Loading text file, problem

Hello, I'm trying to load lines from a text file. However no matter what I do the length of my array is 0. Therefore I believe it is not loading for the file. Why? Thanks for any help!

Code:java

 
package com.kmccmk9.HelpMeAdvanced;
 
// All the imports
import java.io.BufferedWriter;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileInputStream;
import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.io.FileWriter;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.Writer;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Properties;
import java.util.Scanner;
 
import org.bukkit.ChatColor;
import org.bukkit.command.Command;
import org.bukkit.command.CommandSender;
import org.bukkit.entity.Player;
import org.bukkit.plugin.PluginDescriptionFile;
import org.bukkit.plugin.java.JavaPlugin;
 
import com.nijiko.permissions.PermissionHandler;
import com.nijikokun.bukkit.Permissions.Permissions;
 
import org.bukkit.plugin.Plugin;
import org.bukkit.Server;
 
/**
 * HelpMeAdvanced for Bukkit
 *
 * @author kmccmk9
 */
 
//Starts the class
public class HelpMeAdvanced extends JavaPlugin{
    Server server;
    String variable;
    Scanner msgs;
    ArrayList<String> messagestoprint = new ArrayList<String>();
    int arraylength;
    public static PermissionHandler permissionHandler;
    //Define File Variables
    static String mainDirectory = "plugins/HelpMeAdvanced"; //sets the main directory for easy reference
    static File messages = new File(mainDirectory + File.separator + "messages.txt"); //the file separator is the / sign, this will create a new Zones.dat files in the mainDirectory variable listed above, if no Zones directory exists then it will automatically be made along with the file.
    // onDisable
    public void onDisable() {
        PluginDescriptionFile pdfFile = this.getDescription();
        System.out.println( pdfFile.getName() + " is disabled!" );
    }
    // onEnable
    public void onEnable() {
        server = this.getServer();
        PluginDescriptionFile pdfFile = this.getDescription();
        System.out.println( pdfFile.getName() + " version " + pdfFile.getVersion() + " is enabled!" );
        setupPermissions();
        //Setup Files
        new File(mainDirectory).mkdir(); //makes the Zones directory/folder in the plugins directory
        if(!messages.exists()){ //Checks to see if the zones file exists, defined above, if it doesn't exist then it will do the following. the&nbsp;! turns the whole statement around, checking that the file doesn't exist instead of if it exists.
            try { //try catch clause explained below in tutorial
                messages.createNewFile(); //creates the file zones.dat
                FileWriter writer = new FileWriter(messages,true);
                BufferedWriter out = new BufferedWriter(writer);
                out.write("An Admin or SuperAdmin will come and help you soon as possible.");
                out.newLine();
                out.write("If no one come and helps you within 5 minutes, perform the command again.");
                out.newLine();
                out.write("Message sent to Admins");
                out.close();
            } catch (IOException ex) {
                ex.printStackTrace(); //explained below.
            }
 
        } else {
 
            openFile();
            readFile();
            closeFile();
 
        }
    }
 
    private void openFile() {
        try{
            msgs = new Scanner(new File("messages"));
        }catch (Exception ex){
            System.out.println("[HelpMeAdvanced] Could not find messages.txt, did you delete it?");
        }
    }
 
    private void readFile() {
        if (!msgs.hasNextLine()){ //Check if there are no lines at all
            server.broadcastMessage("[RandomAnnounce] Messages.txt is empty.");
        }else{
            messagestoprint.clear(); //Clear the ArrayList (For using the reload command)
            while (msgs.hasNextLine()){
                String messagetofile = msgs.nextLine(); //Set the next line to a string
                messagetofile = messagetofile.replaceAll("(&([a-f0-9]))", "\u00A7$2"); //Replace colour codes
                messagestoprint.add(messagetofile); //Add to the ArrayList
            }
        }
    }
 
    private void closeFile() {
        msgs.close();
    }
 
    private void setupPermissions() {
        Plugin permissionsPlugin = this.getServer().getPluginManager().getPlugin("Permissions");
 
        if (this.permissionHandler == null) {
            if (permissionsPlugin != null) {
                this.permissionHandler = ((Permissions) permissionsPlugin).getHandler();
            } else {
                System.out.println("Permission system not detected, defaulting to OP");
            }
        }
    }
    // Command system
    public boolean onCommand(CommandSender sender, Command command, String commandLabel, String[] args) {
        Player[] players;
        int total;
        if (sender instanceof Player) {
            Player player = (Player) sender;
            if(commandLabel.equalsIgnoreCase("helpme")) {
                if (args.length == 1)
                {
                    variable = args[0];
                    if (variable.equalsIgnoreCase("help"))
                    {
                        player.sendMessage("Typing in /helpme will alert Admins that you need help!");
                    }
                    if (!variable.equalsIgnoreCase("help"))
                    {
                        player.sendMessage(ChatColor.DARK_RED + "Unrecognized argument. Typing in /helpme will alert Admins that you need help!");
                    }
                }
                else if (args.length == 0)
                {
                    arraylength = messagestoprint.size();
                    player.sendMessage("test");
                    player.sendMessage(Integer.toString(arraylength));
                    players = server.getOnlinePlayers();
                    total = players.length;
                    int i = 0;
                    while (i < total)
                    {
                        if (HelpMeAdvanced.permissionHandler.has(players[I], "helpmeadvanced.admin") || players[I].isOp() || players[I].hasPermission("helpmeadvanced.admin")) {[/I][/I][/I]
[I]                            players[I].sendMessage(ChatColor.DARK_RED + player.getDisplayName() + ChatColor.DARK_GREEN + " needs some help!" + " (" + player.getLocation().getWorld() + player.getLocation().getBlockX() + ',' + player.getLocation().getBlockY() + ',' + player.getLocation().getBlockZ() + ")");  [/I][/I]
[I]                        }[/I]
[I]                        i++;[/I]
[I]                    } [/I]
[I]                }[/I]
[I]            }[/I]
[I]        }[/I]
[I]        return true;[/I]
[I]    }[/I]
[I]}[/I]
[I][/I]

 

I'm not quite sure what you're doing here because I've never used the Scanner class... But my plugin used to have this really simple method for getting each line of a .txt file and formatting it into a String array.

Code:

public String[] read() {
    ArrayList lines = new ArrayList();
    try
    {
      BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new FileReader("path/goes/here.txt"));
      String str;
      while ((str = in.readLine()) != null)
      {
        String str;
        lines.add(str);
      }
      in.close();
    } catch (IOException localIOException) {
    }
    return (String[])lines.toArray(new String[0]);
  }

 

Ah ok I see what you did there. Ya the reader class supposedly goes through all the lines in a file for you.

 

Right. And then when the line ends, it adds that line to the array and keeps going until it's finished. It sounds like what you needed, correct?

 

Yup. I'm just trying to really understand how to use the scanner though. It seems to be the most common in many plugins that I have looked through the source of.

 

One thing I can see, is if you run the plugin without the messages file, it will create the file, but won't open, read and close it, only when you run it while the file is there. Other than that, it should work, from what I can tell...

 

Really? Ya I noticed and tested that it will create the file. But why won't it load them into the array? Every time I check it says it has a size of 0.

 

Aha!

Code:

msgs = new Scanner(new File("messages"));

Should be:

Code:

msgs = new Scanner(new File(messages));

 

Alright! Nice catch! I guess sometimes it takes a second pair of eyes to see an error. I will give it a shot when my server is up today.

 

And yeah, you should get rid of the "else" in "onEnable", so it always reads the file, not just when it already exists.

 

Alright I will do that!

 

Certainly does...

 

Well that gave me an error. It wants me to change messages to the type String instead of File. What should I do?

 

Oh, of course, try this instead of "messages".

Code:

mainDirectory + File.separator + "messages.txt"

 

Even though my variable messagesalready has that?

 

Oh right, you should be able to just do this:

Code:

msgs = new Scanner(messages);

Sorry, it's early morning, and not much sleep.