Doorstop

I once commissioned an application named Doorstop(c).
Doorstop stays in memory and if a user leaves the computer
unattended for a period of time, Doorstop will stop DOORS (without save),
and then terminates itself.

I have been considering making Doorstop available for beta-testing
in an enterprise environment. (I can modify the source code but can’t
distribute the copyrighted source code.)

Beta-testing would continue for remainder of this year, at which time
if all bugs can be removed Doorstop could be released.

I open this subject up for discussion about the preferred:
--Configuration
--Desirability/need
--Distribution method

(I was considering setting inactive time to 5 hours and terminate after stopping DOORS)
mylodi - Mon Jun 06 07:38:38 EDT 2011

Re: Doorstop
Tony_Goodman - Mon Jun 06 11:09:15 EDT 2011

Some places do have an issue with users leaving doors running but not using it, thus tying up a licence, but this can normally be prevented or minimised by educating the users.

To have a little daemon perform a "kill -9" on a doors client sounds a little extreme to me. What if the user is running a long script?

It won't fly.

Tony Goodman, Smart DXL Limited

Re: Doorstop
llandale - Mon Jun 06 16:27:38 EDT 2011

Random thoughts:
.. 'educate' ... with a big stick. I must say this is the only rediculous thing Tony has ever said. Golly, even I leave DOORS running all night frequently and I'm the one that has to deal with the Licensing Metrics with the midnight-to-midnight reporting periods and I get to see my name in the exception list every week. 'Education' will certainly reduce the frequency but cannot get rid of it.
.. database wide pre-open-module trigger deterimes if your program is running, and if not starts it. I'd be tempted to store in a config file the Session number in which the program was started, and if the current Session is the same do nothing and if different then start it. This will allow clever folks the ability to kill the process on their client.
.. I suppose a single process could kill multiple inactive DOORS sessions.
.. I think we may prefer one that monitors for inactivity in DOORS, not inactivity on the PC.
.. IT department will have a cow. That's a US idiom for "Be energized with alarm and indignation enough to take corrective action against your continued employment".

  • Louie

Re: Doorstop
kbmurphy - Mon Jun 06 22:21:01 EDT 2011

A user at one of my clients actually wrote something that does this. In testing it, I found it didn't always work, but it did work well enough. Just a background process monitoring only DOORS, as Louie said.

Tony--what kind of average user is going to run a DXL that takes 5 hours? That's admin only, and as I'm an admin, I would never actually have this on my machine.

mylodi--I can ask about sharing this code if interested.

Kevin