DropWatch is a System Extension (INIT) that will watch for items being put into a particular folder. This is useful if you maintain a drop folder on a file server or on your local machine (using System 7's Personal File Sharing feature).
WARNING: You currently need to use ResEdit to configure DropWatch. If you don't have ResEdit or don't feel comfortable using it, then you'll have to find another utility. Sorry.
Once configure, DropWatch will look at the number of files/folder contained in the watched folder every few seconds. If the number of things in the folder increases, you can have DropWatch play a particular sound. In addition, if there is anything in the folder, then DropWatch will display a small icon in the menu bar. By default, this icon will tell you the number of things in the folder. When everything is removed from the folder, the icon will disappear.
Installation & Confguration
Installing DropWatch is easy. Simply drag the DropWatch and DropWatch Settings files to your system folder and reboot.
Configuration is more difficult because there's no Control Panel interface right now. So you need to use good, old ResEdit to open the DropWatch Settings file. Note that you shouldn't change the DropWatch file itself, in order to preserve your settings in case of future versions.
The first thing is to tell DropWatch which folder to watch. You do this by opening the STR resource named "Folder Name". This resource should contain the full pathname of the folder to watch (e.g., MyDisk:Folder:DropFolder:). The string should end with a colon (:).
The other configuration settings are optional. Most likely, however, you would like to have DropWatch play a sound when a new file/folder is added to the watched folder. To do this, you need to enter the name of the sound resource in the STR resource named "Sound Name". This sound resource can be one of the ones installed in your system, or it can be private to DropWatch and installed in the DropWatch Settings file.
By default, DropWatch scans the folder every 30 seconds. You can change this setting by opening the HEXA resource contained in the DropWatch settings file. The first 4 bytes of this resource contain the delay time expressed in 1/60ths of a second.
The 5th byte of this resource controls whether the number of things in the folder is displayed or not. By default is it 01, which means to display the count. (00 means to not display the count).
The small icon that appears in the menu is found in the DropWatch file itself, since it isn't usually customized. You can copy that resource into the DropWatch Settings file and customize it. If you do this and want to display the number of things in the folder, then the icon is restricted to the upper half of the available space.
Notes
The only known problem has to do with monitoring a folder that's accessed over a sometimes-flakey network connection. Each time DropWatch scans a folder on a remote machine, the system sends a message to the file server. (If you are using AppleShare, you will notice that the activity arrows appear each time DropWatch scans.)
If your network connection is flakey, then it's possible that this message will take a few seconds, which means your machine will appear frozen. I've tried to account for this by testing the connection to the server before checking the drop folder. This will handle the case where the server completely dies or you pull out the network cable from your machine. But it's not foolproof right now. If you server connection becomes flakey, then it's best to disconnect from the server, or reboot without DropWatch.
DropWatch doesn't care if the folder it is watching goes away. But it doesn't tell you about it either. This was done on purpose, so as to not bother the user unnecessarily. Sometimes, however, it might be nice to know when the monitored folder is unavailable.
The sound resource you designate is duplicated and stored in the System Heap when DropWatch installs. If the sound is very large, then you may need to increase the amount of space the system gives to DropWatch at startup time. This is stored in the sysz resource contained in the DropWatch file.
Availability
DropWatch is totally free for you to use. You may give it to others or upload it to other on-line services. If you do give it to others, please include the *ORIGINAL* versions of all 3 files (DropWatch, DropWatch Settings, and DropWatch ReadMe).
