There is a java application (also works for signed applets) function call that can be called on any file "lastModified()." It returns when that file was last modified by the system time stamp. It's a method of the File object.

Java API reference: http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/docs/api/java/io/File.html

I'm developing a Processing application that needs access to a file on the file system. I know where it is, and reading from the file (via Processing's function call "loadStrings()" ) works! So the file is there and the reading is fine. But how can I check to see if it's updated? when I call lastModified(), it works, but it returns 0 instead of some long int of the seconds.

Thanks for any help you can provide. I don't understand the differences between java and procesesing fully.

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Zach Pousman - www.thinky.org

The above didn't work for me... It still returns 0. Maybe I don't understand lastModified() ? I take from the Java ref that it should return the number of second since the beginning of "unix time" (Jan 1, 1970).

Heres' the code snippet:

private boolean sensedStateChanged() {
   File datafile = new File(folder, "data.txt");
   println("file age: " + datafile.lastModified());
   if (datafile.lastModified() == dataAge) {
       dataAge = datafile.lastModified(); //save the time of last modify
       println("file age compared: " + dataAge);
       return true;
   }
   else { return false; }
 }


Any ideas?

fry

"...the exception is generally anything using java.awt.* or java.swing.*, which should be avoided."

In Java mode, do you still advise against using awt/swing classes? For example, adding a simple button panel:

public class ButtonPanel extends PApplet {
 Panel buttons;
 Button bmove, bspin, bgrow;
 Point stageCenter;
 Dimension stage;

 void setup() {
   size(400, 300);
   setLayout(null);
   stage = new Dimension((width-width/4), height);
   stageCenter = new Point(stage.width/2, height/2);
   
   buttons = new Panel();
   buttons.setSize(width/4, height);
   buttons.setLocation(stage.width, 0);

   bmove = new Button("move");
   bspin = new Button("spin");
   bgrow = new Button("grow");

   bmove.setSize(width/4, 30);
   bspin.setSize(width/4, 30);
   bgrow.setSize(width/4, 30);

   buttons.add(bmove);
   buttons.add(bspin);
   buttons.add(bgrow);

   add(buttons);
 }
}