Unless this is already possible, it would be nice to be able to open several log files and merging them at the same time, without getting each single file as an entry in the tree view. I would like to only get the "merge entry". Even more convenient would be to also be able to do this from a Windows Explorer context menu when selecting multiple files, like e.g. "Open as merged".

Thanks for the feedback.

Currently, we do not have a "merge only" option when opening log files.  The closest thing we have would be to open and merge all files and then select multiple files to close them:



That works pretty well considering that a merge only option would still need to open the files - so there would be no performance advantages.

Part of the reason we don't have a merge only option is because it would confuse the user interface and we try to keep it as simple as we can.  However, we don't currenlty have explorer context menu integration.  I think the option would make a lot more sense there and it's certainly something to think about.  If we could at least add command line support, you would be able to add the context menu item yourself.  That might be a better option for us as we wouldn't want an installer which clutters the Explorer context menu unnecessarilly.

Thanks again,

Toby

Thanks for your response.

Actually, the main reason I suggest this is because of the performance penalty in removing (closing) the unnecessary files. When I open 10 files, each 25MB, the UI freezes and it takes about 30 seconds before it's responsive again. This is very annoying. Btw, the UI always freezes for a few seconds when removing a file. This feature would both reduce the number of clicks to get the task done and improve the performance significantly - two important aspects of a good tool!

In my opinion, providing the option to add Explorer context menus is not cluttering, it's a way to help people. It's a very common workflow to locate log files in existing Explorer windows and opening them from there, as opposed to selecting "open file" in LogViewPlus and browse to the new log file (e.g. consider a case where customer log files are extracted in different (sub)folders each time).

Thanks for the feedback. 

We do performance test and try to optimize where we can.  I will take a look before the next release and see if we can do anything to improve the performance of closing a log file.

I figure adding a context menu option for one of the more common use cases must be both easier and faster as compared to fixing the performance issue (although that would be great as well). It would also help users by reducing the number of clicks needed to accomplish their task.

Actually, the process of opening files, then merging them, then closing the unnecessary ones seems very much as a quick solution based on an existing technical design. It is not at all user friendly.

Hi,

If you check out the latest BETA release (v3.1.18), we have improved the performance when closing multiple log files.  Previously, we were running garbage collection on every file closure, but we have now set this to be executed only when all files have been closed.  Hopefully that will help.

I do think it would be helpful to have one operation which opens, merges and closes.  The problem is really more about working this into the UI without overcomplicating the process.  There are times when you want the underlying files open and other times when you don't.  There are also several places where log files can be merged.  So I think this is something for us to think about.

Hope that helps,

Toby