writing to external file from Windows standalone: empty files

[Bill Marriott]

Isn't the problem the "open file" statement? You would use "write to file" 
subsequent to that.

As far as I know, the "put into URL" approach doesn't need an open file to 
precede it, and may even be blocked (because the file is already open for 
writing?)

- Bill

"Sarah Reichelt" <sarah.reichelt at gmail.com> 
wrote in message 
news:f99b52860702272032l1505f775sb9dcebb4556f6e89 at mail.gmail.com...
> On 2/28/07, Curtis Ford <cford at gwm.sc.edu> 
> wrote:
>> My project needs to allow the user to enter data which is then saved to
>> an external text file. It has worked fine on OS X in the IDE and
>> standalone. When I tried from a Windows standalone, the external file is
>> written but is empty (0 kb). Here's the code:
>>
>> on saveNewFile
>>   global gMyFileName,gEntireList,gMyLoop,gCurrentSet
>>   ask file "Save list as" with "MyList.txt"
>>   put it into gMyFileName
>>   --separate handler saves current set of data to gCurrentSet
>>   saveCurrentSet
>> --is the current set already in gEntireList?
>>   put lineOffset("<itemIDnum=" & gMyLoop, gEntireList) into tSetStart
>>   if tSetStart = 0 then
>>     --it wasn't there, so append the set just entered to the end of
>> gEntireList
>>     put gCurrentSet after gEntireList
>>   end if
>>   open file gMyFileName for update
>>   answer "now doing saveNewFile: gEntireList is" && gEntireList
>>   put gEntireList into URL ("file:" & gMyFileName)
>> end saveNewFile
>>
>> I put the 'answer' command right before the final 'put gEntireList..'
>> command to make sure the variable had the expected contents, and it did;
>> but the resulting text file is always empty on XP.
>>
>> I'm developing on OS X 10.4.8, testing on Windows XP; using Rev 2.8, but
>> I checked earlier versions of the project and the problem is there in
>> 2.6 as well.
>>
>> I don't know a lot about Windows or where to go on with troubleshooting.
>> Help! Thanks in advance!
>>
>
>
> Put a line after the "put into URL" line saying:
> if the result is empty then answer the result
>
> This is at least tell you if there is an error while saving. My guess
> would be that you are running into a permissions problem - you are
> coming to a sad realization :-). If you are trying to save to the
> Program Files folder (or a sub-folder in it), then unless you have
> admin privileges, this will fail I think. Like you I am not a Windows
> expert, but I think that is correct. Try saving the file in other
> locations and seeing if that works. Ken Ray's site lists the codes
> needed to get specialFolderPath to give you the path to various
> Windows folders.
>
> HTH,
> Sarah
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