Running Switch Watchdog as a service

Note: This section is only relevant if your operating system is Microsoft Windows.

4.3.1 Switch server and Switch Watchdog

Switch offers its functionality through a number of separate applications. See Switch application components on page 11.

The Switch server runs in the background (without user interface) to execute flows, monitored and managed by the Switch Watchdog. In normal circumstances it is automatically started and terminated as needed by the Switch Designer.

4.3.2 Setting up Switch Watchdog as a Windows service

On Microsoft Windows, the Switch Watchdog can be operated as a Windows service. This allows Switch to continue processing after you have logged off from the computer. In addition, you can specify that Switch should be restarted automatically after a system failure. Running the Switch Watchdog as a Windows Service will also restart Switch when it quit unexpectedly.

Note: Are you using third party configurators in Switch? In that case it is not

recommended to set up Switch Watchdog as a Windows service. Most third party and desktop applications do not support this. Refer to Switch Service not compatible with (configurators for) desktop applications on page 64.

To set up Switch Watchdog as a Windows service, proceed as follows:

1. In Switch, navigate to Edit > Preferences > User Interface and configure the following preferences:

• Start Switch Server automatically at login = No

• When exiting the flow designer = Ensure processing is started.

This avoids that Switch is started when a user logs in to Windows. For more information, refer to Switch preferences: User interface on page 33.

2. In the Windows operating system, navigate to Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services .

If necessary, switch to "Classic View".

3. In the list of services, locate Enfocus Switch Watchdog. 4. Right-click this service and choose Properties.

5. On the General tab, choose the startup type you prefer:

• Automatic will make sure the service is started when booting your computer.

(Note that configuring this setting does not start the service; Switch Watchdog will start as soon as you reboot your computer.)

• Manual means you will have to start the service explicitly from this dialog box.

6. On the Log On tab, enter the information for the user account that should be used to run the service.

This allows Switch to get access to information saved in a specific user's preferences (such as Photoshop actions) and to use Switch data stored in the application data root (which is linked to a specific user and looks like this: C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Enfocus \Switch Server). If you want to keep using the same application data, after switching to Windows service mode, make sure to use the same user.

Also, if Switch should get access to the network (e.g. to save files), make sure the chosen user has the appropriate access rights.

7. Back on the General tab, click the Start button to launch the Switch Watchdog as a service.

4.3.3 Operating Switch as a Windows service

After you install the Switch Watchdog as a service in the installer, the Server need not to be installed as a service anymore.

At startup, the Designer checks if the watchdog is running. If the Watchdog is not running, the Designer starts the Watchdog as a background application. The Watchdog starts the Server almost immediately and the Designer connects to the Server.

Be careful though:

• When you quit the Switch Designer, you will be asked whether you want the server to keep running. If you choose No, the server will terminate.

• The Switch Designer next sends a message to the Switch Watchdog to quit.

4.3.4 Switch service and mapped drives

Microsoft Windows allows assigning a drive letter to a network computer or folder, creating a mapped drive. A mapped drive letter (such as Z) can be used in a file or folder path just like a local drive letter (such as C). But there is a catch: the drive mappings are established when a user logs in to the system - and a service is not logged in (even if it is associated with a user account).

Thus while Switch Server is running without any user logged in, it cannot access mapped drives. You must ensure that all folders and file paths in the flow definitions are local drive paths or UNC paths (of the form _{\\server\volume\directory\file) rather than mapped} drive paths. This holds for all paths including user-managed folders and references to files in configurator properties.

4.3.5 Switch Service not compatible with (configurators for)

desktop applications

Configurators that communicate with a desktop application won't work when running Switch as Windows service. This is due to a Windows limitation. Desktop applications cannot be started by a Windows Service, hence their configurators cannot be used either.

Configurators concerned • Adobe Photoshop • Adobe Illustrator • Adobe InDesign

• Adobe Acrobat Professional/Distiller

• Microsoft Office configurators (Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Powerpoint) Some background information

Since the introduction of Windows Vista, Microsoft no longer allows applications that run as a Service to interact with the desktop. This means for example that these applications cannot

show any UI to the user. As desktop applications cannot function with this limitation, their configurators do not work either.

Note: This problem does not affect Switch itself, because the Switch Watchdog (which has no UI) - and not the Switch Designer - is set up as a Windows Service.

Remark

If you want to use the configurators for desktop applications, you must run Switch as a regular process and not as a Windows service. However, in that case, you may want Switch to start

processing automatically when a user logs in. To do so, ensure that the preference Start Switch

Server automatically at login is set to Yes (See Switch preferences: User interface on page 33). Remember that a user has to log in in order to start Switch, which is not necessary when running Switch as a Windows service.