asked on

Method to autosave a form at regular intervals

Hi,

I have the following code, which is a simple web front end to a series of txt files in a directory. I have improving on this code and want to make it automatically submit the form at regular intervals. Found a javascript function to do this, but not sure if im on the right track and cant seem to get any javascript function to work. Maybe there is a much easier way to do this using something built into Dot Net.

<%@ Page Language="VB" Strict="true" validateRequest="false" %>
<%@ Import Namespace="System.IO" %>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
	"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
 
<script runat="server">
	Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs)
		' When the page first loads, fill the DropDownList
		' with the list of existing notes.
		myForm.Attributes.Add("Onload", "test()")	
		
 
		If Not Page.IsPostBack Then
			LoadNoteList("")
		
		'Load Default Note
		txtNoteText.InnerText= ReadNoteFromFile("TODO")
		txtNoteName.text="TODO"
		
		End If
 
		
	End Sub
 
	Protected Sub ddlNotes_SelectedIndexChanged(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As 
 
System.EventArgs)
		' Set the value of the note name textbox.
		txtNoteName.Text = ddlNotes.SelectedValue
 
		' If no note is selected clear the textarea, otherwise
		' load it with the contents of the selected note.
		If ddlNotes.SelectedValue = "" Then
			txtNoteText.InnerText = ""
		Else
			txtNoteText.InnerText = ReadNoteFromFile(ddlNotes.SelectedValue)
		End If
	End Sub
 
	Protected Sub btnDeleteNote_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs)
		DeleteNoteFile(ddlNotes.SelectedValue)
 
		' Reload the note list and set to the default selection
		' since the current note no longer exists.
		LoadNoteList("")
	End Sub
 
	Protected Sub btnSaveNote_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs)
		WriteNoteToFile(txtNoteName.Text, txtNoteText.InnerText)
 
		' Reload the note list to include the new note we may have
		' just created.  The parameter specifies that the note just
		' saved should be made the selected note in the DropDownList.
		LoadNoteList(txtNoteName.Text)
	End Sub
 
	Sub LoadNoteList(ByVal strSelectedNote As String)
		Dim I As Integer
		Dim arrFiles() As FileInfo
		Dim myDirInfo As New DirectoryInfo(Server.MapPath("notes/"))
		Dim liSelected As ListItem
 
		' Get a list of all .txt files in the notes folder.
		arrFiles = myDirInfo.GetFiles("*.txt")
 
		' Clear the list and repopulate.  The first entry is blank.
		' The others each correspond to a .txt file in the notes folder.
		ddlNotes.Items.Clear()
		ddlNotes.Items.Add("")
		For I = LBound(arrFiles) To UBound(arrFiles)
			ddlNotes.Items.Add(Replace(arrFiles(I).Name.ToString, ".txt", ""))
		Next I
 
		' If a note/file is loaded make that one the selected entry.
		liSelected = ddlNotes.Items.FindByText(strSelectedNote)
		If Not liSelected Is Nothing Then liSelected.Selected = True
	End Sub
 
	Sub WriteNoteToFile(ByVal strNoteName As String, ByVal strNoteText As String)
		Dim objStreamWriter As StreamWriter
 
		' Get a handle on the file to write to
		' and connect it to the StreamWriter object
		objStreamWriter = File.CreateText(Server.MapPath("notes/" & strNoteName & 
 
".txt"))
 
		' Write text
		objStreamWriter.Write(strNoteText)
 
		' Flush to disk and close file
		objStreamWriter.Flush()
		objStreamWriter.Close()
	End Sub
 
	Function ReadNoteFromFile(ByVal strNoteName As String) As String
		Dim objStreamReader As StreamReader
		Dim strFileContents As String
 
		' Get a handle on the file to read from
		' and connect it to the StreamReader object
		objStreamReader = File.OpenText(Server.MapPath("notes/" & strNoteName & ".txt"))
 
		' Read the whole file and close the StreamReader
		strFileContents = objStreamReader.ReadToEnd()
		objStreamReader.Close()
 
		' Set the return value of our function
		ReadNoteFromFile = strFileContents
	End Function
 
	Sub DeleteNoteFile(ByVal strNoteName As String)
		' Delete the appropriate note file 
		File.Delete(Server.MapPath("notes/" & strNoteName & ".txt"))
	End Sub
</script>
 
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" >
<head>
    <title>Notepad</title>
 
<script language=JavaScript src=autosave.js></script>
<script language=JavaScript>
        
	function test()
	{ 
		window.popup("hello");
	}
 
 
	
    </script>
</head>
<body>
<form id="myForm" runat="server">
 
	<asp:DropDownList ID="ddlNotes" runat="server"
		AutoPostBack="True"
		OnSelectedIndexChanged="ddlNotes_SelectedIndexChanged"
	/>
	<asp:Button ID="btnDeleteNote" Text="Delete Note" runat="server"
		OnClick="btnDeleteNote_Click"
	/>
 
	<br /><br />
 
	Note Name: <asp:TextBox ID="txtNoteName" width="255" runat="server" />
	<asp:Button ID="btnSaveNote"  Text="Save Note" runat="server"
		OnClick="btnSaveNote_Click"
	/><br />
	<TextArea id="txtNoteText" cols="80" rows="30" runat="server" />
 
</form>
</body>
</html>
 
 
Here is the javascript function I found:
 
  var mnAutoSaveMilliSeconds=0;
  var mnAutoSaveMilliSecondsExp=0;
  var mnAutoSaveInterval=30000;
 
  function AutoSaveInit(nMilliSeconds)
  {
 
     try
     {
 
       var nMinutes=0;
         
       AutoSaveClearTimeOuts();
 
       nMinutes = ((nMilliSeconds / 1000) / 60); 
       mnAutoSaveMilliSeconds = nMilliSeconds; 
       mnAutoSaveMilliSecondsExp=0;
 
       oTimeOut = window.setTimeout("AutoSaveSubmit()",nMilliSeconds);
       oInterval = window.setInterval("AutoSaveCountDown()",mnAutoSaveInterval);
       document.getElementById("divAutoSave").innerHTML = "<b>Auto Save In " + nMinutes + " Minutes</b>";
		
      }
      catch (exception) 
      { 
        if (exception.description == null) { alert("AutoSaveInit Error: " + exception.message); }  
        else {  alert("AutoSaveInit Error: " + exception.description); }
      }
  }
 
  function AutoSaveCountDown()
  {
 
    var nMinutesLeft=0;
    var nMilliSecondsLeft=0;
 
    mnAutoSaveMilliSecondsExp =  mnAutoSaveMilliSecondsExp + mnAutoSaveInterval;
 
    if ( mnAutoSaveMilliSeconds > mnAutoSaveMilliSecondsExp)
    {
      nMilliSecondsLeft = mnAutoSaveMilliSeconds - mnAutoSaveMilliSecondsExp;
      nMinutes= AutoSaveRoundNumber(((nMilliSecondsLeft / 1000) / 60),2); 
      document.getElementById("divAutoSave").innerHTML = "<b>Auto Save In " + nMinutes + " Minutes</b>";
    }
 
  }
 
  function AutoSaveBeforeSubmit()
  {
     document.getElementById("divAutoSave").innerHTML = '<b>Saving data...Please wait.</b>';
     return true;
  }
 
 
  function AutoSaveClearTimeOuts()
  {
    try
    {
      window.clearInterval(oInterval);
      window.clearTimeout(oTimeOut);
    }
    catch (exception) { }
 
  }
 
  function AutoSaveSubmit()
  {
    try
    {
      AutoSaveClearTimeOuts();
      AutoSaveBeforeSubmit();
	
      /*
         Call the form submittal code in your main page.
      */
      SubmitFormToBeSaved();
    
     }
    catch (exception) {}
  }
 
   function AutoSaveRoundNumber(number,X)
  {
	  
    var number2;
    var TmpNum;
 
     X=(!X ? 1:X);
	
     number2 = Math.round(number*Math.pow(10,X))/Math.pow(10,X);
     TmpNum = "" + number2;
     var TmpArray = TmpNum.split(".");
     if (TmpArray.length <2) { number2 = number2 + ".0"; }
	 
     return number2;
  }

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Bob Learned

Try this on the HTML designer

<body onLoad="test();">

Bob

jcwalker

ASKER

Im coding this manually at this stage. Unforunately I dont have access to the IDE at this point.

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Bob Learned

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jcwalker

ASKER

Thanks. that worked.