Filtering Messages

Log Viewer

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Filtering Messages

During normal operations in an ArchestrA environment, many messages are logged to the ArchestrA Logger. If a program is malfunctioning or some component has been configured outside of acceptable ranges, the number of messages can increase significantly. You can reduce the number of messages being shown in the message window with the Filter dialog box.

Use filtering to display a subset of all logged messages based on specified criteria. The Filter dialog box provides three sets of criteria you can use to reduce the number of messages shown. You can use one or more of these sets of criteria at a time to help troubleshoot problems in the ArchestrA environment.

Note Filtering does not delete logged messages, but only affects the display of messages in the message window. To view all logged messages again, disable the filter by clicking the Enable/Disable Message Filter icon on the toolbar or clearing the Show Time and End Time check boxes. You can enable the filter at a later time because the filtering specifications are still set in the background.

To filter messages based on message characteristics

On the View menu, click Filter.

On the Filter dialog box, select the Messages page. The first column in the data entry window is Type. There are two possible types of criteria: Show and Hide. When a row is type Show, messages that meet the criteria set are shown in the message window. When a row is type Hide, messages that meet the criteria set are not shown in the message window. All other columns in the data entry window map to columns shown in the message window. The first row in the data entry window is not editable and cannot be deleted, although you can disable it by clearing the check box.

To add filtering criteria

Click the New Filter icon. A new Show type row appears.

Click the Type box to switch to Hide type.

Double-click a category, and type filtering criteria.

Add another row by right-clicking a category header and clicking Add on the shortcut menu. The new row is added and the category box is set to edit mode automatically.

When you are finished typing the filtering criteria, click outside of the box.

To filter messages based on multiple criteria, use more than one category box in a row or more than one row. Data rows perform an AND operation that filters messages that meet both criteria. Data columns perform an OR operation that filters messages that meet either criteria.

To delete a row

Select a row and click the Delete Filter icon.

To delete all rows

Click the Delete All button.

To remove filter criteria

Right-click in the box and click Clear Field.

Click OK to set the filtering criteria and close the Filter dialog box.

—Or—

Click Cancel to close the Filter dialog box without setting filtering criteria.

Note After you have set filtering criteria, you can switch filtering on and off with the Enable/Disable Message Filter icon on the toolbar. Enable the filter to show only the messages that match the filtering criteria. Disable the filter to show all logged messages.

To filter messages based on a time range

On the View menu, click Filter. The Filter dialog box appears.

Select the Time Range page.

To filter based on a start time, select Messages On in the From box. The date and time options appear.

Click in any field and type the target date.

—Or—

Click the arrow in the date box to display a calendar of the current month. Use the right and left arrows to select the target date.

Select the Time Box and scroll up or down.

To filter based on an end time, select Messages On in the To box. The date and time options appear. Use same steps described in steps 4 and 5.

Click OK to set the filtering criteria and close the Filter dialog box.

The message window immediately shows messages based on this time range criteria. If you use a From setting, the Start Time check box in the time header is automatically selected and the new filter settings are shown. If you use a To setting, the End Time check box in the time header is automatically selected and the new filter settings are shown.

To filter messages based on a terminal session

On the View menu, click Filter.

On the Filter dialog box, select the Terminal Sessions page. The first column in the data entry window is Type. There are two possible types of criteria: Show and Hide. When a row is type Show, messages that meet the criteria set are shown in the message window. When a row is type Hide, messages that meet the criteria set are not shown in the message window. The first row in the data entry window is not editable and cannot be deleted, although you can disable it by clearing the check box.

To add filtering criteria

Click the New Filter icon. A new Show type row is shown.

Click the Type box to switch to Hide type.

Double-click the Session ID box and type filtering criteria.

—Or—

Add another row by right-clicking a column header and clicking Add.

The new row is added and the box is set to edit mode automatically. When you finish typing the filtering criteria, click outside of the box.

To filter messages based on multiple sessions

Use more than one row. Data columns perform an OR operation to filter messages that meet either criteria.

To delete a row

Select the row and click the Delete Filter icon.

To delete all rows except the first one

Click the Delete All button.

To delete session filtering criteria

Right-click in a Session ID cell and click Clear Field from the shortcut menu.

Click OK to set the filtering criteria and close the Filter dialog box.

Note After you set filter criteria, you can switch filtering on and off with the Enable/Disable Message Filter icon on the toolbar.