{"id":645,"date":"2012-01-18T19:20:47","date_gmt":"2012-01-18T18:20:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/depositmo\/?p=645"},"modified":"2012-01-18T19:20:47","modified_gmt":"2012-01-18T18:20:47","slug":"watch-folder-deposit-tool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/depositmo\/2012\/01\/18\/watch-folder-deposit-tool\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch Folder deposit tool"},"content":{"rendered":"

Having previously looked at the Word Add-in deposit tool, this post illustrates the second of the deposit tools developed in the DepositMO project, the Watch Folder, which uses common file manager services.<\/p>\n

Computer systems provide users with file manager tools, such as Windows Explorer or Mac Finder. This organises lists of files, and folders containing files, stored on the computer. Mostly these are fairly static services. Users can save files to designated directories and folders, and can move and copy files to different locations using short-cut keys of drag-and-drop.<\/p>\n

We want to make use of this process of copy or drag-and-drop to initiate repository deposit. It works on the basis of a \u2018watch folder\u2019. Essentially this folder contains a script that monitors user actions in adding files or folders to the directory containing the watch folder. Figure 1 shows the active directory containing the watch folder, and also the script that runs when you click on the watch folder.<\/p>\n

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Fig.1 Active directory containing the Watch Folder script<\/p>\n

When a new file is added to the directory containing the watch folder the script initiates a session with the selected repository and copies the file there as well. To complete this process the general script needs some information from the user, the same information used in the Word Add-in example:<\/p>\n