Time tracking parser

Question

Moving on from the usual image processing script: I'm thinking of writing a Photoshop time tracking script that will log the filename, directory & time a file is created saved and closed. This is relatively easy with the Scripts Events manager.

The clever bit is writing a second script to parse this information so I clearly see what project I was working on on what day and for how long. The first part can be identified by files saved in certain directories. What's the best way forward to process the various time codes (created, saved & closed) to help me easily see the time tracked on a project?

Is this a trivial thing to do or am I opening a metaphorical can of worms here? Are there any standardised algorithms that may be of use to me?

Answer 1

If I understand correctly.. what you want is Logging..

A logging configuration will mainly consists of four parts.

Loggers Handlers Filters Formatters

In short, a logger is mechanism for writing logs.. Each message that is written to a log is called a log record. A log record can contain metadata, and other informations to describes the event that is being logged. Theres also log level stuff which isnt important here.. After a log record has been recorded it is sent to a handler.

Handler : The handler is the engine that determines what happens to each message in a logger. It describes a particular logging behavior, such as writing a message to the screen, to a file etc.

Filters : Self-explanatory. You can create filters to only view a specific criteria.

Formatters : Same as the name says.. Formatting records in more readable way , List, Table , Graph.

Thats just a basic overview of the logging system.

As for your case, you mention that you can already use the exsisting tool to log the events. All you need to do is make a handler, that will interpret those logs and save in a file which can be parsed by the script engine.. csv, json

Something like :

    projects : [ { "name" : "foo", " creation": "date",
              "events" : [ {"action":"file-created",  "timestamp":"date", " file":"sample"}]

}, "name":" bar".....

You need to tailor it to your needs.. Depending on your data and what you wanna do with it you need represent in the best way you can think of.

Then all thats is left to show the desired data in a way you want.. Thats a lot of scripting :0