Looking for a particular FTP feature in PM

[diggy_dude]

Hello, all. I'm a website programmer for a local news organization. I develop processes for importing content into our CMS from multiple sources, including Photo Mechanic. I've searched the forum for mention of a particular FTP feature, but I'm not even sure what it's called.

What we want to do is determine whether a file has been completely uploaded before our process attempts to retrieve it from the FTP server. Some FTP clients have a feature that will temporary rename a file - say "myfile.jpg" - to, for example, "myfile.part" on the FTP server while the transfer is in progress, then rename it back to "myfile.jpg" when the transfer is complete. Does PM support such a feature, and if so, how can the user enable it?

[Kirk Baker]

Hello, all. I'm a website programmer for a local news organization. I develop processes for importing content into our CMS from multiple sources, including Photo Mechanic. I've searched the forum for mention of a particular FTP feature, but I'm not even sure what it's called.

What we want to do is determine whether a file has been completely uploaded before our process attempts to retrieve it from the FTP server. Some FTP clients have a feature that will temporary rename a file - say "myfile.jpg" - to, for example, "myfile.part" on the FTP server while the transfer is in progress, then rename it back to "myfile.jpg" when the transfer is complete. Does PM support such a feature, and if so, how can the user enable it?

No, it does not have such a feature currently.

-Kirk

[diggy_dude]

Thanks, Kirk. Do you intend to add the feature in a future release? Barring that, any suggestions for other ways to accomplish this task?

Regards,
Jim

[Kirk Baker]

Jim,

Thanks, Kirk. Do you intend to add the feature in a future release? Barring that, any suggestions for other ways to accomplish this task?

It isn't on our list of things to add to Photo Mechanic at this time.  Feel free to post in the Feature Requests section of the forum exactly what your needs are and why it would be useful for other users.  Things that we feel are useful for many users often get implemented.

I know of no workaround for your particular situation if you have no control over the server and how it does things.

-Kirk

[diggy_dude]

Our IS staff does have control over the FTP server. They will support any reasonable business logic not deemed to be detrimental to system integrity or network security.

[Kirk Baker]

Our IS staff does have control over the FTP server. They will support any reasonable business logic not deemed to be detrimental to system integrity or network security.

OK, then how about creating a text file whose name is "zz_done.txt" that you upload after all of your images?  I chose zz_done.txt so that it would sort to the end of the contact sheet.  When your server sees that file, it can process all of the files in the directory.

I dunno if that would work for you or not.  Just an idea.

-Kirk

[ron_hiner]

Diggy --

I don't know much about ftp internals, but I would assume that there is an end of file marker passed on the last packet.   If so, can you look for that?