The PlanetPress Workflow Service Console

The PlanetPress Workflow Service Console is a centralized service console and log viewer in one. You can use it to individually start and stop PlanetPress Workflow services, as well as to view current and past log files for each service.

Controlling Services

The left part of the PlanetPress Workflow Service Console displays a list of the PlanetPress Workflow services and is used to control these services.

To start a stopped service:

  1. Right-click on the service.
  2. Click on Start.
  3. Look in the Log window on the right to see the service starting.

To stop a service that is running:

  1. Right-click on the running service.
  2. Click on Stop.
    If the service is currently processing a file (if a process is running, output is being generated, job being received, etc), the service will wait for this action to complete before stopping.

To pause a service temporarily:

  1. Right-click on the running service.
  2. Click on Active to remove the checkmark.
    If the service was currently processing a file, the service will wait for this action to complete before pausing. Once paused, the service is still "started" but will wait until it is activated again before processing jobs. This is very useful if you want to receive jobs from external services (such as with the LPD Server) but not process them right away.

To kill (force quit) a service:

  1. Right-click on the running service.
  2. Click on Kill.
  3. Click OK to confirm on the warning.
    If the service is currently processing a file, execution will stop and the action will not complete. If the action was partially completed (for example writing a large file), the partial action is not undone. As this may lead to corrupted or incomplete files, it is strongly advised not to kill a service unless it is absolutely necessary to do so.

Viewing log files

The second major role of the Service Console is to view and browse log files. The Service Console can both view existing log files, or monitor the log file for the current day and update the view in real time.

When a service is selected on the left pane, its log file (if any exists for the current day) is displayed. The log displays in a tree fashion. The log itself is the root, and each session (the time between the start and stop of a service) is listed. Under each session, each time a process runs, a new branch is created and it can be expanded to see each action within that process.

Log viewer settings

The log viewer for the current day is normally live, meaning it updates automatically as the log file is updated by the appropriate service. There are a few options to change this behavior, which could be useful when a service is under heavy load.

These options are found in the View menu:

  • Update speed: Refreshes the view based on a timer.
  • Pause monitoring: Pauses or resumes the update.

To refresh the log viewer, press F5 or select File > Reload.

Copying messages

To copy one or more log messages:

  • Right-click on the message and select Copy from the contextual menu.
  • Click on the message and press Ctrl + C, or select File > Copy from the menu.
    Keep the Ctrl key pressed down to select multiple messages.

Searching through the active log file

When a log file is active in the log viewer, it can be searched by going in the Search menu, then clicking Find. After entering a search term and selecting the options (Match case and Direction), clicking Find Next will display the first result for the search term.

When a search is started, using F3 on the keyboard or clicking Search then Search again will find and highlight the next available result.

Browsing log files

Select File > Browse logs, to open a folder that contains either Workflow or Connect log files. This is useful when you need to delete a log file or open it in another editor because it has reached a larger size than the Service Console can handle. With this option you cannot open a log file in the Service Console.

Note: For Connect log files, the browser opens the current user's default Connect logs location. If Connect is not installed, installed with another user, or if the default location has been changed, the browser will open the MyDocument folder.

Viewing older log files

To open an existing, older log file in the Service Console:

  1. In the File menu, click on Open.
  2. Browse to the location of the log file you want to open
  3. Click on the log file and click Open.
    The log file is added, by name, at the end of the list of PlanetPress Workflow services. Clicking on it opens the log file in the viewer. Right-clicking on the file brings a menu from which the log file can be refreshed, or removed from the list.

The log viewer for existing log files does not refresh automatically since log files for older days do not generally change. The display of the sessions, processes and tasks is the same.

Note: The log viewer as described here was introduced in version 7.4 of PlanetPress Workflow. Though it should be able to open log files from older versions of PlanetPress Workflow, the results are not guaranteed. Some log files may not display properly in this view.