Diagnostic tools

To troubleshoot issues, you can use the diagnostic tools available in Rational® Publishing Engine such as the template verification tool, the Console view, the Problems view, and log files.

Template verification tool

When you run the template verification tool, you are provided with a list of issues such as:
  • Data sources: Conflicts might occur if the same data source is used on different Data Source Configuration elements.
  • Data Source Configuration elements: These elements must be configured.
  • Duplicate elements: For elements such as table of tables, table of contents, and table of figures elements where there can only be one of each used in a template.
  • Script expressions: Master pages and style name properties are checked to verify that the name that is used in the script is applied to a property.
  • Cases: Variable, master page, data source, and style names are checked to verify that the cases match.
  • Region names: Checked to verify that each is unique.

See Checking for template errors for more information about using the template verification tool.


Data preview

If you specify a data source in the template or document specification, you can see a preview of the data that is included when the document is generated. By previewing the data, you can determine if issues with the output are coming from the data provider or from the template structure.

See Previewing data from the Data Source Schemas view or Previewing the data from the Document Specification view for more information.


Console view

The Console view provides short summaries of Rational Publishing Engine processes as they occur. For example, when you start the Rational Publishing Engine Document Studio, the Console view might display informational messages like:

CRRPE0321I RPE License - The license is confirmed and is valid for 300 more days.
CRRPE0282I Document Studio has started.

When documents are generated, the processing of the template elements and data from the data source occurs in two threads. The first thread is an input thread that reads data and the second thread is an output thread that processes the data. The processing of these threads is interspersed in the Console view because these input and output threads are processed concurrently.
  • Processed x input elements: The first thread generates the commands for the document generation
  • x publishing commands are processed. x publishing commands remain to be processed: The second thread publishes the commands that were generated by the input thread
x represents the number of commands that are being processed. A command consists three parts from a template element and data from the data source: one command to begin processing the element, one command for the content of the element, and one command to the end the element processing. So the number of commands is always three times more than the number of elements in the template.

The numbers of input elements and publishing commands increases and decreases during document generation because Rational Publishing Engine is designed to read as much data as it can process at one time. The input thread generates the commands faster than the output thread can publish the commands. When the first thread generates a certain number of commands, the input thread is paused until the output thread continues to publish commands. So though you might expect the numbers only to decrease as the document generation progresses, the fluctuation of numbers is evidence that Rational Publishing Engine is completing more than one process at a time.

To open the Console view, click Window > Show View > Console.

See Example: Changing the Console view character limit flag for information on adjusting the number of characters that display. See Customizing console logs for information about customizations such as changing the format of the messages that display.


Problems view

The Problems view provides a list of Rational Publishing Engine errors as they occur. For example, when you are having trouble connecting to the Central Management component, the Problems view might display errors like:

Too many errors occurred while accessing the Central Management component message.

To open the Problems view, click Window > Show View > Problems.

For more information about an error, right-click the error and select Properties. The properties for an error provide you with more information, such as which element the error is occurring on, to help you troubleshoot.


Log files

Rational Publishing Engine has two methods for viewing process information in log files, which you can use to identify issues. The first method is through the user interface log files. Issues that you encounter while designing templates and document specifications are listed in the user interface log files. The second method is through the core logs. Issues that you encounter while generating documents from the templates and document specifications are listed in the core log files. Log files for both the core and user interface processes can be used by IBM® Support to help you troubleshoot issues.
Note: The system variable RPE_HOME must be defined to read the logging configuration.

Core log files

The log files store a history of core engine related issues that occur while generating documents from templates and document specifications. You can view additional information in the core log files when you have the debugging mode preference set to Yes. See Setting the engine preferences.

The log files can be found in the temporary files for the default workspace directories for Document Studio and Launcher. For example: TEMP\RPE\rpe.log

See Customizing core log files for information about customizations such as changing the location of the log file.

User interface log files

The log files store a history of user interface related issues that occur while using Rational Publishing Engine Document Studio and Rational Publishing Engine Launcher.
The log files can be found in the application data for the default workspace directories for Document Studio and Launcher. Examples:
  • APPDATA\IBM\Rational\RPE_date\Launcher\workspace\.metadata\.log
  • APPDATA\IBM\Rational\RPE_date\Studio\workspace\.metadata\.log

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