www.auctionsieve.com

[heynnema]

Hello!

Hey, great job with AuctionSieve!

However, I have a new problem with version 1.9.5, hopefully you can fix it. AuctionSieve now always places an "AuctionSieve" folder in my home directory. This contains a "tmp" folder that contains "test.txt".

The options menu item contains this text that might be helpful...

Java version = 1.5.0_16
Operating System = Mac OS X
is at least java 1.6 = false
passes vista test (java 1.6 & vista) = false
current dir = /Users/alheynneman/Applications/Internet/Auction/AuctionSieve 1.9.4/AuctionSieve.app/Contents/Resources/Java
user home dir = /Users/alheynneman
tmp dir = /tmp
can create /Users/alheynneman/Applications/Internet/Auction/AuctionSieve 1.9.4/AuctionSieve.app/Contents/Resources/Java/tmp = true
can create /Users/alheynneman/AuctionSieve = true
can create /Users/alheynneman/AuctionSieve/tmp = true
can create /tmp/AuctionSieveTmp = true
/Users/alheynneman/Applications/Internet/Auction/AuctionSieve 1.9.4/AuctionSieve.app/Contents/Resources/Java/tmp writeable = true
/Users/alheynneman/AuctionSieve/tmp writeable = true
/tmp/AuctionSieveTmp writeable = true

I couldn't find anywhere to change the above... like a pref or xml file.

Any ideas?

Al

[nev]

From further emails with Al -

Hello Neville!

Thanks for your quick reply!

No, the AuctionSieve user info should not be (visible) in the user's home folder. Either put them in ~/username/library/application support/auctionsieve, or in ~/username/library/preferences/auctionsieve, or, if you must, ~/username/.auctionsieve.

One further suggestion for you... custom searches are currently imbedded in the application's package. If the user replaces the application with a new version, rather than using the built-in updater, or does a clean reinstall, they loose all of their custom searches. Consider putting any file/code that needs to be changed/updated, EXTERNAL to the application package. Don't modify the original package during use. Maybe put this stuff in the same place that you decide to put the user information, outlined in my first paragraph.

Keep up the good work!

Cheers, Al

[nev]

Hi Al,

I'll be making the changes you suggest - making use of the ~/username/library/... folders.

At the same time I'll be fixing up Vista.

Nev

[nev]

Ok, I've just released a beta that changes where AuctionSieve creates that tmp directory. On a mac it will put it in ~/username/library/application support/auctionsieve/tmp

I'm not going to change where the preferences go just yet because I'll need to write a bunch of code that takes account of already existing settings and files.

Nev

[heynnema]

Nev,

Remember in your coding to account for the fact that your file path now contains spaces ie: "Application Support". If you don't, some really bad stuff can happen.

{"~/Library/Application Support"} = {~Library/Application\ Support}
but does not equal {~/Library/Application Support}.

Cheers, Al

[nev]

Can you confirm if the latest beta does the correct thing?

[heynnema]

Hello again Nev,

If the path strings that you use don't appropriately account for the space in the pathname, what usually happens is that you wipe out entire directories of files/folders.

For example:
In Terminal, if you typed:
rm -R Application Support, rm would think that you were removing two separate folders. One called "Application" and another called "Support".
To do what you really wanted to do, you'd type:
rm -R "Application Support"
or
rm -R Application\ Support

I've seen really bad examples where a programmer tries, for example, to setup folders or prefs required for their application, and they may try to remove old folders/prefs from older versions of the app first. They do something like:
rm -R /pathname to boot disk/folder/folder/etc.
Now if the boot disk is called "Macintosh HD", as most are, and the programmer didn't account for spaces in the full pathname... oops. Now imagine that the user has renamed their boot disk to "Applications HD". The equivalent rm command could potentially wipe out the entire "Applications" folder, and then go looking for an "HD" folder.

That's a crude explanation of what I've seen happen.

I'll leave you to test this with your beta code... giggle. Also, you didn't indicate where to get the beta.

Cheers, Al

[nev]

Heh - in my first job I almost did an rm -rf * in the root folder of the development box.

To get the beta, run AuctionSieve and select Tools->Check for beta updates