The MetaReportGenerator solution is a service application that extends the capabilities of the InterSync technology by providing e-mailed reports on various aspects of digital assets processing.
InterSync manages the digital resources (DRs) used during the production process - it ensures that the Virtual Ticket database is synchronized with the file system and updates corresponding thumbnails, extended previews, and other file metadata. Refer to the InterSync User Guide for more information on the InterSync technology.
During the intensive production cycle multiple changes occur to the contents of the production database almost every day. The reports provided by the MetaReportGenerator solution are created to assist you in analyzing daily/weekly/monthly activity and performance of your company’s production departments and to detect “weak links” in the production cycle.
The solution combines three types of reports generated at regular intervals for a particular production database:
The generated reports are automatically sent to the e-mail address set for the VT Administrator for a particular Virtual Ticket database.
When analyzing the reports, the following circumstances should be taken into consideration:
Before installing this solution, make sure that you have InterSync installed, configured, and running.
To install the MetaReportGenerator solution:
The reports comprised in the solution are implemented as SQL Server Agent jobs associated with a particular database. By default, every VT database has a "helper" MetaSQLMail job scheduled to run every minute to check for e-mails that need to be sent. The solution utilizes the MetaSQLMail job to send the reports via e-mail.
To set up the MetaReportGenerator solution for a particular database.
Additionally, check if all the jobs, including the MetaSQLMail job, are enabled.
As the contents of the production database updates constantly, it may become of particular importance for your company to monitor changes occurring in the database within a given time span.
The information provided by the report is organized in a table, each row of which represents one of the directories (working scopes) set for InterSync. The report is called to be an indication system that presents its information using the following color scheme for cells of the table:
Based on the changes made to the specified directories of the file system, the FileSystem Service generates a list of added and updated DRs ("events", if using the IterSync terminology) to be processed by the MetaData Service and/or Associator. Refer to the MetaCommunications Management Console Guide and to the InterSync User Guide for more information on the InterSync and Associator technologies.
The "Processed Events" column of the report contains the events that have been successfully processed by the MetaData Service and/or Associator since the previous report has been generated (within a time span specified by the MetaReportGenerator "Standard Report" job schedule).
The "Ready Events" column groups DRs that are awaiting their turn to be processed by the MetaData Service and/or Associator at the moment of the report generation.
The "Failed Events" column contains the events that have not been processed properly by the the MetaData Service and/or Associator to the moment of the report generation.
The "Delete Events" column shows the number of DRs that have been requested to be deleted but still await their turn to be finally removed from the database.
For every specified directory, the "Total Drs" column contains the total number of DRs stored in the database.
The color scheme used in this report allows you to quickly analyze the current situation considering that "Processed Events" are colored in green, "Ready Events" - in yellow, "Failed Events" - in red.
When analyzing this report consider applying the following heuristic:
The File Types report gives you a general overview of the thumbnailing process, which is the most time-consuming and error-prone stage of the DRs processing. As DRs are added/updated in the file system, new thumbnails/extended previews are automatically generated for them.
Every particular file type registered in the Virtual Ticket system has a set of thumbnailing methods attached to it. This report allows you to quickly get a notion of what thumbnailing methods are used for what file types.
All DRs recorded in the database are distributed among the table rows that represent the file types. In its turn, every row of the table consists of the "Thumbnailing methods" cells that are arranged to reflect the order in which thumbnailing methods are applied to generate thumbnails/extended previews for a particular file type:
Every “Thumbnailing methods” cell contains the number of DRs that have thumbnails/extended previews generated using the method stated in the cell. Each time the report is issued, it reflects the current state of the production database.
To better distinguish the “Sample” and “Get Preview” thumbnailing methods from all others, the cells representing them are put in frames.
When analyzing numbers in the "Thumbnailing methods" columns of this report, the rule of thumb is that the numbers in the leftmost column should be much bigger than the numbers in the other columns. This indicates for a particular file type that the prevailing number of the thumbnails/extended previews have been generated using the preferred thumbnailing method.
Also, consider knowing the details of you company’s workflow when analyzing this report. It may be necessary to configure some graphic applications (for example, Photoshop) to save previews for particular file types so that the “Get Preview” thumbnailing method is able to extract previews properly.
Additionally, in each row of the table the "Thumbnailing Pending" cell shows the number of DRs awaiting their turn to be processed, the "Thumbnailing in Process" cell contains the number of DRs being processed at the moment, and the "Thumnailing Failed" cell represents the number of DRs which thumbnails have not been successfully generated to the moment of report issuing. One of the typical reasons for “Failed” thumbnails to appear is corrupted files.
To search for files that have thumbnails generated using a particular thumbnailing method, use the search feature of the Virtual Ticket application.
Your company database holds information that is of vital importance to your company. In order to ensure the safety of the information contained in that database, it is important to back up the database at regular intervals.
The purposes of the Backup report are:
The report has two sections: the Backup Status info line and the Database File Sizes table.
If the last full backup of the database happened more than 24 hours ago, the backup status line displays a red "Warning" instead of a green "Info" line.
The Database File Sizes table allows you to monitor the sizes of data files (containing tables, indexes, etc.) and transaction log files. Normally, the full database backup results in shrinkage of the database transaction log which is the main source of hard disk space consumption. If the backup procedure is not configured properly the transaction log file may grow until it fills all the available space on the disks holding the physical log files. Always remember to store backup files in a safe location, for example, an organized rotation of backup tapes to and from an off-site storage facility.