Can I change working directory halfway - yes just implemented [done]

[kensoh]

Raising a pre-emptive issue, for users with edge cases that requires changing current working directory halfway after launching TagUI for Python. Originally reported in #60.

[kensoh]

Changing the working directory halfway after TagUI for Python is launched will cause it to hang.

Try changing the current working directory before you do t.init() and it should work. For example the following works. The root cause is TagUI for Python looks for an internal file at the current working directory (the location when it was launched). If the folder changes halfway, TagUI for Python will keep looking for the internal I/O file at the new current working directory.

But that file is not there, because the TagUI process is still writing to the original folder on launch. It is possible to modify code to handle the edge case of changing working directory halfway, but because that code section will impact all the main use cases, I'll not make this change for now, but raise this issue with a question and answer so that people changing directory halfway and hangs will know why.

import os
import tagui as t

# folder changed before invoking TagUI
os.chdir('test')

t.init()
t.url('https://github.com/tebelorg/TagUI-Python')
t.click('Clone or download')
t.click('Download ZIP')
t.wait()
t.close()

# zip file downloaded to the changed folder 'test'
# instead of the original Python script folder

[kensoh]

reference - function to change in tagui.py

def _tagui_output():
    """function to wait for tagui output file to read and delete it"""
    global _tagui_delay
    # sleep to not splurge cpu cycles in while loop
    while not os.path.isfile('tagui_python.txt'):
        time.sleep(_tagui_delay)

    tagui_output_file = _py23_open('tagui_python.txt', 'r')
    tagui_output_text = _py23_read(tagui_output_file.read())
    tagui_output_file.close()
    os.remove('tagui_python.txt')
    return tagui_output_text

[kensoh]

Don't think avoiding a challenge is good spirit, will figure out if there's a way to do this without risking existing users' scripts compatibility and behaviour.

[kensoh]

Re-opening issue as feature. The package was not originally designed for the use case of changing current working directory halfway, after initialising and loading TagUI in the background.

[kensoh]

Verification scripts used -

folder changed before invoking TagUI

import os
import tagui as t

# folder changed before invoking TagUI
os.chdir('test')

t.init()
t.url('https://github.com/tebelorg/TagUI-Python')
t.click('Clone or download')
t.click('Download ZIP')
t.wait()
t.close()

# zip file downloaded to the changed folder 'test'
# instead of the original Python script folder,
# and log file in 'test' deleted after closing

folder changed after invoking TagUI

import os
import tagui as t

t.init()
t.url('https://github.com/tebelorg/TagUI-Python')

# folder changed after invoking TagUI
os.chdir('test')

t.click('Clone or download')
t.click('Download ZIP')
t.wait()
t.close()

# zip file downloaded to original Python script folder
# as the folder change is made after init() and url(),
# and log file in original folder deleted after closing

And original sample.py script - https://github.com/tebelorg/TagUI-Python/blob/master/sample.py

[kensoh]

Implemented in v1.13, and now available with pip install tagui --upgrade