I'm using an SFTP monitor to monitor a directory. When I created the monitor, it found all the files and they all showed up in the File Transfers pane, with status "Monitoring". They also showed up in the Log Files & Filters pane.

For the most part, this works fine, but sometimes, files just disappear from either or both panes, even though they still exist on the server. Sometimes they come back after a while and other times, I have to close and reopen the workspace to get them back. For example, I currently have a file that exists in the directory. It disappeared from both panes, but now, a few minutes later, it's showing up in the File Transfers pane, but it's still missing from the Log Files & Filters Pane.

These are the files that are currently in the directory:



And this is what LVP shows:



It makes no sense. Why is main.log showing up in both panes, after it was deleted from the server? Why does 08-01.log show up in the bottom pane, but not the top pane? Why is the bottom pane missing 07-28.log and 07-30.log? It's very difficul to work with this when nothing matches up.

Hi Brad,

When LogViewPlus monitors files, the goal is not mirroring the file.  The goal is to collect all log entries written to the file since monitoring started.  If a log file is deleted, from the server monitoring should continue in case the file is recreated (as is often the case with log files).

If you want log entries to more closely mirror the log file, consider the "Clear all log entries when the log file is rolled" option in the Tail & Scroll settings.  However, note that if this setting is enabled, the file will continue to be monitored even if it has been removed from the server.

The only issue I can see from the from the screenshots above is that 08-01 is missing from the Log Files view, but shown in Monitoring.  That is very strange because closing the file should stop monitoring.  As mentioned above, I suspect your workspace has gotten corrupted through refreshes and LogViewPlus is confusing an old instance of the file with a newer, refreshed instance.

I assume the other files shown have timed out.  It is difficult to know what the problem is from the screenshot.  That is why I would like to try and narrow down the problem to what happened when the issues first started.  To do this, it may be necessary to restart LogViewPlus.

Toby

When LogViewPlus monitors files, the goal is not mirroring the file. The goal is to collect all log entries written to the file since monitoring started. If a log file is deleted, from the server monitoring should continue in case the file is recreated (as is often the case with log files).

Understood. The problem is, the top pane doesn't give any indication of whether the file exists and the bottom pane displays a blank filename. This is inconsistent and extremely confusing. Instead, I'd suggest it continue displaying the file name in both panes, but dim and/or italicize the text and show a warning icon next to the file name, When hovering over the icon, it should display a tooltip like "This file no longer exists in the directory". There shoujld also be an option in the context menu to remove the file from the list, which should remove it from both panes.

Likewise, if monitoring times out on a file, instead of removing the file from the list, it should be displayed with a warning icon, to indicate that it's no longer being monitored. When you hover over this icon, it should display a tooltip like "This file is no longer being monitored because it has exceeded the monitoring time limit. To change this limit, navigate to Settings->Application->Tab & Scroll.". You could also provide a context menu option to restart monitoring.

I agree - indicators and tool-tips are clearly a much better way to handle environment status notifications.  Thanks for pointing this out Brad.  We are planning a release this week, but I will look into making these changes for the following release in a 2 - 3 months.  

You can remove a file from the monitoring list and it will not modify your view (but the target will no longer receive updates).  If you remove a file from your view, it should be removed from the monitoring list as well.  This is why I mentioned that it is file "08-01.log" in your screenshots which clearly shows that something is wrong.  You may have stopped monitoring the other files, but "08-01.log" should be in your view if it is in the monitoring list.  It appears to have been disconnected from the view and I am not sure how this occurred.  I suspect it occurred during a directory monitor or workspace refresh, but it would be good to try to narrow the problem down.