Transient - Temporary directory facility

by Alisdair McDiarmid


Transient is a utility which provides a temporary directory on your hard disc, creating a new sub-directory every day to help you organise files.

You can use it like a RAM disc (drag files to it, save files to it), but the files will remain on the hard disc until you delete them. Using Transient means that you will never again face the situation where you have a save box open to save a file but no directory open to receive it.

Using Transient
Transient can be run in the usual way, from the RISC User menu or by double-clicking on its icon in a filer window. You should include Transient in your Boot sequence if you are going to use it regularly.

You can drag files from other discs to Transient's icon or to the window it opens, or save files from other applications directly onto the icon to move them into the directory.

The icon bar icon displays today's date in a configurable format. Click Menu on the icon bar icon to open the main menu, which has the following options:

Info provides program information and an email link

Open dir opens today's directory (this can also be done by clicking Select on the icon bar icon)

Open root opens the whole temporary directory (or Adjust on the icon bar icon)

Choices... opens the Choices window

Quit terminates the program.

Choices
There are a number of options you can set. These are arranged in three groups, selectable by the radio buttons at the top: Format, Misc and Expiry.

Format:
Directory name: this allows you to specify the date format which will be used to name the directory created each day.

Iconbar icon: this allows you to specify the format of the date under the icon bar icon.

You can alter these by clicking on the right arrow next to the Format display and choosing one from the menu, or by typing your own format string into the writable icon.

The date format uses the standard RISC OS format. A couple of examples:

	%M3 %DY, %YR outputs a date in the form Aug 12, 98

	%24:%MI:%SE outputs the time in the form 14:57:03

Any date string which is illegal is translated to the text Transient, but you can type in any text for the icon if you want an alternative name to appear there.

Misc:
Open directory on drag: with this option set, the current window will be opened when a file is dragged to it.

Verbose: this has the same effect as the filer option of the same name. When files are copied to Transient, a Filer Action window will appear.

Warn on expiry: if this is set, a warning is generated when expiry of the files held by Transient is due (see below).

Location of temporary directory: this is the position of your temporary directory, which defaults to <Wimp$ScrapDir>.Transient.

Expiry:
Auto-expiry: this option allows you to delete directories which are a specified number of days old automatically.

Time: use the arrows to alter the minimum age of the directories which should be deleted.

Delay: use the arrows to alter time in between each expiry operation in days.

NOTE: once directories have been deleted, the data inside them cannot be retrieved without external help.

Run external program: setting this option allows you to run an external program at expiry time instead of using Transient's expiry routines. Drag the program to the icon to set it.

Known problems
Currently, Transient does not support more than 77 files being saved in one directory, owing to most filing systems' limitations. However, if you use Transient in conjunction with a filing system that does allow many files per directory, such as raFS, X-Files or TBAFS, this problem is solved.

The author is always interested in your comments and suggestions, so please contact him using one of the addresses below:

Web: http://www.illusion.co.uk/

General enquiries: info@illusion.co.uk

Transient enquiries: transient@illusion.co.uk


Copyright  RISC User magazine 1998