weird Switch error when creating name for Quite Hot Imposing control file name

tz8 · Post by **tz8** » Tue Apr 23, 2013 2:50 pm

Hey,

we're using Quite Hot Imposing in a workflow where we use a script expression to chose the control file for Quite Hot Imposing. In about 3-5% of the orders single PDF files fail with the following error and land in the problem jobs folder:

4/22/13 7:24 PM,Error,Hot Imposing,imposing_workflow,Single Imposing,0BE62,i_204x150_G_dp170g-white_S_024_19x.pdf,Dynamic property 'control' has invalid value '/SWITCHFILES/sequences/i_hc_sc_204x150.xml'

When i simply click 'retry jobs' it works.

Apart from "WTF?" i don't have a clue where to search for a solution... anyone?

Thorsten

caio · Post by **caio** » Wed Apr 24, 2013 5:10 pm

Hi,

In the script expression what is the condition of that Hot Quite sequence?

caio

tz8 · Post by **tz8** » Fri Apr 26, 2013 2:46 pm

i don't really understand the question...

in the script expression i am taking metadata fields to create the filename of the control file (see above). If you take the path given from the error message and open this exact path it actually finds the control file.

Why exactly quite thinks that the control file is _not_ there is out of my understanding... as i said, a simple 'retry job' solves the problem

carineb · Post by **carineb** » Thu May 02, 2013 11:56 am

Hi,

I notice you've posted this question last week and was wondering if you've already reached out to the Quite Software support team for help?

Crossroads partners provide support for their configurators and you can find the contact details for each one of them on their configurator page. For Quite Hot that would be this page: http://www.crossroads-world.com/en/home ... 20imposing

These Crossroads partners have dedicated access to the Enfocus support team in case they'd need a hand to get to the bottom of the issue and find a solution.

Hope this helps you to get a solution to this issue.

Kind regards,

Carine

tz8 · Post by **tz8** » Thu May 02, 2013 2:55 pm

forwarded the problem to Quite... curious if they will simply blame you instead

carineb · Post by **carineb** » Fri May 03, 2013 4:24 pm

Hi Thorsten,

As Quite knows their software and their configurator best, they are best placed to help you out in an efficient way.

I hope they'll be able to help you out, however if you'd feel we should be involved in a certain stage, do not hesitate to contact our priority support team on the coordinates you'll find in your Switch maintenance contract!

Enjoy your weekend,

Carine

tz8 · Post by **tz8** » Mon May 06, 2013 10:55 pm

Update:

as i expected, they think that the problem is a switch problem! And today i tested some more with failed jobs: if i retry a job it gets thrown in the folder element _before_ the Quite element. I don't know exactly when and where the script expression is executed (i would expect on 'incoming job') but the job also fails in the folder element before the Quite element (see error message above).

I will give the Enfocus Support a call tomorrow

dkelly · Post by **dkelly** » Tue May 07, 2013 3:47 am

The message "Dynamic property" is generated by Switch. 'control' is one of the properties that the Quite configurator defines. This value probably gets passed directly to the application using the '-control' argument. The script expression is called when the configuator starts to process the file (jobArrived).

tz8 · Post by **tz8** » Tue May 07, 2013 12:23 pm

the question remains: who thinks that the path being calculated is an 'invalid value' and what exactly makes it invalid? And why is it valid when i retry the job a minute later?

dkelly · Post by **dkelly** » Tue May 07, 2013 3:35 pm

Based on what I said above I would say it's a Switch problem. Can you add a job.log() to your script expression to show what it is returning? Also, does it fail if you return the same string everytime (just for testing)?

tz8 · Post by **tz8** » Tue May 28, 2013 2:09 pm

just wanted to keep you in the loop on the development here:

We updated to update 4 last week and yesterday we wanted to test the new feature of creating connections out of the ""submit hierarchy" element - and it didn't work!? Wondering why this would happen i checked the running version and it was: still 11 update 1. After some "WTF?" we found that the external partner who installed Switch on the MAC last year actually changed the Application path (doh!) and therefore we had 2 Switch installations in place. One update 1 as default and one update 4.

After getting rid of the deprecated installation and making update 4 the default one the error message changed to become a little bit cleaner:

Operation: Dynamic property 'control/SWITCHFILES/customer/quite_sequences/customer_u_hc_297x210.xml' has invalid value ''

it seems that somehow the result of the script expression is sometimes being added to the property and not into the value field.

As always, simply retrying the job works like a charm.

Curious at what Enfocus support will find out now

tz8 · Post by **tz8** » Thu May 30, 2013 9:22 pm

and some hot news on the development of the bug hunting:

the plan of how the configurator works was apparently that Switch is using the Quite Hot Engine to first check the result of the script expression.

The expected output would be something like this:

Switch1:MacOS thorsten$ ./Quite Hot Engine -utility controlfileinfo

/SWITCHFILES/customer/quite_sequences/customer_i_hc_297x210.xml

Command is: Define bleeds

Provided by: Quite Imposing Plus 2.0d

Command options:

Range: all pages

Request: bleed all round 8.50 points

Bleed area is outside visible: no

Command is: Shuffle pages for imposition

Provided by: Quite Imposing Plus 2.0d

Command options:

Group size: 2

Shuffle type: Normal, or perfect bound

Rule: 1< X X 2>

Command is: N-up pages

Provided by: Quite Imposing Plus 2.0d

Command options:

Create a new document

Trim unused space from sheets: no

Allow pages to be scaled: no

Margins: left 39.69, top 34.02, right 0.00, bottom 0.00 points

Horizontal spacing (points): 34.0157

Vertical spacing (points): 0

Crop style 1, width 0.30, length 8.50, distance 5.67 (points)

Add frames around each page: no

Sheet size: 18.110 x 12.598 inches / 460.0 x 320.0 mm

Sheet orientation: wide

Layout: rows 1 down, columns 2 across

Align: top left

Switch1:MacOS thorsten$ echo $?

0

But funny enough the output was _always_

Switch1:MacOS thorsten$ ./Quite Hot Engine -utility controlfileinfo

/SWITCHFILES/customer/quite_sequences/customer_i_hc_297x210.xml

Switch1:MacOS thorsten$ echo $?

2

and when i mean always i mean always. Quite confirmed that it was an error in the software since Version 1. The "-utility controlfileinfo" always returned 2, it was simply broken. So i got a new version of Quite Hot Imposing which fixed the error and we hoped that Switch would now have no more problems evaluating the script result.

And now the spin: if Quite actually never returned the expected "0" then why does the script expression only fails from time to time? It seems(!) that Switch is not checking the result _every_ time - a behavior i find 'mildly' disturbing! This is not how computer programs should react...

Let's wait for Enfocus to try to shed some light on this.

dkelly · Post by **dkelly** » Thu May 30, 2013 10:16 pm

Based on the configurators behavior it appears that it is NOT looking at the return code for '-utility controlfileinfo'. Instead it appears to be examining whether or not stderr stream contained anything (not empty).

Try this command to redirect stderr to a file.

$ ./Quite Hot Engine -utility controlfileinfo /SWITCHFILES/customer/quite_sequences/customer_i_hc_297x210.xml 2> stderr.txt

tz8 · Post by **tz8** » Thu May 30, 2013 11:06 pm

exactly my thought! But i can't test the 'old' Quite Hot Engine anymore... anyone with a latest version (3.0e?) Quite Hot Imposing who could test it?