How to create a detailed log when executing Process Plans (or Profiles, Checks or Fixups)

Especially when creating a Process Plan, it can become necessary to inspect intermediate results (such as PDF files in their state in the middle of a Process Plan's processing steps and preferably some details about each step in the form of a log file or similar). This can help to understand and to optimize the configuration of the steps in a Process Plan and their inner workings as a whole.

Note: This logging feature is not only available for Process Plans, but also for Profiles, Checks, and Fixups.

Activate logging

Profile window

To activate logging, just click within one of the three sections of the Profile window on the flyout menu button in the upper right corner (1).

Log Profile Execution

Select the entry "Log Profile Execution" (1).

This option activates the logging of the execution of any Process Plans, Profiles, Checks and Fixups.

A check mark ("✓") in front of the menu item indicates that logging is active.

Deactivate logging

In order to deactivate logging, simply execute the menu item again (1). The check mark ("✓") will then disappear from the menu item (2).

Deactive logging

Execute a Process Plan (or Profile, Check or Fixup)

Execute a Process Plan (or a Profile, Check, or Fixup).

Execute a Profile or Process plan

Explore folder with logging information

After processing the PDF, a window will open in Finder (on Mac OS X) or in the Explorer (on Windows), revealing a folder (having a time stamp as folder name) with all the logging data and associated files inside it.

Structure of the files subfolders in the logging folder

This folder will contain the following items:

  1. The first subfolder ([0-0]) contains the original PDF file and a "kfpx" file with the entire Process Plan (or Profile, Check or Fixup) that was just executed.
  2. Subfolders with intermediate results (if applicable) for each step in a Process Plan (Profiles, Checks and Fixups only will have one such subfolder) and the corresponding "kfpx" file
    • The subfolder's name will consist of the sequence number and the step number in square brackets
    • The subfolder will also contain the Profile, Check or Fixup associated  with the respective Process Plan step as a "kfpx" file
  3. The "Additional logging" subfolder contains three JSON logging files that are created during each successfully completed invocation. See the next article  for more information.
  4. Logging information in a file named "process.log".

Additional logging information using Test Mode

It is also possible to enable logging in Test Mode. In addition to the "regular" logging information (explained in the section above), you have two optional checkboxes to generate logging information for Sifter and/or Ink Coverage checks.

This means that if you are using the Log Profile Execution in Test Mode, you can create additional images that further demonstrate the internal processing by checking Sifter Diagnostics and/or Ink Coverage (if you are using either of these). The images are stored in a subfolder of the corresponding check named "Ink Coverage" or "Sifter" (subfolders shown below as examples).

Additional logging information for "Create and apply shapes - From joined vector paths"

When testing a "Create and apply shapes" Fixup that uses the option "From joined vector paths" in Test Mode, additional logging information is available in the Log Profile Execution folder to visualise the path objects found and used :

The "Joined Vector" folder always contains two PDF previews per document page (if you have a multi-page PDF file, you will get a pair of previews for each page):

  1. [filename]_[page number]_[continuous counter]_start.pdf:
    Visualisation of all lines and curves to be considered by the Shape Fixup. Each path/curve is displayed in its own colour. In addition, each path/curve has a number at the start and end (the number at the start is the same color as the path/curve and the number at the end is grey).
  2. [filename]_[page number]_[continuous counter]_final.pdf:
    Contains only the paths/curves of the newly created shape. They are numbered in the order in which they are connected. Different colours indicate different path segments. Green is used for the start point and red for the end point of the lines/curves.

Sending the logging information for support cases

When requesting support from the callas support team, you might get asked to send the complete logging package.

This will help us to determine how processing was executed on your computer, and why something may not be working as expected. For easy and safe transfer please compress the entire folder into a ZIP archive by clicking the right mouse button after selecting the respective folder:

  • Mac OS X: "Compress..."
  • Windows: "Send to..." - "ZIP compressed folder"
Compress folder using MacOS