Since recently installling yet another distro on my laptop, I was unable to get the FTP functionality of my webcam software (Camorama) to work properly. The program will save snapshots locally, but bombs on transfer. Rather than troubleshoot it to death, I decided to whip out a quick and dirty ColdFusion directory watcher event gateway and have it watch for updated images, and then push them to my webserver via FTP.

For anyone interested in this non-earth shattering bit of code, here it is. First I created a config file:

WebcamWatcher.cfg

# The directory we want to watch. 
directory=/home/dshuck/Webcam_Pictures

# Do we want to recurse the directories?
recurse=no

# miliseconds between checks
interval=6000

# The comma separated list of extensions to match.
extensions=*

# component method for change events
changeFunction=onChange

# component method for add events
addFunction=onAdd

# no delete events for now
deleteFunction= 

Now to create the methods in our WebcamWatcher.cfc. In short, either a changed file or an added file will trigger the putImage function which first creates the FTP connection, changes directories to my webcam directory, then pushes the file to the server. Here is the code:

WebcamWatcher.cfc

<cfcomponent output="false">
	<cffunction name="onAdd" output="false">
		<cfargument name="CFEvent" type="struct" required="yes">
		<cfset var Data=CFEvent.data />
	  	<cflog file="DirectoryWatcher" application="No" 
	     	text=" ACTION: #data.type#;  FILE: #data.filename#;  calling putImage()" />
		<cfset putImage() />
	</cffunction>
	

	<cffunction name="onChange" output="false">
	  	<cfargument name="CFEvent" type="struct" required="yes">
	  	<cfset var data=CFEvent.data>
	  	<cflog file="DirectoryWatcher" application="No" 
	      text=" ACTION: #data.type#;  FILE: #data.filename#; TIME: #timeFormat(data.lastmodified)# calling putImage();" />
		<cfset putImage() />
	</cffunction>

	<cffunction name="putImage" access="private" output="false" returntype="void">
		<cfftp action = "open"
	   		username = "joeuser"
	  		connection = "MyConnection"
	   		password = "mycoolpassword"
	   		server = "www.mywebserver.com"
	   		stopOnError = "true" />
		
		<cfif cfftp.Succeeded>
			<cfftp 
				connection="MyConnection" 
				action="changedir" 
				directory="htdocs/mywebcamdirectory" />
			
			<cfif cfftp.Succeeded>
				<cfftp 
					connection = "MyConnection"
					action = "putFile" 
					name = "uploadFile" 
					transferMode = "binary" 
					localFile = "/home/dshuck/Webcam_Pictures/webcam.jpeg" 
					remoteFile = "DaveWebcam.jpg" />
			</cfif>
	
		</cfif>
		<cflog file="DirectoryWatcher" application="false" text="file push to webserver...#cfftp.Succeeded#" />
	</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

So, now the internet can yet again be graced with my "almost live" presence. I can almost hear the selective sigh of relief.

I have to consider this to be a somewhat odd place for ColdFusion and it got me thinking... What kinds of odd places do you or have you used ColdFusion?

The bags are packed and we are heading to Galveston tomorrow morning at 5am to board the Carnival Conquest.  We will be hitting Jamaica on Wednesday, Grand Cayman on Thursday and Cozumel on Friday, returning Sunday the 9th.

If you are thinking "didn't he just do that?", well yeah... last June with our entire family.  On the last day on the ship, my wife won a raffle for another 7 night cruise for 2, so we decided to do the exact same trip, only without the kiddos this time.  A couple from our neighborhood will also be joining us. 

Since we aren't pushing a stroller around and have a bit more freedom at our ports of call, we booked some great excursions.  In Montego Bay, we will be doing the zip line canopy tour, hauling butt through the trees while harnessed to a set of pulleys.  My brother-in-law and his kids did this on our last cruise and they said it was really awesome.

In Grand Cayman, we are going to start out our day parasailing 400' in the air along the shoreline, followed by the remainder of the day at 7 Mile Beach, where I spent the day last time.  This is a really beautiful spot.

In Cozumel, we are doing the Sail, Snorkle and Beach Party excursion (here after known as the booze cruise).   We took this one last time and holy cow.... I do remember parts of it.  In essence they take about 50 people out on a 60 foot catamaran with 50 gallons of margaritas and free beer.   I ended up in drunken kayak races, a beach volleyball game and we had a hell of a time at Carlos and Charlies and Senor Frogs when we got back to the docks.

If anyone needs anything (World Wild Web/InstantSpot.com) business while I am gone, get in touch with Aaron as he will be the lone guy holding down the fort.  I am supposed to have internet access for the week, so I will probably be checking email occassionally, and plan on sending back some videos for my kids here on my blog, but don't count on hearing from me about any work. :)

...talk to you soon!