how to get .txt data into access constantly

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Guest

Hi, I'm not a programmer, but working in a technicial role. We are
developing an access database that allows the calculation of metal additions
to a furnace. we have a spectrometer that outputs its result as a text [.txt
] delimited file. I've already successfully got importing into the 'database'
as a linked table, and the rest of the database works fine for the number
crunching . But what is happing is that it isn't updateing the result
instantly on the P.C. It seems to do it easy enough when the machines are
rebooted in the morning.
How do I get working automatically?

Thanks J.M.
 
How does the spectrometer send its data to the text file? E.g. does it
create a new file with every reading, or a new file every hour with an
hour's worth readings, or does it continually append new data to the
existing file?

If the last, I'd expect Access to lock the text file every time the
linked table (or a query or recordset based on it) is open, which might
frustrate the spectrometer. Are any readings going AWOL?

One approach to try might be to minimise the time the linked table (or
query or recordset) is open, to give the spectrometer a chance to write
to the text file they're sharing.

Another that springs to mind would be to use a "real" table instead of a
linked one, and at regular intervals import the most recent readings
from the spectrometer's textfile. The 'tail' utility from the Unix world
is designed to get the most recent lines from a text file that some
other process is logging data to: you could call 'tail' at regular
intervals to write the newest data to another text file, link to that,
and append its data to the "real" table.

I hope this helps. Other commitments mean I'll be offline for a few
days, so if you need more help soon it would be best to start a new
thread in this group.


Hi, I'm not a programmer, but working in a technicial role. We are
developing an access database that allows the calculation of metal additions
to a furnace. we have a spectrometer that outputs its result as a text [.txt
] delimited file. I've already successfully got importing into the 'database'
as a linked table, and the rest of the database works fine for the number
crunching . But what is happing is that it isn't updateing the result
instantly on the P.C. It seems to do it easy enough when the machines are
rebooted in the morning.
How do I get working automatically?

Thanks J.M.
Click to expand...
 
thanks john for infomation.
Yes: the data in the txt file is update each "burn" on the machine and
appends the data to the existing file.
Yes: there were some readings going AWOL when doing a standardisation of the
machine... disconnect the connection and problem resolved itself-could be
related I think?
Are needing to be able to 'see' the data in real time on the access database
to enable automatic calculation of charge. Vs manually at the moment .
your comments are helpful i'll work my way through them.
Ta JM
 
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