idea.

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#include <GuiConstants.au3>
#include<File.au3>
#include <EditConstants.au3>
#include <WindowsConstants.au3>
#include <GuiTab.au3>

$sTxtFile = _PathFull("CaseNotes " & @MON & "-" & @MDAY & ".txt")

Global $Log
Global $sTxtFile
Global $LOGTEXT
Global $NotesButton[5]
Global $Notes[5]
Global $TextBox[5]
Global $LogFile


$hGUI = GUICreate("View Text File in Gui", 720, 432)

$hTab = GUICtrlCreateTab(10, 10, 720, 480, BitOR("", $TCS_FIXEDWIDTH))

_GUICtrlTab_SetItemSize($hTab, 75, 17)

GUICtrlCreateLabel("Log Viewer", 500, 40, 60, 20)

$NotesButton = GUICtrlCreateButton("Notes", 220, 380, 60, 20)

$TextBox = GUICtrlCreateEdit("", 420, 60, 300, 300)
$Notes = GUICtrlCreateInput("", 20, 270, 290, 100, $ES_MULTILINE + $ES_WANTRETURN + $WS_VSCROLL)
GUICtrlCreateLabel("This creates the text file in the current working folder and names it CaseNotes " & @MON & "-" & @MDAY & ".txt" & @CRLF & "Clicking on Notes saves the text from the notes field to the text file and displays the text file contents in the Log Viewer", 80, 40, 300, 130)

;GUICtrlCreateTabItem("") ;End of Tab Creation
GUISetState()

While 1

    $iMsg = GUIGetMsg()

    Switch $iMsg

        Case $GUI_EVENT_CLOSE
            Exit

        Case $NotesButton
            CaseNotes()
            GUICtrlSetData($TextBox, $Log)

    EndSwitch

WEnd

Func CaseNotes()

    If Not FileExists("CaseNotes " & @MON & "-" & @MDAY & ".txt") Then
        FileOpen("CaseNotes " & @MON & "-" & @MDAY & ".txt", 1)
        FileClose("CaseNotes " & @MON & "-" & @MDAY & ".txt")
    EndIf

    $LOGTEXT = GUICtrlRead($Notes)
    _FileWriteToLine($sTxtFile, 1, $LOGTEXT, 0)
    $Log = FileRead($sTxtFile)
    FileClose($sTxtFile)
    ClipPut($Log)

EndFunc   ;==>CaseNotes

Thank you all for the help and ideas.