(UN)Successful Conversion

[gbuergisser]

When a webserver is unreachable iSiloX generates a message in the logfile: "Unable to open: http://www.devnull.com/"
But in the list view iSiloX displays "Successful conversion" and generates a 400 byte file.

Shouldn't it at least display "Conversion failed" or something?

In any case it should not generate an "empty" file because that will overwrite the last good file I had of the document...

[darkcompass]

I believe it still picks up content (the no dns screen), so in theory it has picked up and converted a document, and so the conversion was successful.

[gbuergisser]

ok, you could be right (can somebody from iSilo confirm this?).
nonetheless this case should be handled better by iSiloX.

[iSilo]

ok, you could be right (can somebody from iSilo confirm this?).
nonetheless this case should be handled better by iSiloX.
What darkcompass said is correct.

[gbuergisser]

ok. what about a "minimal filesize" parameter, that identifies a file as successfully converted?

e.g. i could set this parameter to 10kb. if the resulting pdb file is less than 10kb, the conversion would be identified as failed (and no pdb file is hotsynced then).

i think it is a problem that the file on my palm is overwritten by an empty one when theres a problem reaching the url.
and i don't want to check each channel seperately, especially when isilox is run as a scheduled conversion.

what do you think?

[kennethmgreen]

ok. what about a "minimal filesize" parameter, that identifies a file as successfully converted?
Great suggestion - almost like the way we filter URL links.. we could "filter" a problem conversion (another tab?)

[bracyp]

Add me to the list of people who want this. This would be very important for me as I synchronize a daily list of sites and if it fails, I too, don't want to have any previous document overwritten.

[gbuergisser]

iSilo Administrator, what do you think about this?

[iSilo]

It's a great suggestion.

[gbuergisser]

I have implemented some kind of workaround for this problem. It consists of a simple batch file (.bat) and a tool to place files in the HotSync queue.

Here some explanations (you will find these also in the included readme file):

iSiloXCBatch.bat

Converts a list of documents using iSiloXC (the command line version of iSiloX).
Tests the resulting pdb files for a critical file size.
Files that are too small will be deleted (and thus, not HotSynced).
Files that are large enough to qualify are being tested against a backup copy of the previous conversion. If the file size is the same, the file is being deleted (assuming that its content has not changed). This prevents queueing of unnessessary files.
Places the pdb files in the HotSync queue (uses my quicksync tool).


quicksync
A small program written in the C programming language. It places files in the HotSync queue (right from the command line). It does this by using the Instaide.dll from the Palm Desktop software.
There is a precompiled binary which should run under any(?) Microsoft Windows version (it surely runs on my W2K box).
You may do with the C source code whatever you please. I have written it for my own use and share it with you. Of course I'd be happy to get some feedback.

Regards,
Gregor