[JS][CS3] Loading text into memory

[Roy Marshall]

Hi.

Am am trying to access an external txt file which holds data for my script.  I have looked at the famous "FindChangeByList" and tried to work from there.  However, I am not going to need input from the user for the txt file location, it will always be the same:

myFilePath="/Mailer Support/savers.txt";//always going to be there
myFile = File(myFilePath);
myData = myFile.open("r", undefined,undefined);
myLine = myFile.readln(); //I know I need loops for this, but there is text on the first line of the TXT file
myText = myFile.read();
alert (myLine);//Blank!!
myText = myFile.read();
alert (myText);//Blank also

Can someone help with this please.

I know I had a PDF file that detailed the way to call and work with files, but I cannot find it.  Does someone know the name of it?

Cheers

Roy

[Roy Marshall]

I have now found the file "Javascript Tools Guide".  I will look through in tomorrow to see if i can answer this one myself now. 

Feel free to reply anyway...!!

Cheers

Roy

[Jongware]

Your code works just fine for me. I'd suggest adding

myStatus = myFile.open("r", undefined,undefined);
if (myStatus == false) { alert ("Unable to open that file"); exit(0); }

to check if it actually exists (open returns a state flag, rather than 'data'). A quick experiment shows that JS doesn't care if a non-existant file is opened for reading (other than just about any other programming language I could care to name!), and indeed "reads" blank lines if it doesn't exist.

By the way, you used this line twice:

myText = myFile.read();

-- overwriting "myText" the second time. Since the first "read" already read up to the end of the file, the second time around the variable is emptied.

[Harbs.]

I think if(!myFile.exists){//exit} is a more elegent way of checking if the file exists...

Harbs

[Roy Marshall]

Nice thinking, but the txt file only contains two lines of text.  No blank lines.  (I checked that first).  I have also checked the file name etc..... and all is ok.

I will get back to this later. No time now with my day job.

Roy

[Roy Marshall]

YEH!

I was acting on the information that the path  myFilePath="/XXXX Support/savers.txt"; starts in the location of the active script.  Not So.  This actually takes me back to the root of the hard disk.  No problems, just a lot of wasted time yesterday!

Thanks for the help, having the ability to confirm the existence of the file lead me there.

Thanks all once again

Roy

[Harbs.]

Maybe the first line is blank?

I usually just use read(), and then parse the text...

Harbs

[Jongware]

Heh heh -- yes, that's also possible! First line blank, rest of the text gets read but then got thrown away by the next "read" ...

I bet I would have been flummoxed as well if my test file happened to start with a blank line.