Challenges

When collecting data, its size is the biggest challenge. Even though the folders "backing" and "ProblemFiles" are skipped as user's jobs are not included in data collection, the size of the data may still be big. This is because the .db3 files may be a few GB in size and the jobtickets may be a 100MB or more. As all these files allow a high level of compression, the zipped package will be smaller by 5 or 10 times when compared to the original size.

In order to address the challenge posed by the data size,

Users are allowed to select parts of the data they want to include in the zip package with the help of checkboxes.
The progress user interface provides information on what data is being included/ compressed in the zip package at a given moment.
Users can stop the data collection process if it is consuming too much time, with the "Abort" functionality.
Users can utilize the PitStop Connector to send the zip package to the Enfocus Support team.

Exporting .sflow

".sflow" is created by the Server only upon request. Flows in Switch installation are a combination of XML and Property sets in various folders. When a user chooses "Export" in Designer UI, the XML and Property sets are combined in .sflow by Server. The logic is difficult to extract outside Server and it is also important to have the tool as an independent application to enable data collection even when Switch is not launched anymore.

Therefore the tool exists in two places: as a functional part of Designer and also as a standalone executable.

The standalone Wizard is called SwitchDataCollector.exe or SwitchDataCollector.app. The standalone Wizard is added into Switch installers (both on Mac and Windows) and can be found near Designer executable/bundle.

The tool is implemented as a wizard. The wizard is placed in a separate library which is used by both the designer and the external executable. When the wizard is invoked from Designer UI (by a menu item) it works in extended mode and allows exporting .sflows. When it is invoked from standalone executable, it does not allow creating ".sflow". It collects raw flow XMLs and Property sets.