[AccessD] A2K: Shell 'discoveries'

Jim Lawrence (AccessD) accessd at shaw.ca
Thu Apr 22 19:38:34 CDT 2004


Hi Steven:

It has been some time ago but, I had a similar issue. The solution was to
have Access simply save the files, that were to be uploaded and then add an
event to the server's schedular...at 3:00AM every morning the server ran the
scheduled process, that first checked to see if a file was in the upload
queue...if there were it started an ftp session, transferred and received
any files. The only time it did not work was when the remote ftp server was
down.

HTH
Jim

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com]On Behalf Of Steven W.
Erbach
Sent: Thursday, April 22, 2004 8:06 AM
To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
Subject: [AccessD] A2K: Shell 'discoveries'


Dear Group,

In debugging the custom EDI application I'm writing for a client of mine, I
"discovered" a thing or two about using the Shell command to run a DOS batch
file.

The purpose of using the DOS batch file is to start an FTP session and
upload a bunch of files to the EDI mailbox. Then, when the batch file is
finished, move the files that were uploaded into an archive folder on the
server.

I had tested the batch file from a command prompt and it works just dandy.
The EDI documents show up as having been uploaded successfully. However when
I used the Shell command in my application I wouldn't see any document names
uploaded. Then I'd get the annoying e-mail the next day from the EDI service
provider saying that the expected documents weren't received.

I finally figured out the problem: Access doesn't wait for the batch file to
finish. The Shell command just launches the external program, whatever it
is, and goes on to the next task. In my case it was moving the EDI documents
into an archive folder. Well, Access whisked those files out of the FTP
folder so fast that by the time the FTP login was complete (user name,
password, and account name) the files were no longer available for
uploading. The FTP session didn't fail, as such, there just wasn't anything
to send.

So, I added a MsgBox asking the user to verify that the DOS session had
ended before going on to archive the EDI files. Problem solved.

Sorry if this is tediously obvious, but I haven't ever run a batch file from
Access and I have nobody to bounce this stuff off of (nobody off of whom to
bounce this stuff?).

Regards,

Steve Erbach
Scientific Marketing
Neenah, WI
920-969-0504

"Congress is as trustworthy with money as a crack addict who is
experimenting with heroin." - Dave Barry

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