Joe Kaplan

Hi! I'm looking for ways to read a file with a specific name, or write that file if it is missing.

If I send a "read myfile.txt" message to [text], I get a red error in the Max window that the file was not found. Helpful, but not useful for my purpose. If I could somehow get a bang when the file is not found, I could use that to kick off another part of the patch that might create the file or do something else.

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Hi!  I'm looking for ways to read a file with a specific name, or write that file if it is missing.

If I send a "read myfile.txt" message to [text], I get a red error in the Max window that the file was not found.  Helpful, but not useful for my purpose.  If I could somehow get a bang when the file is not found, I could use that to kick off another part of the patch that might create the file or do something else.

Hi!  I'm looking for ways to read a file with a specific name, or write that file if it is missing.
If I send a "read myfile.txt" message to

get-a-bang-from-text-when-file-not-found

Here are a couple of solutions. Using the "error" object seems to be the best, but a bit fussy. This seems like a reasonable feature request.

Screen Shot 2022-01-14 at 14.33.11.png

but prefer to use absolute paths, instead of just read and write

absolutepath is a clean solution (unless we need the same outside the search path)

absolute path to absolutepath object does not care about max search paths

Screen Shot 2022-01-14 at 16.51.52.png

absolute path to absolutepath object does not care about max search paths


well, you usually have your max patch in the search path, but then maybe you might want to have samples or preferences files somewhere in the system.

then, like shown in your screenshot, you need to provide the full path. a standalone made by somebody else might not find such a path.

Source Audio, I tried implementing the solution in your screenshot, but when I try send "write test.txt" to [text], i get "error -1 creating file"

suggests the error means "directory does not exist." Where would [text] try to write the file by default? Do I need to do something to allow permissions? I would like this to be able to work in a standalone on any random system.

image.png

Source Audio, I tried implementing the solution in your screenshot, but when I try send "write test.txt" to [text], i get "error -1 creating file"   

This post  suggests the error means "directory does not exist." Where would [text] try to write the file by default?  Do I need to do something to allow permissions?  I would like this to be able to work in a standalone on any random system.

My advice is to allways provide full path.

And yes - it is complicated because of permissions.

If you create new patch without saving it to disk, insert text

object and send it write message, then file could be saved anywhere,

or even path to Max.app which in applications folder might not allow you

to write anything there, again depending on security settings of the system.

should try to write file next to the patcher.

But I don't use this simple write messages since quite a while, and have no interest

in finding out in each new Max and OS version what should be if,

in first place when it comes to standalones

This kind of stuff has been discussed so many times on the forum,

including auto path creation using thispatcher, maxsendapppath and so on.

There are safe places suggested to create folders and write files,

My advice is to allways provide full path.
And yes - it is complicated because of permissions.
If you create new patch without saving it to disk, insert text
object and send it write message, then file could be saved anywhere,
depending on last opened file location,
or even path to Max.app which in applications folder might not allow you
to write anything there, again depending on security settings of the system.
When max patch is saved to disk and restarted, write message
should try to write file next to the patcher.
But I don't use this simple write messages since quite a while, and have no interest
in finding out in each new Max and OS version what should be if,
in first place when it comes to standalones
--------
This kind of stuff has been discussed so many times on the forum,
including auto path creation using thispatcher, maxsendapppath and so on.
No need to repeat this over and over.

There are safe places suggested to create folders and write files,
like in Documents and similar.




Thanks! Yeah, this thread has gone a bit offtopic from the original question, which is resolved.

I think in my case it's trying to write in the windows Program Files folder which does have some permissions restrictions. I will do some forum searching to see about various options, especially things that will work safely in standalones. The things you mention above are definitely solutions to consider.

Thanks!  Yeah, this thread has gone a bit offtopic from the original question, which is resolved.

I think in my case it's trying to write in the windows Program Files folder which does have some permissions restrictions.  I will do some forum searching to see about various options, especially things that will work safely in standalones.  The things you mention above are definitely solutions to consider.

Get a bang from [text] when file not found?