Diagnostics earlier

[HansEverts]

Is there a reason why the Diagnostics option is only proposed after the startup phase? Why is it not immediately proposed in the list of options after a wrong start? It happened to me several times (not recently) that the database would crash again before I could reach the diagnostics button.

[Mario]

"After a wrong start" means what, exactly?

When IMatch recognizes that a database was not closed correctly (e.g. after a crash) it offers a diagnosis after loading the database. A diagnosis can only performed when the database has been loaded. If IMatch crashes while loading the database, the problem was usually a problem with restoring certain aspects of the user interface, not the database itself. In such case a reset workspace solves the problem and allows IMatch to start normally. Of course such a problem should not happen firsthand. I would need you log file from an incident to tell more about what the problem was.

[HansEverts]

From a technical point of view, I am sure you are right, but when I have a crash, I want to do the diagnostics immediately, sort of to prevent making it worse by starting again. If I understand you well, restarting before diagnostics does not present an extra risk?

[Mario]

restarting before diagnostics does not present an extra risk?

No. Opening the database triggers the automatic recovery of the database system. 'Pending' changes which were not completed are undone (the so called rollback) and this brings the database into a consistent state. Actually, a lot more technical stuff is going on in this phase.

If the database system reports that the database is healthy and in a consistent state, IMatch loads it fully and prompts the user to run a diagnosis. The diagnosis performs checks on a higher logical level, validating the hundreds of thousands of objects IMatch maintains in the database.

If opening the database fails, the damage to the database file is physical and cannot be undone (worst case). In this case IMatch does not load the database and informs the user.

None of these steps should cause any kind of crash. If you experience a crash in such a situation, I would need the application log file to see what's wrong.

[HansEverts]

That is clear, thanks.