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Saving Processing Results to a text file

ChristinaGnadinger

I am hoping that this is a simple question.

I'm running python scripts through the Windows scheduled tasks and would like to come in the next morning to make sure the processes have ran completely, and without errors. Is there a command line I can insert into the python scripts that can output these result to a text file for me?

Thank you in advance for your help!
Christina

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StacyRendall1

Malcolm, as I said previously, you might be able to get the details for the SMTP server for your work email from IT, rather than using Gmail. Then you won't be making an outgoing connection - it will be just like sending a normal email...

Hell, you might even be able to get the details yourself by trawling around your email program (Outlook or whatever) - you need to find:

server name - i.e. smtp.comany.com
port - i.e. 587
security type - i.e. TLS or SSL

MalcolmParnell2

Stacy (and others),
Yes, it's a work computer related issue. I've tried this at home on my personal computer and it has worked perfectly. Now for the difficult bit - trying to get an answer from the work IT people!

Thanks again for your help and I'll be following your blog.

Mal

A follow up: Looks like McAfee is configured to block outgoing connections to port 25 to prevent worms: Anti-virus Standard Protection:Prevent mass mailing worms from sending mail xyz.xyz.xyz.xyz:25

Unfortunately for me at least, I think this is a show stopper. The chance of me being able to convince IT to open this up is, to quote local vernacular, Buckley's and none.

MalcolmParnell2

Malcolm,

Some googling revealed that your problem may be to do with a firewall -...

If you are using a workplace computer it may be that your workplace has some kind of firewall that is blocking your connection to gmail (but if you can access gmail from your workplace, this probably isn't the case)...

Stacy (and others),
Yes, it's a work computer related issue. I've tried this at home on my personal computer and it has worked perfectly. Now for the difficult bit - trying to get an answer from the work IT people!

Thanks again for your help and I'll be following your blog.

Mal

StacyRendall1

Malcolm,

The actual email sending code was amalgamated from some examples I found on the net, I don't know much about it other than that it worked for me (and what I have picked up from mucking around with different email clients over the years)!

Some googling revealed that your problem may be to do with a firewall - see here. Do you have a firewall on your computer? Are Python and ArcGIS allowed to communicate through it? My firewall pops up a little message any time a new program tries to get through it, but it could be automatically blocked on yours.

If you are using a workplace computer it may be that your workplace has some kind of firewall that is blocking your connection to gmail (but if you can access gmail from your workplace, this probably isn't the case)... Your other option, if it is a workplace computer you are using, is that you might be able to try and get the SMTP server details for your work email - so it would instead be the sender - and do it that way. Depending on the type of security that server has, you might need to make some changes to the code.

Let me know how it goes!

p.s. Just found this - a list of potential causes, and solutions, for "No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it." errors...

MalcolmParnell2

Here is a way you can do it; writes the text file and sends an email. The trickiest bit is getting it to work with your specific SMTP email server. If you have gmail it's easy as pie; if not - google around...

...

Let me know how you get on.

Thanks Stacey, that's a massive help.

I tried with my gmail account, but didn't have success.

The error I get is

socket.error: [Errno 10061] No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it

I suspect it may be something to do with our firewall blocking a port, although I really don't know. I'm pretty sure the "target machine" is actually ours, not smtp.gmail.com . This is somewhat out of my knowledge base! Google hasn't helped a great deal yet ...

Anyone with any suggestions? This really is a great way to report exceptions in batch processing, as everyone gets tired really quickly of checking log files, especially when they're (hopefully) mostly not containing any errors.

Mal

StacyRendall1

On a side note does anyone know of any good websites, or any good books related to both Python and ArcGIS? One of these days I need to breakdown and just learn it I think.

I'm actually trying to develop a library of tutorials and examples on my blog, which I hope one day will be a good resource for people! At the moment it only has very basic stuff and some very specific advanced stuff. I would really like to hear what people are struggling with so I can build some tutorials in those areas.

I'm currently planning a Python Essentials for Arcpy which will cover some of the basics, especially the handy little things that Python can do which make scripts better than modelbuilder models, and an Arcpy Code Optimization tutorial which will cover the methodological process of developing geoprocessing scripts, and how to leverage Python functionality to improve speed (and reliability).

So, if you have any specific questions, comments on the proposed tutorials above, or things you would like information on, please let me know and I'll try to help!

ChristinaGnadinger

I'll have to check out the Python for Dummies book .. sometimes I like those better since they're a bit less like reading stereo instructions at times 🙂 .. I've been rooting through the Python online reference PDFs and they are not the most interesting reads out there. Thanks for the recommendation!

Also .. I was thinking about the whole email concept but decided it was way over my head .. however you have me interested in doing it now. I may look into that and see if I can make it work on my end.. If so I'll definitely give you all an update! Thanks for the start up on that 😃

StacyRendall1

Here is a way you can do it; writes the text file and sends an email. The trickiest bit is getting it to work with your specific SMTP email server. If you have gmail it's easy as pie; if not - google around...

import smtplib
import arcpy
 
### This is the module that does the sending - you should only need to edit the top four active lines
def sendResultEmail(msgContents, success_TF):
 to = 'receiver@email.com'
 send_username = 'sender@email.com'
 send_password = 'password' # warning - will just be an unencrypted string - so be careful not to leave this file lying around!
 
 # This is the tricky bit - here are the settings for gmail (which will only work if your sender is gmail and you have a gmail account).
 # If you are using something else, google around smtplib and the email service you use.
 # I would suggest gmail is probably a pretty good start if you have an account...
 smtpserver = smtplib.SMTP("smtp.gmail.com",587)

 
 if success_TF:
  subject = 'Arcpy testing results: script SUCCESS.'
 else:
  subject = 'Arcpy testing results: script FAILURE.'
  
 smtpserver.ehlo()
 smtpserver.starttls()
 smtpserver.ehlo
 smtpserver.login(send_username, send_password)
 
 header = 'To:' + to + '\n' + 'From: ' + send_username + '\n' + 'Subject:' + subject + '\n'

 msg = header + '\nArcpy results: \n\t' + msgContents + '\n'
 
 smtpserver.sendmail(send_username, to, msg)
 
 arcpy.AddMessage('Results email sent!')
 
 smtpserver.close()


### Here is the geoprocessing code; add to strResult every time you need to add something to the message (i.e. completion times)
### In a complex code this could be a lot of information, so seperate with '\n' to force new lines in the text...

inFC = arcpy.GetParameterAsText(0)
outLoc = arcpy.GetParameterAsText(1)
outFC = arcpy.GetParameterAsText(2)

success = False # assume failure (changed to True if script is successful)
strResult = '' # start empty string - write to this, for saving to text file and sending to email

try:
 arcpy.FeatureClassToFeatureClass_conversion(inFC, outLoc, outFC)
 strResult += "Converted successfully \n"
 success = True
except arcpy.ExecuteError:
 strResult += arcpy.GetMessages()

arcpy.AddMessage(strResult)

# Now write results to the text file
outtable = open(r"C:\temp\results.txt", "w")
outtable.write(strResult)
outtable.close()

# Now send the email. This line calls the module above, passing it the string and the T/F success variable...
sendResultEmail(strResult, success)

Let me know how you get on.

MalcolmParnell2

Thank you so much .. that is working perfectly for me!

At the risk of complicating things, another option is to get python to send you an email if it fails. Some examples are here .

I don't know enough about python to get this working at this stage, but it's certainly something I would like to implement for scheduled tasks.

If you do happen to go this way I'll trade you: my idea for your code . 😄

MikeMacRae

As far as books, I have a few kicking around the office, but when I need something dumbed down for me a little, I tend to hit up my copy of "Python for Dummies" Like most Dummies books, it really helps you get going.

ChristinaGnadinger

Thank you!! I will definitely look into that!

jskinner

I highly recommend the class 'Introduction to Geoprocessing Scripts Using Python'. It gives a great overview of using python with ArcGIS and the new Esri-developed Python site package Arcpy.

ChristinaGnadinger

Thank you so much .. that is working perfectly for me!

On a side note does anyone know of any good websites, or any good books related to both Python and ArcGIS? One of these days I need to breakdown and just learn it I think.

jskinner

You can use the python open function to accomplish this. You could write to a text file whether a script/tool was executed successfully or not. Below is an example. If the text file does not exist, it will automatically be created.

import arcpy, os
from arcpy import env
env.workspace = r"c:\temp\python\test.gdb"

outtable = open(r"C:\temp\results.txt", "w")

try:
    arcpy.FeatureClassToFeatureClass_conversion("Airports", env.workspace, "Airports2")
    outtable.write("Converted successfully")
except arcpy.ExecuteError:
    outtable.write(arcpy.GetMessages())

outtable.close()

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