Switch delivering files to hotfolders over network?

wolle · Post by **wolle** » Wed Mar 02, 2011 3:38 pm

I have two applications that support local hotfolders.

One is a RIP that impose and process PDF's from several Hotfolders.

The other is a shipping system that accepts tab-delimited files with address and shipping method.

Both have problems with files that Powerswitch delivers to their hotfolders over the network. The RIP ignores the PDF's and the shipping system "rejects" them (they end up in Switch's error folder).

When the same files are moved manually along the same path, everything works fine???

Any ideas to fix this or maybe a workaround (script?) ?

Thanks,

Thomas

dkelly · Post by **dkelly** » Wed Mar 02, 2011 4:25 pm

It's possible that the programs are attempting to read the files before they have completely arrived. Is there a setting for "stable time" or similar in the RIP and shipping software?

wolle · Post by **wolle** » Wed Mar 02, 2011 4:27 pm

They probably are, but no way to change it, and, as I wrote, a manual copy/move doesn't stop the hotfolders funtionality...

dkelly · Post by **dkelly** » Wed Mar 02, 2011 5:15 pm

I've seen applications create the output file, pause then start copying the contents. Some programs will "lock" the file during write to insure no other program will read it too early.

How long does the copy in Switch take compared to copying manually?

Danny · Post by **Danny** » Thu Mar 03, 2011 6:50 am

dkelly has a good point. Maybe copying over the network is delayed. Try making the path prior to the hot folder on the same serever the hotfolder is located on. This way the copy will take place before entering the hot folder, it will simply be "moving" the file.

I've ran into this same issue with hot folders on our network. I have always thought there might be some type of conflict with Switch removing the unique name prefix while the hot folder is trying to "process" the job.

I'm going to try copying it to the network before moving it to the hot folder.

I'd like to know if you are able to resolve this. Keep us posted. I'll do the same.

wolle · Post by **wolle** » Thu Mar 03, 2011 9:13 am

I will keep you (all) updated.

I had the same suspicion about the removal of unique ID. If you can't get PS to remove the ID BEFORE moving the file, maybe the only solution is a script to throw a copy of the file without ID into a network-folder specified with a path in the script-parameters? I will try to see if I can figure out how to do that.

The RIP is posting the individual hotfolders on the network and looks in all subfolders, so I can't deliver in a non-watched folder on the same network-drive. I will try it with the shipping system though.

mattbeals · Post by **mattbeals** » Fri Mar 04, 2011 4:07 am

If I recall correctly the file is written with the unique name and then the unique ID is removed.

Having said that I had one customer in particular who used a script to copy the file from Switch to the server. The problem for them ended up being that the directory we were writing to contained a large number of files that was slowing Switch down. So the script element ended up helping Switch's overall performance. We did NOT have any problems with file locking or other processes picking up the file before it is completed.