Unique id of files and monitoring file system changes

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+2 Q:

Unique id of files and monitoring file system changes

Do files or folders on S60 have some unique id value that can identify them?

I would like to have an id that can be later used to extract full path of a file or folder. Is this achievable?

If not, what would be the best way to keep track of files of interest? E.g. if I have a pdf reader, and I want to have a menu option to show all pdf files on the system - how do I prevent my application to search all over the whole system every time I chose this option? Can I search it once and easily monitor changes while my application is active?

Thank you.

+1 A:

I can't quite see anything in the Symbian OS C++ API that would do exactly what you want.

Using RFs::NotifyChange() is probably your best bet.

QuickRecipesOnSymbianOS 2009-12-03 14:49:29

RFs::NotifyChange() has a drawback that there is no much information on what change triggered the event. For instance, if I have a 3000 files under C:\\Documents\\, and a new one is created, there 3001 files, but I have to go through all of these, create a list of new files, and to compare a new list of 3001 files with the list of 3000 files just to find out what file has been created. That is an overkill!

Bojan Milankovic 2009-12-03 21:50:20

CFileMan is your friend here but, yes, it's a lot of processing required for something that should be simple. Feel free to contact the Symbian Kernel and Hardware Services package owner about adding this to the platform.

QuickRecipesOnSymbianOS 2009-12-04 10:19:10

I added the framework you're speculating about this summer. It's due to be in 10.1 I believe. The code is already released but disabled.Take a look at CFsNotify http://developer.symbian.org/xref/epl/xref/MCL/sf/os/kernelhwsrv/userlibandfileserver/fileserver/inc/f32notification.h#140

Dynite 2010-02-04 17:15:27

Yes, index them at one point and use RFs::NotifyChange(). How would an ID help in identifying new files?

Teknolog 2009-12-03 16:36:33

ID would help, as I could only keep track of IDs instead of full path. If there was an id, the operating system would keep track of moving a file from one location to another, I would not have to update my internal list of files.

Bojan Milankovic 2009-12-03 21:49:07

I see your point. Having a UID for a file that is independent of pathname would be good, yes.

Teknolog 2009-12-07 13:27:17

Symbian Timebox 10.1 (^3?) introduces a new file notification API, CFsNotify.

If tells you exactly what has changed and to which file/dir/drive.

http://developer.symbian.org/xref/epl/xref/MCL/sf/os/kernelhwsrv/userlibandfileserver/fileserver/inc/f32notification.h#140

It is similar to Microsoft's ReadDirectoryChangesW API.

Dynite 2010-02-04 17:17:24

ansaurus

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Unique id of files and monitoring file system changes

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