Write out text file on Gateway

Ignition
1

I have a need to write out a text file with some comma delimited information, so that my ERP system can grab that text file and process it.

I am using:

import fileinput
filename = system.file.saveFile("D:\BERRY\Test.txt")
#####
## Some Code to create the text file ##
#####
system.file.writeFile(filename,adjScanRead,1)

When I activated this as a button on the client I got a pop up asking me to basically confirm filename and location, and when I did that was able to see the file on my client without issue.

My problem is when I put this in as a gateway script to execute on an OPC tag change, nothing at all seems to happen. the test.txt file stays empty, I get no alerts on the screen.

Am I going about this the wrong way? The idea is to have this text file continually appended to and put into a directory on the gateway so that my ERP system can grab it every 15 minutes and process it.

Thanks for any assistance.

2

system.file.saveFile prompts the user to save the file (so won’t work on the gateway).

I think you just need to get rid of it, i.e. replace with

filename = D:\BERRY\Test.txt"

Then your system.file.writeFile line will actually create the file.

3

Your only problem in your code may be escaping the backslashes:

fPath = "c:\\filename.csv"

csvResult = system.dataset.dataSetToCSV(1,dsResult)
system.file.writeFile(fPath,csvResult,1) #use 1 here to append data
4

Sorry guys been away from this project for a couple weeks… Anyway, tried these suggestions and have had no luck.

5

That should work. I have a gateway event script that writes out to a text file every three hours then FTPs it up to a remote server, so maybe if you posted your code we can help you debug it.

6

This code is set to trigger on tag change: AHSK_Conveyor/ST16/ST16:1
That tag is where a barcode scanner puts a raw tag read.

Every read adds a new line to the text file… Here is a sample of the text file:

2013,09,06,09,02,46,22,C5818567701224,BX,1
 2013,09,06,09,03,46,22,C5818567701225,BX,1
 2013,09,06,09,04,46,22,C5847918100565,BX,1
 2013,09,06,09,06,16,22,C5818567701226,BX,1

The actual script: (as you will be able to tell, I am not a real programmer, I just play one on TV.)

import datetime
import fileinput
filename = "D:\\BERRY\\Test2.txt"
scanRead = event.source.parent.getComponent('LstRdBxTxt').text
#### Format scanRead properly ####
adjScanRead = scanRead.replace("No Dot,,","BX,1")
#### Add Plant Code ####
plantCode = ',22'
##### ASCII Carriage Return ####
##### NOT NEEDED - lineBreak = u"\u000D" ####
#### Grab date and time from system in 24hr format ####
today = datetime.datetime.today()
##### Change DateTime to proper comma delimited ###
varToday = today.strftime('%Y,%m,%d,%H,%M,%S')
##### Write everything to a file (filename, value, append) ####
system.file.writeFile(filename,varToday,1)
system.file.writeFile(filename,plantCode,1)
system.file.writeFile(filename,adjScanRead,1)

Thanks guys.

1 Like
7

The code works fine (albeit, you may need a newline ‘\n’ at the end). There must be something wrong with your assumptions about the Tag Change.