InterSync Plug-in

Note: InterSync is available only to customers who use Digital Storage Manager or Virtual Ticket with Digital Storage Manager. If you do not use either of these, you can skip this section of the guide.

The InterSync Plug-in for the MetaCommunications Management Console allows you to:

Review up-to-date information about each event service that has registered itself in the database - including the name and location of the service (e.g. File System Service*.*My_Server), the date and time of the last service configuration change, the date and time of the last service activity, the service index, the current status, and the number of digital resources being processed by the service.

View a detailed list of the digital resources being processed by each handler. For each in-process digital resource, the InterSync Plug-in displays the digital resource ID, file location, file name, file size, MetaData Service status, and the event type (added, deleted, or updated) of the most recent event detected for the file.

For each service type (e.g. File System Service, Digital Resources Deleter), view the number of events that have each event status (for example, Ready, Done, Failed) registered in the database for that handler type.

View a detailed list of events that have a particular event status for a particular handler type, including, for each event, the event ID, event type (addition, deletion, or modification), date and time the event was added to the event queue, the digital resource ID, file location, file name, type of the most recent event detected for the file, and the event’s status for the MetaData Service handler type.

Set event statuses. This useful feature allows you to, for example, force the MetaData Service to reprocess events for which a previous processing attempt has failed by resetting the event status from ‘Failed’ to ‘Ready’.

note: For information about the installation, configuration, and components of the InterSync technology, please refer to the InterSync User Guide. The remainder of this chapter will presume that the reader is familiar with the components and operation of the InterSync technology.

Switching to the InterSync Plug-in

Switching to the InterSync Plug-in for a particular database

1. Enable the InterSync Plug-in, if not enabled (Refer to “Specifying Management Console Plug-ins” on page 11 for more information).
2. Click the InterSync tab. The console will switch to the InterSync Plug-in tab.

note: The remainder of this chapter will assume that the Management Console is open and that the InterSync Plug-in is displayed for the appropriate database within the Management Console.

The Registered Services Listing

At the top of the InterSync tab is the Registered Services Listing. This listing details each InterSync Service which has registered itself in the database, including the following information for each:

Service Name - The service name is in the format <Server>.<Service Type>, where <Server> is the location on the network from which the service is attaching to the database and <Service Type> is the class of event services to which the particular service belongs (for example, My_Server.File System Service, My_Server.MetaData Service).

Last Configuration Change - This is the date and time of the last change made to the service’s configuration. An example of a service configuration change is a folder being added to the File System Service’s list of synchronized folders for the database.

Last Activity - This is the date and time of the last service activity - for example, the File System Service detecting a file server event, or the MetaData Service thumbnailing a file.

Service Index - This is an ID number unique to the service.

Current SPID - The SPID is the SQL Server process ID number assigned by SQL Server to each new connection. This ID number allows multiple MetaData Services to operate on the same volume and ensures that two or more MetaData Services do not attempt to process the same digital resource at the same time.

DRs In Processing - This is the number of digital resources currently being processed by the service. Clicking on this column for a service displays detailed event information. For more information on this feature, please refer to the “Viewing the Digital Resources Being Processed by a Handler” section below.

note: The File System Service detects file server events, and does not actually process them. For this reason, the service index and current SPID columns for all File System Service handlers will be blank, and the number in the DRs In Processing column will be zero.

Viewing the Digital Resources Being Processed by a Handler

Clicking on the DRs In Processing column in the Event Activity listing of the InterSync Plug-in allows one to view detailed information about the digital resources being processed by a particular handler. This information includes the digital resource ID, file location, file name, file size, MetaData Service status, and the event type of the most recent event detected for the file.

Viewing the digital resources being processed by a handler

1. In the Registered Services listing of the InterSync Plug-in*, click the DRs In* Processing column for the appropriate service. The bottom of the InterSync Plug-in will display a detailed list of the digital resources that are currently being processed by that service.
2. Review the digital resource information displayed in the bottom part of the InterSync Plug-in. The information displayed for each digital resource includes the following:

Digital Resource ID - This is the ID of the digital resource record in the Digital Storage Manager or Virtual Ticket with Digital Storage Manager system. If the ID number is displayed in red, the digital resource record has been deleted since the addition of the event to the event queue.

File Location, File Name, Server Name - These show the location and name of the digital resource. For example, for the file My_Server/My_Volume/My_Subfolder/Sample.jpg, the File Location is “My_Volume/My_Subfolder”, the File Name is “Sample.jpg”, and the Server Name is “My_Server”.

File Type - This is the system file type of the file/folder: for example, Folder, BMP, Text, Unknown.

note: For more information on the file types supported by the system, please refer to the “Setting Up File Types” section of the Virtual Ticket Administrator online Help.

File Size - This is the size of the digital resource, in kilobytes. If the digital resource is a folder, its size will be listed as -1.

MDS Status - This provides information about the status of the event for the MetaData Service handler type.

Last Event Type - This is the type of the most recent event detected by the File System Service for the digital resource.

Handler SPID - This is the SPID of the handler. As mentioned previously, SPIDs are the SQL Server process ID numbers assigned by SQL Server to each connection, and are used to ensure that multiple handlers of the same handler type do not attempt to process the same digital resource at the same time.

The Digital Resources Processing Activity Listing

The Digital Resources Processing Activity listing, displayed in the middle third of the InterSync tab, details the state of the database’s event queue. In the rows of the listing are each of the service types registered in the database. The columns of the listing represent each event status registered for one or more service types in the database (for example, there are four event statuses registered for the MetaData Service handler type: Ready, Processing Started, Done, and Failed). Each entry of the Event Activity listing displays the number of events that have the event status specified by the column for the handler type specified by the row (if the entry is “n/a”, the event status is not registered for the service type).

note: Because the File System Service detects file server events and adds them to the database’s event queue, and does not actually process them, there are no event statuses registered for the File System Service handler type. The File System Service handler type therefore does not appear in the Events Activity listing.

Viewing Events and Setting Event Statuses for a service Type

Clicking on entries in the Ready, Done, or Failed columns of the Digital Resources Processing Activity listing allows you to view detailed information about processing events. The event list also allows you to change event statuses. This is useful when, for example, you wish to force the MetaData Service to attempt to reprocess a file/folder for which a previous processing attempt has failed.

Viewing events and setting event statuses for a handler type

1. In the Digital Resources Processing Activity list, click the entry for the appropriate handler type with the appropriate event status.

The bottom of the InterSync Plug-in will display a detailed list of the events that have the specified status for the specified handler.

note: Digital Resources Deleter is one of the handler types listed in the Events Activity listing. The Digital Resources Deleter is responsible for removing digital resources from the system (including references to the digital resource from job tickets) after the system has been instructed to delete them.

1. Review the Event Activity list displayed in the bottom part of the InterSync Plug-in. The information displayed for each event includes the following:

Event ID - This is the event’s unique ID.

Event Status - There are four possible event statuses: added (a file/folder was added to the file server), updated (a file/folder has been updated on the file server), deleted (a file/folder has been removed from the file server), and reprocess (the file/folder has been reprocessed).

Date and Time - These are the date and time, respectively, when the event was added to the database’s event queue.

Digital Resource ID - This is the ID of the digital resource record in the system. If the ID number is displayed in red, the digital resource record has been deleted since the addition of the event to the event queue.

File Location, File Name, Server Name - These show the location and name of the physical file/folder in which the event has been detected. For example, for the file My_Server/My_Volume/My_Subfolder/Sample.jpg, the File Location is “My_Volume/My_Subfolder”, the File Name is “Sample.jpg”, and the Server Name is “My_Server”.

File Type - This is the Digital Storage Manager/Virtual Ticket with Digital Storage Manager system file type of the file/folder: for example, Folder, BMP, Text, Unknown.

Last Event - This is the type of the most recent event detected for the file/folder referenced by the event. For example, if a large batch of files were added at one time and one of the files were updated before its ‘added’ event could be processed, the ‘added’ event would have ‘updated’ in the Last Event column.

MDS Status - This provides information about the status of the event for the MetaData Service handler type.

1. OPTIONAL: To change the event status of a subset of the displayed events, select the appropriate events, then click the appropriate ‘Set to <Status>’ button. To select an event, check the checkbox in the ‘Set’ column for the event; to select all displayed events, check the ‘Apply to All’ checkbox. After the event statuses are changed, the numbers in the Event Activity listing will be updated.

note: The ability to change event statuses is not available for all handler types, and events of a particular status cannot necessarily be changed to those of another status. One of the handler types for which statuses may be set is the MetaData Service handler type. The four MetaData Service statuses may be changed to other statuses as shown in the figure below.