Views

View nodes in the explorer view customise a view of a logfile and permit annotating, searching, filtering and tracking.

Annotations

Arbitrary comment text can be placed below any line in the view. Place the cursor on the line and either type Ctrl-A or select Session | Annotate in the explorer view. Enter the annotation text in the text area that appears to the left of the view area:

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The annotation text can be displayed with one of four styles in the view. Select the required style from the drop-down below the annotation area:

_images/annotation-style.png

Searching & Hiliting

By default, seven searcher/hiliters are available. Their colours and styles can be set using the drop-down lists in the View | Search panel.

Choosing the search text is determined in one of two ways:

  • the selection hiliter hilites the text selected in the view

  • by specifying search text in the View | Search | Search properties panel. For more information, see searching.

_images/hiliters.png

Filtering

A filter is applied applied to each regular log line. Where the filter matches, the log line is displayed in the view.

Irregular log lines (i.e. lines without all the fields defined in the schema) are not filtered directly, but rather, are associated with the most recent regular line. Where a regular line is visible, any following irregular lines will also be visible.

The filter is entered into the View | Filter | Filter description panel. For more information, see searching.

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If the filter text is invalid for some reason, the background colour is set to red:

_images/filter-bad.png

and the Console panel will contain an explanation; in this case, no value for the Category field matches “e”:

_images/filter-bad-reason.png

Tracking

For more information on tracker types and their appearance, see Trackers.

A view interacts with the trackers in two ways:

  • a tracker’s location may be set from the cursor’s position

  • the view can be scrolled to ensure a specific tracker is visible

Use the options in the View | Track panel to control this behaviour:

  • Set local tracker from cursor - when checked, the local tracker’s line location is updated to follow the cursor.

  • Set global tracker from cursor - when selected, the identified global tracker’s date/time location is updated to follow the cursor.

  • Synchronise view to tracker - when selected, the view will scroll to ensure the identified local/global tracker is visible whenever it is updated.

_images/tracking.png

The timestamps associated with each tracker can be seen in the Status panel:

_images/tracker-status.png

Field Visibility

The View | Fields panel determines which field(s) are visible in the view as well as the colour the field’s text is displayed in.

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Themes

Views interact with Navigation themes and View pattern themes.

View Patterns

View pattern themes contain all the search and filter patterns, as well as field visibility, field colour and tracker choices A gallery of available themes can be found at View | Theme | View theme gallery.

_images/view-theme-gallery.png

Where local changes to a View pattern theme exist, they can be saved or cleared via the View | Theme | Changes to view theme panel.

_images/view-theme.png