A BAK file of macros.dat would solve my problem

[Dick99999]

In the past months my macros12.dat has been overwritten about 3 times now. I believe it has to do with an an exception I sometimes get when running MS, will try to capture screenshots of that. The replaced file has a length of 2 bytes (0xFE, 0xFE). I am Running MS 12 under winXP

It would help if that important file would be backed (a .BAK) up when a new version is written. Especially this file is difficult to reproduce when overwritten, so I think a backup would make sense in this case.

[Marcus Tettmar]

A backup of it would certainly be useful. It's now on the list.

[jpuziano]

Hi Dick99999,

Great idea... I've been burned once or twice by this as well. Perhaps it could work similar to how script files are backed up...

"Added Backup On Save option to Editor. If selected keeps last three backups when saving."

I assume that it would save a backup each and every time any change at all was written to the macros12.dat file.

The only worry still might be, if there are only 3 backup files and the macros12.dat file gets corrupted, what if the user doesn't realize it has happened right away? If the user makes three more changes to macros that cause backups of the macros12.dat file to be written (changed hot keys on 3 macros for instance)... then the good copy of the file would be lost... replaced by further backups of the bad file.

This isn't so far fetched... it could easily happen if you have your macros stored in a lot of different folders (called groups on the MS main window) as only the macros of the group you are in are displayed... so if your hot keys and triggers etc. are mostly in other groups, you might not notice they're gone until its too late.

One simple idea might be to increase the number of backup files it cycles through specifically for macros12.dat or even make that number user selectable. If high enough, you would probably notice the problem soon enough so that one of your backups was still good.

Any other thoughts out there on this?

[Rain]

All my scripts (Not my groups) disappeared from the main UI after encountering an AddDialogHandler error and then crash. I checked the macros12.dat and sure enough it was empty. Luckily I had a backup from last week. So, I only had to add a few new scrips to add.

Last week I uprated to Windows 7 Ultimate SP3 and now this happened. I never had any problems like this on my XP Pro SP3 machine and I had countless AddDialogHandler errors and crashes.

I wrote quick and simple script that will backup the macros12.dat file every time it changes if anyone is interested.

There shouldn't be any need to edit it since it retrieves your script location from the registry.
The backups are located in a folder named MacrosDatBackup in your scripts directory. The backups are kept there until you delete them. Of course you can modify the script to your needs.

Code: Select all

Dialog>Dialog1
object Dialog1: TForm
  Left = 570
  Top = 137
  HelpContext = 5000
  BorderIcons = [biSystemMenu, biMinimize]
  BorderStyle = bsSingle
  Caption = 'Macros12.dat Monitor & Backup'
  ClientHeight = 69
  ClientWidth = 250
  Color = clBtnFace
  Font.Charset = DEFAULT_CHARSET
  Font.Color = clWindowText
  Font.Height = -11
  Font.Name = 'MS Sans Serif'
  Font.Style = []
  OldCreateOrder = True
  ShowHint = True
  OnTaskBar = False
  PixelsPerInch = 96
  TextHeight = 13
  object Label1: TLabel
    Left = 0
    Top = 32
    Width = 225
    Height = 49
    AutoSize = False
    WordWrap = True
  end
  object MSButton1: tMSButton
    Left = 0
    Top = 0
    Width = 250
    Height = 25
    Align = alTop
    Caption = 'Open Backup Folder'
    DoubleBuffered = True
    ParentDoubleBuffered = False
    TabOrder = 0
    DoBrowse = False
    BrowseStyle = fbOpen
    ExplicitWidth = 233
  end
end
EndDialog>Dialog1


AddDialogHandler>Dialog1,,Onclose,Exit
AddDialogHandler>Dialog1,msButton1,OnClick,OpenBackupFolder
Show>Dialog1

RegistryReadKey>HKEY_CURRENT_USER,Software\MJTNET\MSched12,DataDir,MacrosDatDir
FileTime>%MacrosDatDir%\macros12.dat,MacrosDatSavedTime
FileSize>%MacrosDatDir%\macros12.dat,MacrosDatSize
CreateDir>%MacrosDatDir%\MacrosDatBackup
Hour>HH
Min>MM
Sec>SS
Day>DD
Month>MON
Year>YY
GetDate>Date
GetTime>Time
SetDialogProperty>Dialog1,Label1,Caption,Last Backup %Date% %Time% (macros12.dat %MON%%DD%%YY%-%HH%%MM%%SS%.BKM)
CopyFile>%MacrosDatDir%\macros12.dat,%MacrosDatDir%\MacrosDatBackup\macros12.dat %MON%%DD%%YY%-%HH%%MM%%SS%.BKM
Label>BackupLoop
wait>1
FileTime>%MacrosDatDir%\macros12.dat,MacrosDatCurrentTime
If>MacrosDatCurrentTime>MacrosDatSavedTime
Hour>HH
Min>MM
Sec>SS
Day>DD
Month>MON
Year>YY
GetDate>Date
GetTime>Time
SetDialogProperty>Dialog1,Label1,Caption,Last Backup %Date% %Time% (macros12.dat %MON%%DD%%YY%-%HH%%MM%%SS%.BKM)
CopyFile>%MacrosDatDir%\macros12.dat,%MacrosDatDir%\MacrosDatBackup\macros12.dat %MON%%DD%%YY%-%HH%%MM%%SS%.BKM
Let>MacrosDatSavedTime=MacrosDatCurrentTime
Endif
Goto>BackupLoop

SRT>OpenBackupFolder
  ExecuteFile>%MacrosDatDir%\MacrosDatBackup
END>OpenBackupFolder

SRT>Exit
  Exit>1
END>Exit

[Rain]

Here a couple other ways to monitor the macros12.dat for changes.

This version will only create a backup if either a macro is added or deleted.

Code: Select all

Dialog>Dialog1
object Dialog1: TForm
  Left = 570
  Top = 137
  HelpContext = 5000
  BorderIcons = [biSystemMenu, biMinimize]
  BorderStyle = bsSingle
  Caption = 'Macros12.dat Monitor & Backup'
  ClientHeight = 69
  ClientWidth = 250
  Color = clBtnFace
  Font.Charset = DEFAULT_CHARSET
  Font.Color = clWindowText
  Font.Height = -11
  Font.Name = 'MS Sans Serif'
  Font.Style = []
  OldCreateOrder = True
  ShowHint = True
  OnTaskBar = False
  PixelsPerInch = 96
  TextHeight = 13
  object Label1: TLabel
    Left = 0
    Top = 32
    Width = 225
    Height = 49
    AutoSize = False
    WordWrap = True
  end
  object MSButton1: tMSButton
    Left = 0
    Top = 0
    Width = 250
    Height = 25
    Align = alTop
    Caption = 'Open Backup Folder'
    DoubleBuffered = True
    ParentDoubleBuffered = False
    TabOrder = 0
    DoBrowse = False
    BrowseStyle = fbOpen
  end
end
EndDialog>Dialog1


AddDialogHandler>Dialog1,,Onclose,Exit
AddDialogHandler>Dialog1,msButton1,OnClick,OpenBackupFolder
Show>Dialog1

RegistryReadKey>HKEY_CURRENT_USER,Software\MJTNET\MSched12,DataDir,MacrosDatDir
ReadFile>%MacrosDatDir%\macros12.dat,macros
Separate>macros,CRLF,macros_names
Let>TotalMacrosA=%macros_names_count%
CreateDir>%MacrosDatDir%\MacrosDatBackup
Hour>HH
Min>MM
Sec>SS
Day>DD
Month>MON
Year>YY
GetDate>Date
GetTime>Time
SetDialogProperty>Dialog1,Label1,Caption,Last Backup %Date% %Time% (macros12.dat %MON%%DD%%YY%-%HH%%MM%%SS%.BKM)
CopyFile>%MacrosDatDir%\macros12.dat,%MacrosDatDir%\MacrosDatBackup\macros12.dat %MON%%DD%%YY%-%HH%%MM%%SS%.BKM
Label>BackupLoop
wait>1
ReadFile>%MacrosDatDir%\macros12.dat,macros
Separate>macros,CRLF,macros_names
Let>TotalMacrosB=%macros_names_count%
If>TotalMacrosB<>TotalMacrosA
Hour>HH
Min>MM
Sec>SS
Day>DD
Month>MON
Year>YY
GetDate>Date
GetTime>Time
SetDialogProperty>Dialog1,Label1,Caption,Last Backup %Date% %Time% (macros12.dat %MON%%DD%%YY%-%HH%%MM%%SS%.BKM)
CopyFile>%MacrosDatDir%\macros12.dat,%MacrosDatDir%\MacrosDatBackup\macros12.dat %MON%%DD%%YY%-%HH%%MM%%SS%.BKM
Let>TotalMacrosA=TotalMacrosB
Endif
Goto>BackupLoop

SRT>OpenBackupFolder
  ExecuteFile>%MacrosDatDir%\MacrosDatBackup
END>OpenBackupFolder

SRT>Exit
  Exit>1
END>Exit

This one will only create a backup if the macros12.dat size changed.

Code: Select all

Dialog>Dialog1
object Dialog1: TForm
  Left = 570
  Top = 137
  HelpContext = 5000
  BorderIcons = [biSystemMenu, biMinimize]
  BorderStyle = bsSingle
  Caption = 'Macros12.dat Monitor & Backup'
  ClientHeight = 69
  ClientWidth = 250
  Color = clBtnFace
  Font.Charset = DEFAULT_CHARSET
  Font.Color = clWindowText
  Font.Height = -11
  Font.Name = 'MS Sans Serif'
  Font.Style = []
  OldCreateOrder = True
  ShowHint = True
  OnTaskBar = False
  PixelsPerInch = 96
  TextHeight = 13
  object Label1: TLabel
    Left = 0
    Top = 32
    Width = 225
    Height = 49
    AutoSize = False
    WordWrap = True
  end
  object MSButton1: tMSButton
    Left = 0
    Top = 0
    Width = 250
    Height = 25
    Align = alTop
    Caption = 'Open Backup Folder'
    DoubleBuffered = True
    ParentDoubleBuffered = False
    TabOrder = 0
    DoBrowse = False
    BrowseStyle = fbOpen
  end
end
EndDialog>Dialog1



AddDialogHandler>Dialog1,,Onclose,Exit
AddDialogHandler>Dialog1,msButton1,OnClick,OpenBackupFolder
Show>Dialog1

RegistryReadKey>HKEY_CURRENT_USER,Software\MJTNET\MSched12,DataDir,MacrosDatDir
FileSize>%MacrosDatDir%\macros12.dat,MacroDatFileSizeA
CreateDir>%MacrosDatDir%\MacrosDatBackup
Hour>HH
Min>MM
Sec>SS
Day>DD
Month>MON
Year>YY
GetDate>Date
GetTime>Time
SetDialogProperty>Dialog1,Label1,Caption,Last Backup %Date% %Time% (macros12.dat %MON%%DD%%YY%-%HH%%MM%%SS%.BKM)
CopyFile>%MacrosDatDir%\macros12.dat,%MacrosDatDir%\MacrosDatBackup\macros12.dat %MON%%DD%%YY%-%HH%%MM%%SS%.BKM
Label>BackupLoop
wait>1
FileSize>%MacrosDatDir%\macros12.dat,MacroDatFileSizeB
If>MacroDatFileSizeB<>MacroDatFileSizeA
Hour>HH
Min>MM
Sec>SS
Day>DD
Month>MON
Year>YY
GetDate>Date
GetTime>Time
SetDialogProperty>Dialog1,Label1,Caption,Last Backup %Date% %Time% (macros12.dat %MON%%DD%%YY%-%HH%%MM%%SS%.BKM)
CopyFile>%MacrosDatDir%\macros12.dat,%MacrosDatDir%\MacrosDatBackup\macros12.dat %MON%%DD%%YY%-%HH%%MM%%SS%.BKM
Let>MacroDatFileSizeA=MacroDatFileSizeB
Endif
Goto>BackupLoop

SRT>OpenBackupFolder
  ExecuteFile>%MacrosDatDir%\MacrosDatBackup
END>OpenBackupFolder

SRT>Exit
  Exit>1
END>Exit