by Allan Sieker

When it comes time to write an interesting article about a technical topic my mind goes into a deadlock in trying to find the balance between space/time constraints and keeping the content interesting.  Too short of an article and it seems trivial because the technical stuff doesn’t get covered enough.  Too technical, and the article becomes long and boring.  All the while, wanting to keep things original, informative, and light.  So did I end up with?  How about a series of related articles that covers something that is near and dear to all of us?   

 I bought my first computer in 1978 (yes, I still have it) and as my home network expanded to what it is now – several servers, workstations, and laptops, the need for keeping a file inventory goes with the territory.  Sure, over the years I created my own file databases written in several languages (BASIC, Pascal, dBASE, Clipper, VB, C#) and they all served their purpose, but technology keeps improving and I always want more.   

 What if data warehousing concepts were applied to capture the “slowly changing dimension” of file updates?  What if file collections were recognized and managed as applications and other entities?  What if all of the computer file inventories were gathered locally then stored centrally for searches via a web interface?   What if backup history were also available?

 This article series will cover a broad range of technical topics with the end goal being a respectable system for home or business usage.  Concepts will be discussed and code will be available for download.  References to other articles and postings will also be made.

 Here is a brief list of planned topics: 

• Using recursive methods to collect file information from all of the folders on a drive.
• Creating console and Windows “file agent” applications to collect file data and write to an XML file.
• Creating a SQL Server file inventory database.
• Balancing cost and architecture to avoid over-costing and over-engineering.
• Importing “file agent” XML into the database.
• Creating an ASP.NET web application for searching and retrieving application & file information.
• Making “file agent” applications downloadable from the web site using ClickOnce.
• Using the Visual Studio Report Designer and the ReportViewer control to create web reports.
• Creating a “wrapper” application for Microsoft’s Backup to manage and track backups.
• Detecting media and image file duplicates based on file content instead of file name.

 Feedback is always welcome.