# Creating Notifications When Files are Added via LabLink
This topic explains how to:
1. Detect when files have have been uploaded.
2. Extract the key information that might comprise a notification.
The Files API Resource
The key resource to investigate is the files resource, which provides a listing of files within the system.
### Step 1. Access the Files Resource
On a test system accessing the files resource as follows:
```
http://192.168.9.123:8080/api/v2/files
```
produces the following output:
```
...
```
### Step 2. Filter the Files URI
Although not particularly useful in itself, the files URI becomes more interesting when we filter it to only include files uploaded after a specified date-time, and also only those files that have a published status of 'true'.
For example, the following URI:
```
http://192.168.9.123:8080/api/v2/files?last-modified=2013-09-10T00:00:00-08:00&published=true
```
produces this output on a test system:
```
```
This outcome is much more manageable. Because they are uploaded via the Collaborations Interface, they inherently have a published status of 'true'. We use this status to exclude regular files uploaded to the LIMS via other methods and interfaces.
### Step 3. Retrieve the XML Representations of the Files
By following the URIs to retrieve the full XML representations of these files, the output is similar to the following:
```
http://192.168.9.123:8080/api/v2/projects/ACC151
sftp://192.168.9.123/home/glsftp/ACC151/ACC151-40-651.csv
GLims.csv
true
```
and:
```
http://192.168.9.123:8080/api/v2/samples/ACC151A1
sftp://192.168.9.123/home/glsftp/ACC151/ACC151A1/ACC151A1-40-652.png
image001.png
true
```
### Step 4. Retrieve Project/Sample Information
Retrieve the associated project/sample, and extract the names and/or IDs to embed into the notification, by following the URI in the 'attached-to' elements.
In this case, the following result is produced:
```
Scaffold POC
2013-04-18
```
and:
```
SG-5926 -1
2013-04-18
System
Administrator
false
treated
```
### Proposed Solution
A script must be run periodically (hourly/daily) that queries the files resource for files that have a published status of true, and are last modified in the period of interest.
After this list of files is retrieved, the following pseudocode can be applied:
```
For each URI in files list:
Retrieve the file object
STORE the contents of the 'original-location' element
IF the contents of the 'attached-to' element contains EITHER 'projects' OR 'samples':
Retrieve the object pointed to by the 'attached-to' element
STORE the contents of the 'name' element
Compile the stored elements into a notification
Publish all notifications produced in an atomic or molecular fashion, as required
```
An example derived from the above XML could lead to the following notifications:
```
FILE: GLims.csv was recently uploaded to PROJECT: Scaffold POC
```
```
FILE: image001.png was recently uploaded to SAMPLE: -1
```