Hi, im very new to asp.net and enjoying working through the book, some very nice work!

Anyway, i have a question regarding the photo album in chapter 7. Simply put, is there any way to alter the code so that images can be added automatically when a new image is saved in the "uploads" folder, without the users input?

I ask as i have an IP network camera storing images to a folder whenever it detects motion, i would like to use this photo album to display them on my website without having to manually add each one.

If this is not possible, any suggestions of alternative photo albums would be much appreciated.

Many thanks,

Ben

Hi there,

The problem with this is not the PhotoAlbum, but the way the web works. It's pretty easy to write some code that loops through a folder, detects images and inserts them into the database. However, having this code fired at a regular interval from an ASP.NET web application can be more problematic.

You may want to Google for the terms:

scheduled task asp.net

There are a couple of ways to accomplish this including scheduling a task to fire an application, using Windows Services (with a FileSystemWatcher), do it "on demand" whenever a request is made and so on. With pure ASP.NET, I don't think you'll be able to create anything that looks like a real-time file watcher.

You can take a look at this to get you started with the Services: http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/is...lingASPNETCode

HtH,

Imar


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Imar Spaanjaars
http://Imar.Spaanjaars.Com
Everyone is unique, except for me.
Author of ASP.NET 2.0 Instant Results and Beginning Dreamweaver MX / MX 2004
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