auto opening missing files

bartoni · Dec 14, 2007#12007-12-14T15:25+00:00

Hi all,
Finally decided to post regarding annoying 'invalid path' messages...

I like the way Ultraedit automatically opens files that I previously had open... apart from one snag... when those files are on a file server that is no longer connected.

UltraEdit spends an age attempting to open each and every file before prompting me, when it finally gives up, with the 'invalid path' dialog... which I've then got to click before it begins the lifelong wait trying to open the next. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have to acknowledge each attempt. It's especially annoying if I've had a lot of files open previously (50 or more), I have to sit and wait forever, clicking ok each time.

I know, maybe I should've closed each one in my previous session but I usually forget. Also it's not always convenient to turn on the file server.

Is it possible to tell Ultraedit to ignore opening files from a specific location after say, the first 5 have failed to open?

I'm writing this with Ultraedit open clicking ok every 20 seconds... all I wanted to do was open it to make a quick note. It's turned into a huge time consuming effort.

Hope someone can help.

Mofi · Dec 17, 2007#22007-12-17T00:59+00:00

bartoni wrote:UltraEdit spends an age attempting to open each and every file before prompting me, ...

That's not correct. Windows spend an age attempting to open a file on a server which currently does not exist (according to TCP/IP standards). There are registry entries where the number of retries and the timeouts for network accesses can be adjusted, but I must advise you against modifying those values for a faster "not available" when you connect also to other remote computers (like when using WWW). Not responding servers (because shut down, or simply not available) are very often responsible for long delays.

UltraEdit cannot do much in this situation. My file manager Total Commander uses in some situations a background thread to access non local files which has the advantage that the user could continue while Total Commander gets in intervalls of some seconds the response from Windows that the requested file is not available. It would maybe a good idea to suggest IDM something similar. UE could first check the list of remembered files for local and remote files. It then opens first immediately the files on local drives and then with a background thread the non local files with more or less success. Feel free to send such a suggestion to IDM per email.

In the meantime you have several possibilities to speed up this process. If your remote files are normally opened from a network drive, you could write a batch file which is executed on Windows startup and checks if the file server exists or not. If it exists, it maps the drive with net use command. If the server does not exist it uses command subst to assign a local directory to the same drive letter. Advantage of this solution: UltraEdit gets now fast the answer from Windows that the "network" file does not exist.

Another idea is to disable the remember and reload files options in the configuration and create a workspace (project) file without any project files. The workspace (project file) is then only a container to remember the last opened files. When you work with file server online, you open the project/workspace and UltraEdit will reload the last opened files as you like it. But when your file server is not online, you start UltraEdit without loading the workspace and so avoid that long loading time.

Also possible would be to use 2 workspaces "Server online" and "Server offline". "Server offline" could be always opened for example with a shortcut which contains the project file as parameter. "Server online" must be opened by you manually (2 clicks). With an appropriate configuration you could avoid closing of all open files from workspace "Server offline" when opening workspace "Server online". But you should avoid switching to offline from online workspace when keeping all open files is enabled.

Also possible would be to use different INIs according to server availability.

That reads much more difficult as it really is.