WatchDirectory Forum - "Start any Program"

Dschuwi YaBB Newbies Offline Posts: 14	"Start any Program" - service does not work Sep 6^th, 2010 at 3:11pm Hi, I am testing watchDirectory, version 4.6.2. Most of the tasks I would need (copy/move/rename) work well when started as a service. The plugins "Start any Program" or "Run a .bat file" donot work as service - they work fine when started manually (F5) though. Is this a bug or am I missing something? tnx
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Gert YaBB Administrator Offline Posts: 2268 The Netherlands	Re: "Start any Program" - service does not work Reply #1 - Sep 6^th, 2010 at 3:14pm Hi, Not a bug, but an unfortunate way services work. See this blogpost how to troubleshoot/fix Services: http://watchdirftp.blogspot.com/2010/04/watchdirectory-tasks-as-windows-service.... Gert
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Dschuwi YaBB Newbies Offline Posts: 14	Re: "Start any Program" - service does not work Reply #2 - Sep 6^th, 2010 at 4:28pm I'm afraid this does not help - I work on local drives only, I have the full path name to the program/bat file provided, no spaces contained, the service is running (I also tried to run this service as a user with admin privileges.). I must be missing something
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Gert YaBB Administrator Offline Posts: 2268 The Netherlands	Re: "Start any Program" - service does not work Reply #3 - Sep 6^th, 2010 at 4:34pm What happens if you enter your OWN user/password for the service?
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Dirk YaBB Administrator Offline Posts: 671 South Germany	Re: "Start any Program" - service does not work Reply #4 - Sep 6^th, 2010 at 5:03pm Hi Dschuwi, please note that not all progams can run as services. This has nothing to do with WatchDirectory, you also will not be able to run the program with srvany.exe or other service-making helpers. Please take start option "auto start folder" together with "keep task running at logoff".
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Dschuwi YaBB Newbies Offline Posts: 14	Re: "Start any Program" - service does not work Reply #5 - Sep 7^th, 2010 at 12:18pm Gert wrote on Sep 6^th, 2010 at 4:34pm: What happens if you enter your OWN user/password for the service? I did try with my own account... It looks just as if nothing would happen at all.
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Dschuwi

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Re: "Start any Program" - service does not work
Reply #6 - Sep 7^th, 2010 at 12:22pm

Dirk wrote on Sep 6^th, 2010 at 5:03pm:

Hi Dschuwi,

please note that not all progams can run as services. This has nothing to do with WatchDirectory, you also will not be able to run the program with srvany.exe or other service-making helpers.
Please take start option "auto start folder" together with "keep task running at logoff".

Well that's why I tried to run a simple .bat file - it does not even open the command window.
Auto start folder is an option, certainly, but I want to dig into this problem.
Is there a way to find out if watchDirectory does detect the triggering event in the first place - so we could track down where in the processing chain we are stuck?

cheers
hp

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Dirk YaBB Administrator Offline Posts: 671 South Germany	Re: "Start any Program" - service does not work Reply #7 - Sep 7^th, 2010 at 12:26pm Please check at the machine where wd is installed if the account you are using has the rights to log on as service like described here for Windows 2003 Server: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc739424(WS.10).aspx?ppud=4
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Re: "Start any Program" - service does not work
Reply #8 - Sep 7^th, 2010 at 12:28pm

For "Run a bat file", make sure you have the option
[X] Capture output
enabled.

If your task is called HELLO, and after you drop a file into the directory, it starts your bat file and redirects all output (ECHO HELLO WORLD) to a log file in directory

<taskdirectory>\HELLO\

those files have names like 12345_6789.log
To explore the task-directory, select the menu Tools -> Explore task directory. Good chance you will see error messages in the log files.

You can also look at the history database to see if the files are detected:
http://watchdirftp.blogspot.com/2008/05/how-task-history-works.html

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Dschuwi

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Re: "Start any Program" - service does not work
Reply #9 - Sep 7^th, 2010 at 4:27pm

Gert wrote on Sep 7^th, 2010 at 12:28pm:

For "Run a bat file", make sure you have the option

those files have names like 12345_6789.log
To explore the task-directory, select the menu Tools -> Explore task directory. Good chance you will see error messages in the log files.

The output of the log files is absolutely the same whether WD runs as a service or not:

Code:

E:\WatchDirTest>GOTO :StartOfBat
E:\WatchDirTest>"D:\WA\WatchDirectory\wdAnnotate.exe" info "Starting E:\WatchDirTest\RunTest.bat for event"

E:\WatchDirTest>Call "E:\WatchDirTest\RunTest.bat" FILENEW
E:\WatchDirTest>D:\TESTDIR\TESTPROG.EXE
E:\WatchDirTest>"D:\WA\WatchDirectory\wdAnnotate.exe" info "Done"

However, when running as a service, "D:\TESTDIR\TESTPROG.EXE" (which is the only line in RunTest.bat) does not get executed, otherwise it does (three times actually, and three log files, even though only one file gets dropped into the monitored directory)

puzzled...
hp

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Dschuwi

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Re: "Start any Program" - service does not work
Reply #10 - Sep 7^th, 2010 at 4:28pm

Dirk wrote on Sep 7^th, 2010 at 12:26pm:

Please check at the machine where wd is installed if the account you are using has the rights to log on as service like described here for Windows 2003 Server:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc739424(WS.10).aspx?ppud=4

Yes, the account does have the rights, and other WD services do run very well...

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Dirk YaBB Administrator Offline Posts: 671 South Germany	Re: "Start any Program" - service does not work Reply #11 - Sep 7^th, 2010 at 4:40pm Please try to run your program without WatchDirectory as a service. How to: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/137890/en-us Required files: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=9d467a69-57ff-4ae7-96ee... Let me know if you can run it successfully with this tools.
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Re: "Start any Program" - service does not work
Reply #12 - Sep 7^th, 2010 at 5:57pm

Also, as mentioned in the blogpost http://watchdirftp.blogspot.com/2010/04/watchdirectory-tasks-as-windows-service....

Does your program depend on a certain Working Directory? Then set it yourself inside the bat file.
Code:

rem set current dir to D:\Whatever
D:
CD "\Whatever"

Does your program depend on certain PATH settings? Then set it yourself inside the bat file.
Code:

SET PATH=%PATH%;D:\testdir;c:\MyDlls

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Dschuwi

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Re: "Start any Program" - service does not work
Reply #13 - Sep 9^th, 2010 at 10:31am

Dirk wrote on Sep 7^th, 2010 at 4:40pm:

Please try to run your program without WatchDirectory as a service.
How to:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/137890/en-us
Required files:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=9d467a69-57ff-4ae7-96ee...

Let me know if you can run it successfully with this tools.

No.
The service is created, successfully, but cannot be started.
However, if I understand it correctly, the WD task should run as a service and consequently start my program if needed - the program itself is not supposed to run as a service, right?

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Dschuwi YaBB Newbies Offline Posts: 14	Re: "Start any Program" - service does not work Reply #14 - Sep 9^th, 2010 at 10:36am Gert wrote on Sep 7^th, 2010 at 5:57pm: Also, as mentioned in the blogpost http://watchdirftp.blogspot.com/2010/04/watchdirectory-tasks-as-windows-service.... Does your program depend on a certain Working Directory? Then set it yourself inside the bat file. Tried - did not help...
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Dschuwi YaBB Newbies Offline Posts: 14	Re: "Start any Program" - service does not work Reply #15 - Sep 9^th, 2010 at 10:39am FYI - the custom program is Cyber-D's Autodelete 2.24 (Freeware). If WD only had an option to autodelete files based on their created/modified file age, I would not need it
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Gert

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Re: "Start any Program" - service does not work
Reply #16 - Sep 9^th, 2010 at 10:42am

One further thing you could try (not recommended by MS) is to change the service property so it is allowed to interact with the desktop (or some such wording).

To use WD's delete task ( http://www.watchdirectory.net/wdhelp/plugins/wdopAutoDelete.html ) based on timestamps, look at the "File Age" monitoring method: http://www.watchdirectory.net/wdhelp/help/detect_old_files.html

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Dschuwi

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Re: "Start any Program" - service does not work
Reply #17 - Sep 9^th, 2010 at 11:07am

Gert wrote on Sep 9^th, 2010 at 10:42am:

To use WD's delete task ( http://www.watchdirectory.net/wdhelp/plugins/wdopAutoDelete.html ) based on timestamps, look at the "File Age" monitoring method: http://www.watchdirectory.net/wdhelp/help/detect_old_files.html

Uh-oh... I did try this before, tried again now, seems to work.
There was only one uncertainty, I could not accurately test:

Can you confirm, ONLY files that actually triggered due to their age, will be deleted?

After my first tests I had the impression, after ONE file had triggered, ALL files according to the filter criteria would be deleted...

Since autodelete is a rather dangerous task, maybe this should be clarified directly in WD's settings window.

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Gert YaBB Administrator Offline Posts: 2268 The Netherlands	Re: "Start any Program" - service does not work Reply #18 - Sep 9^th, 2010 at 11:14am confirmed Also, please read this blogpost (about "remember triggered files"): http://watchdirftp.blogspot.com/2009/01/file-age-monitoring-method.html
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Gert YaBB Administrator Offline Posts: 2268 The Netherlands	Re: "Start any Program" - service does not work Reply #19 - Sep 9^th, 2010 at 11:14am oh, and to re-iterate what Dirk said somewhere: some programs just can not run in a service context.
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Dschuwi

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Re: "Start any Program" - service does not work
Reply #20 - Sep 9^th, 2010 at 11:27am

Gert wrote on Sep 9^th, 2010 at 11:14am:

confirmed

Also, please read this blogpost (about "remember triggered files"):
http://watchdirftp.blogspot.com/2009/01/file-age-monitoring-method.html

Wow. Great. Perfect program. Thanks!

I need to run it 24/7 on an FTP server, will keep testing it for the rest of the trial period, and then eventually kick out it's competitor, which is outdated and not only by its name behaves like an ape in the trees Wink

Cheers
hp

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Dirk

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Re: "Start any Program" - service does not work
Reply #21 - Sep 10^th, 2010 at 3:01pm

Dschuwi,

Quote:

No.
The service is created, successfully, but cannot be started.
However, if I understand it correctly, the WD task should run as a service and consequently start my program if needed - the program itself is not supposed to run as a service, right?

I have overlooked your posting, sorry.
Yes - I f you were not able to run your program as service with those MS tools, it cannot run as service. Your problem is not WatchDirectory-related, its application-related. I have several customers with exact the same problem.
You may contact the the programmer, maybe he is willing to change it.

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Viele Grüße / Best regards
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Gert

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Re: "Start any Program" - service does not work
Reply #22 - Sep 10^th, 2010 at 3:14pm

Just to add to Dirk's remarks...

99% of programs that are *really* command line (you know, you can start it in a "dos box") can be run in a service context as long as they do not ask questions but just "do it".

Programs that open a graphic user interface, with dialogs asking you "Are you sure you want to delete..." are impossible to run in a service context because there is no user present to press OK.

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