The Messages overview

This topic describes the Messages overview. You can open this overview in different ways:

Through the Switch Web Portal.
By clicking the Messages button in the toolbar of the Switch Designer. Alternatively, you can press F6 or select View > Messages .

Buttons and menus

The table below explains the meaning of the main buttons, labels, icons and menus in the Messages overview.

Button/menu	Description
	Shows the name of the user that logged in. If you click the icon , you'll get a menu where you can change the language and sign out as required. See Changing the language of the Switch Web Portal. Note: If you open the Messages overview from within Switch, this option is not available. In that case, the Messages overview is displayed in the language of the Switch Designer.
	Opens a menu with the following options: Wrap text: Moves text that does not fit on one line (because the column is too small) to the next line (instead of cutting it off). Columns: Allows you to show or hide columns as required (and afterwards reset them as required). Export messages: Allows you to export the filtered log messages to a .csv file. You can either open the file or save it locally. Clear messages: Allows you to remove all log messages from the log database. Note that there is no undo for this action!
	If you click a column header, the sort and filter options are displayed. For most columns, you can change the sort order (A-Z or Z-A) and/or set a filter (e.g. only display the messages of the last x hour(s)/day(s), only the ones that contain a certain string, ...). See also Filtering log messages.
	The applied filters are listed in the white space above the column headers. In this example, the dark blue label indicates that the messages are sorted by the values in the Type column, from A-Z (ascending). The light blue label indicates that only the messages triggered by "new flow 1" are shown.
autorefresh	Allows you to refresh the page automatically, to always have an up-to-date overview. When turned on (default), the button is blue; when turned off, the button is gray. You can enable this option only if the sort order of the "Time" column is set to "Descending (Z-A)". If you change the sort order, the autorefresh option is disabled automatically.

Columns

The following table describes the columns in the Messages overview.

Remember that you can hide columns as required via the icon in the top right corner . It's also possible to resize the columns and to move them to another position (by dragging them sideways).

The Reset view option sets the columns to their default position and size and makes them all visible. This option is also accessible via the context menu of the Messages view.

Column	Description
Time	Date and time when the message was triggered.
Type	Message type, indicating the severity level of the message (error, warning, info, debug or assert). See also the table below (Message types).
Module	The Switch module (such as Control) or type of flow element (such as folder) that triggered the message.
Flow	The name of the flow that triggered the message.
Element	The name of the flow element that triggered the message.
Prefix	The unique name prefix of the job referred to in the message, or blank if there is no unique name prefix.
Job	The name of the job for which this message was issued.
Message	The message itself.

Message types

The following table describes the different types of messages that can appear in the Type column of the Messages overview.

Type	Description
Info	An informational message that has no other purpose than to inform the user of a certain occurrence. Info messages are always shown in the Messages overview (unless a filter is applied). The Messages overview displays all types of info messages (related to Switch Server and to Switch Designer).
Warning	A warning message that informs the user of a recoverable problem or non-fatal error. Warnings are always shown (in orange) in the Messages overview (unless a filter is applied).
Error	An error message that informs the user of a fatal error. Errors are always shown (in red) in the Messages overview (unless a filter is applied).
Debug	An informational message solely intended for debugging purposes (often generated by configurators). Debug messages are not shown by default. If the Log debug messages* preference is enabled*, you can display them using a filter. Refer to Switch Preferences: Logging.
Assert	A message solely intended for debugging purposes that is issued only when a coding error is discovered. Assert messages are not shown by default. If the Log debug messages* preference is enabled*, you can display them using a filter. Refer to Refer to Switch Preferences: Logging.

Note: Scripters have access to all messages, to be able to debug their scripts.