Installation instructions

• see full instructions in our FAQ
  https://community.notepad-plus-plus.org/topic/23039/faq-desk-how-to-install-and-run-a-script-in-pythonscript
• save the script below as DotLogTimestamp.py in the PythonScript user-scripts directory (usually %AppData%\Notepad++\Plugins\Config\PythonScript\Scripts\)
• if you want this feature active every time you run Notepad++:
  1. Plugins > Python Script > Configuration: set Initialisation to ATSTARTUP
  2. As the FAQ mentions, add the following lines to the user startup.py

  import DotLogTimestamp
  _DLTS = DotLogTimestamp.DLTS()
  

script: DotLogTimestamp.py

# encoding=utf-8
"""in response to https://community.notepad-plus-plus.org/topic/24650/

- Call this from startup.py using
import DotLogTimestamp
_DLTS = DotLogTimestamp.DLTS()

- Make sure to set Plugins > PythonScript > Configuration > Initialisation to "ATSTARTUP" instead of "LAZY"

- installation instructions: see
    https://community.notepad-plus-plus.org/topic/23039/faq-desk-how-to-install-and-run-a-script-in-pythonscript

"""
from Npp import editor,notepad,console,NOTIFICATION
from datetime import datetime

class DLTS(object):
    def __init__(self):
        console.write("Registered DotLogTimestamp.py callbacks\n")
        notepad.callback(self.fileopened_callback, [NOTIFICATION.FILEOPENED])
        notepad.callback(self.bufferactivated_callback, [NOTIFICATION.BUFFERACTIVATED])
        self.active = True
        self.bufferIDs = []

    def toggle(self):
        self.active = not self.active
        console.write("DotLogTimestamp.py callbacks are {}\n".format('active' if self.active else 'inactive'))

    def fileopened_callback(self, args):
        if self.active:
            self.bufferIDs.append(args['bufferID'])

    def bufferactivated_callback(self, args):
        if self.active:
            if args['bufferID'] in self.bufferIDs:
                line = editor.getLine(0).strip()
                if line[0:4] == ".LOG":
                    editor.appendText("{}\n".format(datetime.now().strftime("%Y-%b-%d %H:%M:%S")))
                self.bufferIDs.remove(args['bufferID'])

if __name__ == '__main__':
    try:
        _DLTS.toggle()
    except NameError:
        _DLTS = DLTS()

windows NOTEPAD, writes DATE and TIME each time file is updated when includes .LOG like first line into a file.

It’s true!

Looks like the timestamp is written upon opening the file (notice how the * appears immediately in the title bar), not when saving it.

windows NOTEPAD, writes DATE and TIME each time file is updated when includes .LOG like first line into a file.

I had never heard of that feature. I knew that it had the F5 = Edit > Time/Date to manually insert it.

NOTEPAD++ would be nice to include it too, does not ?

personally, I don’t have a need for it, though I can see why some people might like it. If you were willing to install the PythonScript plugin, then it wouldn’t be too hard to come up with a script that could be automatically run when you start Notepad++; it would run a function every time a file was opened, and if it starts with .LOG as the first line, it would then append the date at the end of the file. If you’re not interested in using the PythonScript plugin, I won’t bother explaining the details, but if you’d like that, let us know, and I or one of the other PythonScript afficionados could probably hack it together in a reasonably short amount of time.