last modified date in status bar?

[Scott Sumner]

@patrickdrd said:

notepad++ is closed in my case, before opening the file

Yeah, that’s a case I don’t think about, or code for. Because, as the best program on my PC, Notepad++ never gets closed. :-D

[Claudia Frank]

@patrickdrd

does READY callback work for you?
It seems that this one can’t really be used when running on linux.
BUFFERACTIVATED might be another callback which is useful in such cases.

Cheers
Claudia

[Scott Sumner]

…without overriding the language name?

Ah…so I guess I missed this part of @SalviaSage 's posting. Okay, so there is no prebuilt function to get the statusbar data, like there is to set the statusbar data…but we can create one:

import ctypes
from ctypes.wintypes import BOOL, HWND, LPARAM

def npp_get_statusbar(statusbar_item_number):

    WNDENUMPROC = ctypes.WINFUNCTYPE(BOOL, HWND, LPARAM)
    FindWindow = ctypes.windll.user32.FindWindowW
    SendMessage = ctypes.windll.user32.SendMessageW
    EnumChildWindows = ctypes.windll.user32.EnumChildWindows
    GetClassName = ctypes.windll.user32.GetClassNameW
    create_unicode_buffer = ctypes.create_unicode_buffer
    WM_USER = 0x400; SB_GETTEXTLENGTHW = WM_USER + 12; SB_GETTEXTW = WM_USER + 13

    npp_get_statusbar.STATUSBAR_HANDLE = None

    def get_data_from_statusbar(statusbar_item_number):
        retcode = SendMessage(npp_get_statusbar.STATUSBAR_HANDLE, SB_GETTEXTLENGTHW, statusbar_item_number, 0)
        length = retcode & 0xFFFF
        type = (retcode >> 16) & 0xFFFF
        text_buffer = create_unicode_buffer(length)
        retcode = SendMessage(npp_get_statusbar.STATUSBAR_HANDLE, SB_GETTEXTW, statusbar_item_number, text_buffer)
        retval = '{}'.format(text_buffer[:length])
        return retval

    def EnumCallback(hwnd, lparam):
        curr_class = create_unicode_buffer(256)
        GetClassName(hwnd, curr_class, 256)
        if curr_class.value.lower() == "msctls_statusbar32":
            npp_get_statusbar.STATUSBAR_HANDLE = hwnd
            return False
        return True

    EnumChildWindows(FindWindow(u"Notepad++", None), WNDENUMPROC(EnumCallback), 0)

    return get_data_from_statusbar(statusbar_item_number) if npp_get_statusbar.STATUSBAR_HANDLE else None

Thus to add the modification timestamp info to the first section of the status bar, one would call npp_get_statusbar(0) and then use the returned string (if not None) by adding the time to it, e.g.:

notepad.setStatusBar(STATUSBARSECTION.DOCTYPE, npp_get_statusbar(0) + ' ' * 8 + last_modified_date)

I’m sure the basis for this status bar code goes back to some @Claudia-Frank code, but I can’t find the reference to it right now. Sorry, CF.

-----
note from the future: if this code gives you all NULL for the characters read back from the status bar, use the updated code found in this 2024 post

[patrickdrd]

yes, it works CF

I tried BUFFERACTIVATED but it didn’t work

[SalviaSage]

@patrickdrd, have you been able to get this working? I’ve been trying here from my end. I can’t get the last modified date to display on the statusbar. If you have been able to get this working, can you please post the code?

Thank you.

[patrickdrd]

from Npp import editor, notepad, SCINTILLANOTIFICATION, NOTIFICATION, STATUSBARSECTION
import os
from datetime import datetime

def StatusbarSelOverride(args):
modified_time = os.path.getmtime(notepad.getCurrentFilename())
last_modified_date = datetime.fromtimestamp(modified_time)
notepad.setStatusBar(STATUSBARSECTION.DOCTYPE, ‘Mod: {:%d/%m/%Y %H:%M}’.format(last_modified_date))

editor.callback(StatusbarSelOverride, [SCINTILLANOTIFICATION.UPDATEUI])
notepad.callback(StatusbarSelOverride, [NOTIFICATION.FILESAVED])
notepad.callback(StatusbarSelOverride, [NOTIFICATION.READY])

[SalviaSage]

I still can’t figure out how to add the timestamp and still keep the original contents of a statusbar section.

Scott Sumner, I would appreciate it very much if you can fix this code and post it here. thank you.

[patrickdrd]

I don’t think you need the original contents, if we’re talking about the first tab,
is DOCTYPE really that important for you?
If so, why?
I can’t think that’s important, that’s why I’m overwriting it

[dail]

Using LuaScript I’ve been able to keep the doc type and display the file modification time. Should be easily translatable to PythonScript.

Note this works with a yet-to-be released version of LuaScript

npp.AddEventHandler({"OnSave", "OnSwitchFile", "OnLangChange"}, function()
	-- Make sure it is a "real" file first
	if npp:GetCurrentDirectory() == "" then
		return
	end

	local text = npp.LanguageDescription[npp.BufferLangType[npp.CurrentBufferID]] .. " - " .. os.date('%d/%m/%Y %H:%M', winfile.attributes(npp:GetFullCurrentPath(), "modification"))
	npp.StatusBar[STATUSBAR_DOC_TYPE] = text
end)

Gives the results:

[Claudia Frank]

@dail

unfortunately not, as python script hasn’t been updated with recent npp messages yet.

Cheers
Claudia

[dail]

@Claudia-Frank

Ah. Thanks for clarifying.

[SalviaSage]

@dail
Nice, I will be using your script then.
When is the release of the next version of luascript?

Thanks.

[dail]

Not sure. You can download a prelease though.

• 32 bit
• 64 bit

Just drop the DLL in with the other plugins. Edit the startup script with Plugins > LuaScript > Edit startup script and put the above code in there, save, and restart Notepad++.

[SalviaSage]

Thanks. the code works.

[patrickdrd]

I think I’ve found a bug:

I had around 10 tabs opened in npp, and my work shift is close to the end so I decided to close npp, so I pressed the x in the top right corner to find out that:

there was a file open which was attached to an email,
it was opened as read-only originally,
I clicked on edit -> clear read-only and I edited it,
I never saved it,

the date on the bottom left corner is updated continuously/ every minute that passes (on the clock), even though I’m not saving it (I can see a star on the top left corner - the star that means that the file is not saved),
I opened the containing folder and the file doesn’t exist there,
I’m using autosave plugin to run every time focus is switched off
from the current file as well

edit: more likely its an autosave bug

[Claudia Frank]

@patrickdrd

something is strange here - how can python get a modified timestamp if the file doesn’t exist at all??
The autosave plugin could explain why you see the continuous update of the timestamp
but only if there is a file which can be saved.
Sorry, but, are you really sure that the file doesn’t exist?

Cheers
Claudia

[patrickdrd]

yes, I checked in windows explorer, it should be easy to reproduce it yourself

[patrickdrd]

I’m also using the lua script too, not the python one

[dail]

@patrickdrd

The Lua I posted above simply askes the operating system (i.e. Windows) when the file was last modified. Even if the file isn’t being saved from Notepad++, it would appear something else is changing the file’s modification timestamp.

[SalviaSage]

@dail

Hi dail, I just tested your script today and it is not working anymore on notepad++ v7.5.8

Can you please also check it and maybe we can come up with a fix.

File:8: attempt to index a nil value (global 'winfile')
stack traceback:
    File:8: in function <File:3>
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