Feature request: (automatic) refresh

[mclaeysb]

I often work with csv's that get updated while I have them open in TableTool. Now I must close the window and reopen it to see the most recent version, which can be cumbersome if the location of the file is somewhere far away on a server. It would be nice to see the updates come through in the app automatically or through a Refresh button.

No Objectiv-C experience here, so I'm afraid I can't add this myself, but I think it would be a good idea.

Keep up the good work!

[jakob]

If the file is changed by an app that uses the file coordination APIs (like Apple's TextEdit), TableTool does automatically update -- you don't even need to explicitly save the file! Unfortunately most apps don't use the (relatively new) file coordination APIs.

It would certainly be a good idea to have TableTool watch the file system. However, I'm not sure if that would work for network drives.

A refresh button would be a lot easier to implement.

[mclaeysb]

So nice to learn how stuff works through a feature request. Thanks!

[DivineDominion]

As far as I know, my app TableFlip work with network drives -- @mclaeysb shoot me an e-mail for the link if you want to try, I don't want to add product placements on GitHub :)

The presentedItemDidChange callback works well. In Swift:

    override func presentedItemDidChange() {

        guard fileContentsDidChange() else { return }

        guard isDocumentEdited else {
            dispatch_async_main { self.reloadFromFile() }
            return
        }

        dispatch_async_main { self.showReloadDialog() }
    }
    
    /// - returns: `true` if the contents did change, not just the metadata.
    fileprivate func fileContentsDidChange() -> Bool {

        guard let fileModificationDate = fileModificationDateOnDisk()
            else { return false }

        return fileModificationDate > canonicalModificationDate
    }

    fileprivate func fileModificationDateOnDisk() -> Date? {

        guard let fileURL = self.fileURL else { return nil }

        let fileManager = FileManager.default
        return fileManager.fileModificationDate(fileURL: fileURL)
    }

I had to keep track of the last load or save operation using a timestamp to make this work, but detecting changes then worked fine.

[jakob]

@DivineDominion Awesome, thanks for the tips! And feel free to mention your own app; I have absolutely no problem with product placement if it comes with useful information like this 👍

So, just to make sure I understand: at the moment Table Tool refreshes automatically whenever another NSDocument based app writes changes. This behavior came for free with NSDocument. But with your method I could detect changes even from other apps (eg. like TextMate) or network things? Sounds great! I'll have to try this at some point.

[DivineDominion]

Yes, this is put on top of the macOS-provided document behavior. I haven't yet caused any conflicts (TextEdit and TableFlip work fine together) and when you implement a "which version wins?" alert, the flow is just fine. TableFlip has a trial, so you can see if you like what happens. :)

Will be interesting to see if you come up with something even better I could put back into my app :)

[varunpatro]

Any update on this? :)

[fulldecent]

At present, this is not an issue with TableTool -- we have implemented the behavior correctly. So I will close here.

[NilsEnevoldsen]

FYI: You can "Save" the document in Table Tool, receive a warning that the document has changed on the disk, and "Revert" to that version. This has the same effect as a "Refresh", albeit in a roundabout way.