Development mode

When writing worker scripts it is sometimes annoying to have to wait for the normal poll and settle period before a worker action is performed (for example, if you have a large volume you might only scan for new files every five minutes). Additionally, if you have a lot of files and tasks that complete very quickly because all they do is move a file or publish a clip to the server without transcoding, it can be difficult to see what is happening because they run through so quickly. Both of these problems can be resolved by switching on development mode under general settings. Poll and settle periods are reduced to 10 seconds or less, and you are prompted before each job starts.

Other common techniques for troubleshooting worker actions include:

• Double click a task that has completed in the task list (or press the Info button) to view a summary of the operations that were applied to it and any errors that occurred.
• When configuring watch actions, temporarily disable actions you are not interested in by unchecking the Enabled item
• If a watch action doesn’t seem to be triggered when you expect it to be, click the Test button. This displays useful information such as whether the watch folder is readable or the server query returns any matching clips.
• Turn on development mode
• View the worker log file, which may contain additional details of error messages. There are two (or more) log files. “CatDV Worker Log” displays details of the main worker process, including editing the configuration and the output of the file watcher and server monitor threads, whereas the actual work of transcoding and performing actions is done by one or more separate helper processes, whose output goes to “CatDV Helper Log [2,3,4 etc.]”. The View Log button displays the main worker log, whereas if hold down shift and click the button you will see the latest helper log. You can also access the log files directly in Home > Library > Logs on the Mac (hold down the Option/Alt key then click on the Go menu in the Finder to navigate to the Library folder), or in “C:Documents and SettingsUsernameApplication DataSquare BoxLogs” (or similar) under Windows.