Logging Options

AutoMate maintains a log file that documents various events and messages.  These options set the frequency and verbosity of these events, and how they are formatted when written to the log file.

Log Events To
Directs where events generated by AutoMate will be logged to.  This setting is available only on Windows NT/2000/XP.  On Windows 98/ME/SE, events are always sent to a text file.  Options for Windows NT/2000/XP are :


Windows Event Log
Events are sent to the Windows Event Log.  The event log can usually be found in the Administrative Tools Folder from the Windows Control Panel.

Text File
Events are sent to a text file as defined by the Task Log File Path (see below).  Note that this option is selected by default on Windows 98/ME/SE systems. The text file log can be viewed by clicking the Log button from the AutoMate Task Admnistrator,

Event Log and Text File
Events are sent to both the Windows Event Log and the text file as defined by the Task Log File Path.  

Log Errors
Errors will be written to the log file.  This includes errors caused by failed tasks, and system level errors.

Log Warnings
Log warning information to the log file.  Warnings usually indicate a setting or condition that should be brought to the user's attention for some reason.  However, sometimes warnings offer superfluous information that can be safely ignored once it has been examined.

Log Brief Information
Log information when it is presented in "brief" format.  Brief messages include a events of an informational nature that may occur repeatedly while AutoMate is running, such as a task starting or ending successfully.

Log Verbose Information
Log extended events and information to the log.  Usually this is the same information that is sent to the Debug window of the Task Builder.  While very helpful for debugging tasks in a runtime environment, this option shoul be left off in most other situations as can result in a very large, cluttered log file.

Add date-time
Adds a datetime stamp before each event indicating what day and time the event occurred.
 When selected, the datetime format can also be specified by the user, using the following placeholders:

mm - month
dd - day
yy - year (in two digit format)
yyyy - year (in four digit format)
hh - hour
nn - minutes
ss - seconds

Task log file path
The location of the task file.  This must be a valid path and filename.

Limit log file size to:
When selected, the log file will never exceed the size (in kilobytes) specified.  If the task file becomes larger than the maximum size, older events are removed until enough room is made available for new events.