Question

Test if file open using Cold Fusion

Asked by: djpierce54

I need to determine if a file is open by another application before I attempt to write to that file.  The file is an Excel spreadsheet.  Not sure if CFFile has a way of testing this or would I need some type of custom tag

This Question has been solved and asker verified All Experts Exchange premium technology solutions are available to subscription members.

Subscribe now for full access to Experts Exchange and get

Instant Access to this Solution

  • Plus...
  • 30 Day FREE access, no risk, no obligation
  • Collaborate with the world's top tech experts
  • Unlimited access to our exclusive solution database
  • Never be left without tech help again

Subscribe Now

Asked On
2009-11-06 at 12:43:36ID24879242
Topics

ColdFusion Application Server

,

Web Development Software

,

Cold Fusion Markup Language

Participating Experts
2
Points
250
Comments
21

Trusted by hundreds of thousands everyday for fast, accurate and reliable tech support.

  • "The time we save is the biggest benefit of Experts Exchange to Warner Bros. What could take multiple guys 2 hours or more each to find is accessed in around 15 minutes on Experts Exchange." Mike Kapnisakis, Warner Bros.
  • "Our team likes having a resource that is more secure than just using Google and most experts using this service really know their stuff. It's nice to look here first versus using Google." Dayna Sellner, Lockheed Martin
  • "Anytime that I've been stumped with a problem, 9 out of 10 times Experts Exchange has either the accepted solution or an open discussion of the potential solution to the problem." Kenny Red, eBay Inc.

See what Experts Exchange can do for you.

Got a question?

We've got the answer.

Experts Exchange has been collecting answers to technology questions since 1996…3 million and counting! If you have a question, chances are we already have your answer.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Need individual assistance?

Our experts are ready to help.

If you can't find the exact answer you're looking for, ask our exclusive community of 50,000 experts. You’ll get a personalized answer from a trusted professional.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Want to learn from the best?

Read articles from industry experts.

Thousands of free tech tips, tricks, how-to’s and tutorials are available in our peer reviewed articles section. See for yourself how smart our experts are, no login required.

Screenshot of an Article

Working on a long term project?

Store your work and research.

Save solutions to your questions, answers you’ve discovered through searching plus helpful articles in your personal knowledgebase for easy future access.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Access the answers to your technology questions today.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

What Makes Experts Exchange Unique?

Members of the expert community talk about why the experience at Experts Exchange is different than what you will find anywhere else.

Trusted by the world's most respected brands.

image of each brand's logo

Faithfully serving IT professionals since 1996.

Experts Exchange Logo

Try it out and discover for yourself.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

Related Solutions

  1. Cold Fusion with Word, Excel
    Hi, Anyone have any idea how I can use cold fusion, read my database and out put the data to word document and excel spreadsheet ? or can I just create something I not sure in Word and when I open the document, it will pull data from my db and write on it ?
  2. Cold Fusion
    What is Cold Fusion?
  3. Cold Fusion Optimization Techniques
    I'd like people to post their best/favorite optimization techniques for Cold Fusion. It's not really a question, but I'll give the points to the best idea after we've gotten enough comments. Think of it not so much in answering this question, but as the number of other inter...
  4. Cold Fusion Query to excel
    Hello!! When running a coldfusion query I need to download this report in an excel format. Please help!!! The problem I found with a recommeded code is that my hosting has disabled cfcontent and cffile, thus I must use other cold fusion tags. Thanks in advance.. Roberto

Free Tech Articles

  1. WARNING: 5 Reasons why you should NEVER fix a computer for free.
    It is in our nature to love the puzzle. We are obsessed. The lot of us. We love puzzles. We love the challenge. We thrive on finding the answer. We hate disarray. It bothers us deep in our soul. W...
  2. SCCM OSD Basic troubleshooting
    SCCM 2007 OSD is a fantastic way to deploy operating systems, however, like most things SCCM issues can sometimes be difficult to resolve due to the sheer volume of logs to sift through and the dispe...
  3. Migrate Small Business Server 2003 to Exchange 2010 and Windows 2008 R2
    This guide is intended to provide step by step instructions on how to migrate from Small Business Server 2003 to Windows 2008 R2 with Exchange 2010. For this migration to work you will need the fo...
  4. Create a Win7 Gadget
    This article shows you how to create a simple "Gadget" -- a sort of mini-application supported by Windows 7 and Vista. Gadgets can be dropped anywhere on the desktop to provide instant information, ...
  5. Outlook continually prompting for username and password
    There have been a lot of questions recently regarding Outlook prompting for a username and password whilst using Exchange 2007. There are a few reasons why this would happen and I will try to cover t...
  6. Backup Exchange 2010 Information Store using Windows Backup
    There seems to be quite a lot of confusion around the ability to backup Exchange 2010 using the built in Windows Backup feature. This stems from the omission of this feature prior to Exchange 2007 s...

Cloud Class Webinars

  1. Avoiding Bugs in Microsoft Access
    Alison Balter takes and in-depth look at avoiding bugs in Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the immediate window to debug your applications, invoking the debugger, using breakpoints to troubleshoot, stepping through code, setting the next statement to execute, ...
  2. Top 10 Best New Features in Visio 2010
    Scott Helmers gives live demonstrations of the top 10 new features in Visio 2010. This webinar will teach you how to create compelling diagrams by adding shapes to the page with a single click, linking the shapes in a diagram to data in Excel (or SQL Server, or SharePoint), ...
  3. IT Consultant Business Secrets Revealed
    Michael Munger, Experts Exchange tech pro and IT consultant, pulls back the curtain on his very successful businesses and answers question on every IT consultant and business owner should know about. He shares secrets on what he did to solve the 5 most common problems in IT, ...
  4. Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
    Quest CTO, Mike Billon, gives an overview of the steps involved in building a dunamic disaster recovery plan. Through case studies and an examination of software/hardware tooles for monitoring and testing, you'll gain a better understandin of where you are, where you want ...
  5. Organize Your Visio Diagrams with Containers and Lists
    Scott Helmers uses cross functional flowcharts, wireframe diagrams, data graphic legends and seating charts to teach you: how to ustilize all three new structured diagram components in Visio 2010, the best practices for organizeing shapes in previous version of Visio, how to organize ...
  6. How to Us Objects, Properties, Events and Methods in Microsoft Access
    Alison Dalter gives an in-depbth look at objects, properties, events and methods in Microsoft Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the object browser, referring to objects, working with properties and methods, working with object variables, understanding the ...

Join the Community

Give a Little. Get a Lot.

Join the community of experts here and help other tech pros by answering question in your area of expertise. You can earn FREE access to all Experts Exchange's premium features and resources.

Join the Community

Answers

 

by: ZvonkoPosted on 2009-11-09 at 09:31:44ID: 25778034

Here the base info page: http://www.xcelfiles.com/IsFileOpen.html

 

by: djpierce54Posted on 2009-11-09 at 11:04:47ID: 25778883

This looks interesting but I cannot see how I can use this in a Cold Fusion Template.
Not familiar enough with VBA and how to integrate into a web page.

 

by: trailblazzyr55Posted on 2009-11-10 at 13:26:09ID: 25790051

you could hook into java, which should exist on your system if you're running coldfusion...

<cfscript>
 file = createObject("Java", "java.io.File").init("ABSOLUTE PATH HERE/ExcelFileName.xls");
 try{
  channel = createObject("Java", "java.io.RandomAccessFile").init(file, "rw").getChannel();
  writeOutput("File is not open...");
   channel.close();
   channel = "";
 }
 catch(any err){
  writeOutput("File IS open...");
 }
</cfscript>

basically java will throw an exception if the file is open saying can't find the file, it may be in use by another process...

hence the try/catch to handle the exception and determine if the file is open or not...

 

by: djpierce54Posted on 2009-11-10 at 14:05:59ID: 25790408

Java is indeed installed on this server.
This does have promise but it always throws an exception - java.io.FileNotFoundException
I tried with single backslash, double backslash, forward slash, double forward slash.
I have set the file access to "everyone" with full control.  Not sure what is wrong.
Here is the simple template I am using to test.

<html>  <head>
<title>...</title>  
</head>  
<body>  
<cfscript>
 file = createObject("Java", "java.io.File").init("c:/Public/Book1.xls");
 try{
  channel = createObject("Java", "java.io.RandomAccessFile").init(file, "rw").getChannel();
  writeOutput("File is not open...");
   channel.close();
   channel = "";
 }
 catch(any err){
  writeOutput("File IS open...");
 }
</cfscript>
  After the script
</body></html>

 

by: trailblazzyr55Posted on 2009-11-10 at 19:56:37ID: 25792202

try this...

right click on the file you want to test with, select "Properties". Then under the "General" tab look at what is displayed for "Location". Copy this path and use that when initializing the java.io.File object.

 

by: trailblazzyr55Posted on 2009-11-10 at 19:59:23ID: 25792208

Formatting should be something like this...

C:\Public\Book1.xls

Not sure if there's anything funky with case sensitivity, but copy it exactly as it appears there ;o)

 

by: djpierce54Posted on 2009-11-11 at 07:46:53ID: 25795956

Did your requests and still the same - always fails.
Here is the entire exception message:
11/11 07:31:20 user RDSServlet: C:\Websites\Geometrics\QuoteLog\opentest2.cfm.LCK (The system cannot find the file specified)
java.io.FileNotFoundException: C:\Websites\Geometrics\QuoteLog\opentest2.cfm.LCK (The system cannot find the file specified)
      at java.io.FileInputStream.open(Native Method)
      at java.io.FileInputStream.<init>(FileInputStream.java:106)
      at coldfusion.rds.FileServlet$FileReadOperator.processCmd(FileServlet.java:156)
      at coldfusion.rds.FileServlet.processCmd(FileServlet.java:65)
      at coldfusion.rds.RdsServlet.doPost(RdsServlet.java:80)
      at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:760)
      at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:853)
      at coldfusion.rds.RdsFrontEndServlet.doPost(RdsFrontEndServlet.java:104)
      at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:760)
      at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:853)
      at coldfusion.bootstrap.BootstrapServlet.service(BootstrapServlet.java:89)
      at jrun.servlet.ServletInvoker.invoke(ServletInvoker.java:106)
      at jrun.servlet.JRunInvokerChain.invokeNext(JRunInvokerChain.java:42)
      at jrun.servlet.JRunRequestDispatcher.invoke(JRunRequestDispatcher.java:286)
      at jrun.servlet.ServletEngineService.dispatch(ServletEngineService.java:543)
      at jrun.servlet.jrpp.JRunProxyService.invokeRunnable(JRunProxyService.java:203)
      at jrunx.scheduler.ThreadPool$DownstreamMetrics.invokeRunnable(ThreadPool.java:320)
      at jrunx.scheduler.ThreadPool$ThreadThrottle.invokeRunnable(ThreadPool.java:428)
      at jrunx.scheduler.ThreadPool$UpstreamMetrics.invokeRunnable(ThreadPool.java:266)
      at jrunx.scheduler.WorkerThread.run(WorkerThread.java:66)

 

by: trailblazzyr55Posted on 2009-11-11 at 08:08:52ID: 25796191

try this...

<cfscript>
file = createObject("Java", "java.io.File").init("C:\Public\Book1.xls");
writeoutput(file.getCanonicalPath());
</cfscript>

assuming "C:\Public\Book1.xls" is your absolute path to the file...

 

by: trailblazzyr55Posted on 2009-11-11 at 08:45:17ID: 25796585

also try this...

<cfscript>
file = createObject("Java", "java.io.File").init("Book1.xls");
writeoutput(file.getCanonicalPath());
</cfscript>

with just the file name of the excel file, if either don't throw an exception, post what the output is...

 

by: djpierce54Posted on 2009-11-11 at 08:55:18ID: 25796698

Well the first one failed with this error:
The getCanonicalPath method was not found.  
Either there are no methods with the specified method name and argument types, or the getCanonicalPath method is overloaded with argument types that ColdFusion cannot decipher reliably. ColdFusion found 0 methods that matched the provided arguments. If this is a Java object and you verified that the method exists, you may need to use the javacast function to reduce ambiguity.  
 
The error occurred in C:\Websites\Geometrics\QuoteLog\opentest.cfm: line 19
 
17 : <cfscript>
18 : file = createObject("Java", "java.io.File").init("C:\Public\Book1.xls");
19 : writeoutput(file.getCanonicalPath());
20 : </cfscript>

No reason to try the second
 

 

by: trailblazzyr55Posted on 2009-11-11 at 10:30:57ID: 25797565

Are you able to move the xls file to the desktop, and adjust the path specified when creating the File object with the new path, and have any success in not returning the file not found?

Something seems off. I've tested a few different things and it seems to be working fine. Where in relation to your web application will this file reside once you app is completed?

Can you access this file through any of your current coldfusion apps?

 

by: djpierce54Posted on 2009-11-11 at 11:29:46ID: 25798144

Tried moving to the desktop with same failure.
So I then put in the webserver root location and still fails.  I can use Cold Fusion to read that file with cfx_excel.  That seems fine - The code is below.
I want to eventually have the file on another server.  Currently the cfx_excel also works fine opening a file on a different server.
<cfscript>
 file = createObject("Java", "java.io.File").init("C:\Websites\Geometrics\QuoteLog\Book1.xls");
 try{
  channel = createObject("Java", "java.io.RandomAccessFile").init(file, "rw").getChannel();
  writeOutput("File is not open...");
   channel.close();
   channel = "";
 }
 catch(any err){
  writeOutput("File IS open...");
 }
</cfscript>
<!--- <cfscript>
file = createObject("Java", "java.io.File").init("C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop\Book1.xls");
writeoutput(file.getCanonicalPath());
</cfscript> --->
<cfx_excel action="read"
      File="C:\Websites\Geometrics\QuoteLog\Book1.xls"
                        Sheet="Sheet1"
                        Result="recordset3"
                        Formula="process"
                        StartRow="1"
                        EndRow="3"
                        StartCol="A"
                        EndCol="C"
                        HeaderRow="1"
                        ProcessMerged="true"
                        DecimalDigit="2">
<cfdump var="#recordset3#">
</body></html>

 

by: trailblazzyr55Posted on 2009-11-11 at 12:49:50ID: 25798875

I'll take a another look at this in a little bit, currently on my laptop I'm running railo 3 express and its working fine, at home I have adobe cf and IIS. Maybe there are some differences causing an issue reading the file. Seems odd that cfx_excel can access the file but native java can't, cf is running on java and so is cfx_excel.

The only other suggestion for now it try relative pathing and see if java.io.File can resolve it. I haven't tried it yet, but may be possible.

 

by: djpierce54Posted on 2009-11-11 at 12:55:52ID: 25798927

OK - I am not sure what you mean by "relative path"
You mean like ../../filename.xls

 

by: trailblazzyr55Posted on 2009-11-11 at 13:52:07ID: 25799508

yeah actually I should say rather than using the full path from drive letter specify a path relative to your web root.

Example:

instead of specifying "C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\myfiles\Book1.xls"

try using "/myfiles/Book1.xls"

that'd probably work before ../Book1.xls, but it wouldn't hurt to try both...

You got my curiosity now on why what I'm doing is working an you can't seem to get it working there and why cfx_excel would work with "C:\Websites\Geometrics\QuoteLog\Book1.xls" but java.io.File throws a file not found with the same path... especially since cfx_excel is java based...

 

by: djpierce54Posted on 2009-11-11 at 14:19:20ID: 25799755

Need to reverse engineer the cfx_excel!!
I even put the file in the root of the website and several other places and it still fails.
Interesting that I can run CFFILE and it reads the file fine.
When it cannot find the file (mispelled) it returns the same java.io.FileNotFoundException that the script does.

 

by: trailblazzyr55Posted on 2009-11-23 at 12:19:00ID: 25891174

Sorry it's taken a bit of time to post again on here, I use to be on here all the time, then started getting pretty busy with work. Anyway had some time to tinker around with this and found something that may be interesting, or at least why what I posted above worked for me and it didn't work for you...

Basically it comes down to using the variable name "file" in the scripts I posted above, I used "file" to create a handle to the "java.io.File" object. In Railo 3 it didn't confuse this with the localScope variable "file" which is a local scope for file operations dealing with <cffile>. When I tried my script out on CF/Jrun/IIS, I experienced issues when instantiating the "java.io.RandomAccessFile" object; it was complaining that the first parameter which would be the File object, was a localScope variable... then the lightbulb went on.

So after renaming "file" to "fileObj", it worked on CF/Jrun/IIS as well.

So give this a try and see how it works, just use the same path you would use with cfx_excel.

Here's the code again...



<cfscript>
 fileObj = createObject("Java", "java.io.File").init("C:\Documents and Settings\adaml\Desktop\Deployment_Script_Shell.xls");
 try{
  channel = createObject("Java", "java.io.RandomAccessFile").init(fileObj, "rw").getChannel();
  writeOutput("File is not open...");
  channel.close();
  channel = "";
 }
 catch(any err){
  writeOutput(err);
 }
</cfscript>

                                              
1:
2:
3:
4:
5:
6:
7:
8:
9:
10:
11:
12:

Select allOpen in new window

 

by: trailblazzyr55Posted on 2009-11-23 at 12:25:36ID: 25891220

Note: Rather than output the error in the code below...

 //other code above
 catch(any err){
  writeOutput(err);
 }

it could simply be this...

 //other code above
 catch(any err){
  writeOutput("File IS Open...");
 }

Also just an FYI, I checked out the source code for Jakarta POI, which is under the hood in cfx_excel, it uses "java.io.File" to read in the path for the excel file... but because it wasn't running into naming conflicts, it didn't have a problem ;o)

Good luck...

 

by: trailblazzyr55Posted on 2009-11-23 at 12:31:10ID: 25891261

ok and last post... ;o)

I would also check for the existence of the file you want to read in before instantiating the object "java.io.File".

var filePath = "your file path here";
var fileObj = "";
var err = "";
if(fileExists(filePath)){
 fileObj = createObject("Java", "java.io.File").init(filePath);
 try{
  //see if file is open
 }
 catch(any err){
  // catch/handle exception for an open file...
 }
}

 

by: djpierce54Posted on 2009-11-23 at 13:18:07ID: 31651216

Thanks for getting back on this.
This is far faster than the method I had and far more user friendly.

 

by: trailblazzyr55Posted on 2009-11-23 at 16:32:59ID: 25892940

Glad I was able to help! Thanks!

20120131-EE-VQP-002

3 Ways to Join

30-Day Free Trial

The Experts

98% positive feedback on 31,087 answers since March 2000. angeliii is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for his work with MS SQL Server & Develoment.

He has also proven his knowledge of Visual Basic Programming, PHP Scripting and Oracle Databases.

The Experts

97% positive feedback on 10,752 answers since July 2000. lrmoore has more than 18 years experience in the networking industry.

The six-time Mircosoft MVPs specialties include firewalls, virtual private networking, and network management.

Testimonials

"...and excellent source for support... Kind of like having your very own IT dept." Electriciansnet

Testimonials

"I was apprehensive at signing up at first. However... it has already made my life as an IT administrator much easier." JaCrews

Testimonials

"WOW! You guys have great, active, and knowledgeable people on here." moore50

Business Clients

Business Clients

In the Press

"If you’ve got a question... Experts Exchange can supply an answer.”

In the Press

"...an invaluable aid for both IT professionals and those who require tech support."

In the Press

"where IT professionals provide quick answers on just about any topic"

Business Account Plans

Loading Advertisement...