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mDesktop in Depth - Logs and Diagnostic Information

Lauren Wheeler
  • Updated
 

Error Log

When an error occurs in mDesktop, it is recorded in a log, along with some useful diagnostic information.  You can examine the Error Log from the View menu. mDesktop positions on the last error to occur – scroll up to see previous entries.  Close this screen by pressing Esc or clicking the X in the top right corner. mDesktop will then ask if you wish to print any of the entries – it will start with the last one.

When calling the support line, you may be asked to look up the program and line number recorded in this log.  Also, not all errors are displayed in a message box on the screen – often the cause of the problem occurred earlier in operation.  You should always scroll back in the error log, looking for the first record with the appropriate date and time.

Print Diagnostic Information

From the Tools menu, this option allows you to easily send diagnostic information to a printer or file.  If you send the report to file, it is advisable to send them to a clean directory – it may get a bit confusing otherwise.  This allows you to simply see your current matching setup, the layout of your Main File, sample records and/or the logs mDesktop produces.  For example, these can help you work out why a matching run did not produce the expected results.     These reports are:

  • Main File Structure – the layout of the selected Main File
  • Sample of Records – a dump of the first 100 and  last 20 records in the selected Main File
  • Installation Log – the date and time the installation started, and the files that were copied or replaced.
  • Import Log – a record of the last import.  If an import was aborted for whatever reason, the last record number will be shown – otherwise it will contain the number of records in the database.
  • Matching Log and Overlap Log – The number of records in the database and the number of comparisons made while matching.
  • Error Log – the contents of the MIERROR.DBF.
  • matchIT Options – the contents of the PARAMS.DBF.
  • matchIT Weights – the contents of the WEIGHTS.DBF.
  • Name Matching Matrix – the contents of the NAMEPARM.DBF.
  • Performance Log – the contents of the PERFORM.DBF.
  • Matching Reference Table – the contents of the MATCHES.MDF.
  • Output Options