Dumb question about files on a server

Graham Samuel livfoss at mac.com
Mon Sep 19 16:53:53 EDT 2016 

Ah Mike, that's more what I was expecting. The dumb part is that I have never had to use a file path not associated with an LC standalone, including 'specialfolderpath' paths, so I don't understand how to retrieve the path to the remote server. I bet this is so simple that you didn't think it was a problem. I will experiment some more, but I have not got it right so far.

Cheers

Graham

Sent from my iPad

> On 19 Sep 2016, at 22:36, Mike Bonner <bonnmike at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Ah k.. well on the server side the code should be relatively simple.
> 
> You need to check for the existence of a folder, so in your .lc script --
> if there is not a folder "foldername" then... applies still. If its not
> there, create it (create folder "foldername")  If it wasn't there it is
> now, so either way you can continue on.
> 
> I have the habit of setting the folder I wish to write to, so you could set
> the folder to your existing or newly created folder.
> 
> The next question is.. If you will simply be appending a line to the file
> each time, its easy enough to do so without reading in the contents of the
> file.
> Just put the new line after url "file:yourfilename" and you're done.
> 
> If you need to do other things to the contents first though....
> 
> if there is a file "yourfilename" then
>   put url "file: yourfilename" into tVar
>   do your processing of the existing data, and modify as needed with the
> new information
>   put tVar into url "file:yourfilename" -- to overwrite the file with the
> processed data
> else
>   process only the new data
>   put tData into url "file:yourfilename" -- to create a new file and put
> the first values into it
> end if
> 
> From your description the problem is very linear and should be simple to
> code.
> 
> 
> 
>> On Mon, Sep 19, 2016 at 2:15 PM, Graham Samuel <livfoss at mac.com> wrote:
>> 
>> Mike, thanks for that. I think I have not really explained enough about
>> what I want.
>> 
>> I have a .lc script on the server that invokes Jacque Gay’s Zygodact
>> product to generate license codes, which are then passed on to the payment
>> processor. This works fine. However when a code is generated, it would be
>> prudent to keep it in a file which is on the server. So I want to add a few
>> lines of code to the aforesaid .lc script so that each code goes into a
>> text file. I don’t need a database since the list will probably be less
>> than 1K lines (if it gets any bigger, I can create another solution). So
>> none of this activity is taking place outside the server - it’s all
>> happening in a .lc script run by the LC Server engine.
>> 
>> In these circumstances, I thought a fairly straightforward bit of LiveCode
>> coding would do the job. This is different from what you’re suggesting, I
>> think - though I am out of my comfort zone doing this at all.
>> 
>> Can I appeal for more help on this?
>> 
>> Thanks
>> 
>> Graham
>> 
>>> On 19 Sep 2016, at 17:53, Mike Bonner <bonnmike at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> It sounds like you have an app that you want to use to manipulate files
>> and
>>> folders on a remote server. You could set up a script on the server as a
>>> middle man pretty easily I think..
>>> 
>>> Something like this.. (off the top of my head)
>>> 
>>> Have it accept $_POST data, one item of which could be cmd=folder_exists,
>>> and pass in the folder name to check..
>>> 
>>> switch $_POST["cmd"]
>>> case "folder_exists"
>>>   if there is not a folder $_POST["folder_name"] then
>>>       create folder $_POST["folder_name"]
>>>       put "Folder " & $_POST["folder_name"] & "created"
>>>   else
>>>       put "Folder " & $_POST["folder_name"] & "Exists"
>>>   end if
>>> break
>>> 
>>> case "retrieve_file"
>>>   put URL ("file:" & $_POST["file_to_retrieve"])
>>> break
>>> case "update_file"
>>>  put $_POST["new_data"] into URL ("file:" & $_POST["file_to_update"])
>>> break
>>> default
>>>  put "invalid request"
>>> end switch
>>> 
>>> 
>>> No thoughts about security on this, just a barebones idea..
>>> 
>>> Now, for the curiosity question.. Would a database back end work better
>> for
>>> this?  (You'd still need an intermediary script)
>>> 
>>>> On Mon, Sep 19, 2016 at 8:40 AM, Graham Samuel <livfoss at mac.com> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> I have some server space and a domain name, let’s say ‘mysite.com <
>>>> http://mysite.com/>’. On this host I have a web site (www.mysite.com <
>>>> http://www.mysite.com/>), plus LiveCode Server (8.1 commercial as it
>>>> happens) and some scripts etc. So far, so good. Now I want to write a
>>>> script that runs on the server and does the following - this is not
>> code,
>>>> but is supposed to show what I want to code:
>>>> 
>>>> 1. If there is not a folder within my space called ‘myUsefulData’, then
>>>> create such a folder;
>>>> 
>>>> 2. If there is not a text file ‘myCurrentData.txt’  within the above
>>>> folder, then create one (this may not be necessary, as an attempt to
>> access
>>>> the file might create it?);
>>>> 
>>>> 3. Read the contents of the file into a variable;
>>>> 
>>>> 4. Add some data from within the program (let’s say an extra line at the
>>>> end);
>>>> 
>>>> 5. Rewrite the updated file.
>>>> 
>>>> There may also be error checking etc.
>>>> 
>>>> Although this seems extremely simple, I find I don’t know how to do it,
>>>> and so far the LC examples I’ve read don’t seem to help. I am not sure
>> for
>>>> example if FTP comes into the equation (I think it does) or the user
>> name
>>>> and password I need for FTP access from outside the server (surely
>> not?),
>>>> or indeed what the path to my own bit of the server actually is. Of
>> course
>>>> I’ve tried stuff, but nothing has worked so far, and a test script
>> (running
>>>> in the IDE, not within a server script) fails silently. Nothing is
>> created,
>>>> nothing is destroyed, but sadly everything isn’t transformed.
>>>> 
>>>> Can anyone explain how to do this, or at least point me to an
>> explanation.
>>>> 
>>>> Sorry for the dumb question, but there it is.
>>>> 
>>>> Graham
>>>> 
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