Filter messages

During normal operations in an ArchestrA environment, many messages are logged to the 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.

Filter messages based on message characteristics

1. On the View menu, select Filter.

2. 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.

Add filtering criteria

3. Select the New Filter icon.

   A new Show type row appears.

4. Select the Type box and double-click to switch to Hide type.

5. Double-click a category, and type filtering criteria.

6. Add another row by right-clicking a category header and select Add on the shortcut menu.

   The new row is added and the category box is set to edit mode automatically.

7. When you are finished typing the filtering criteria, select 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.

Delete a row

• Select a row and select the Delete Filter icon.

Delete all rows

• Select Delete All.

Remove a filter criteria

8. Right-click in the box and select Clear Field.

9. Select OK to set the filtering criteria and close the Filter dialog box. Alternatively, select 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.