Native API Snapshot

The C and C++ PayDrApi.dll is capable of creating a snapshot containing run related information as well as the last X number of message buffers. The data is written to file in a binary format. It can also be written to a separate file in formatted ASCII where the filename is same as the binary dump file with the FMT extension. This can be done either at the time of the snapshot or at any time using the APITest_Cmd utility.

To execute the dump enter ex PD_DUMP on the XP’s console. PD_DUMP is case sensitive. Each time the snapshot occurs it overwrites the previous dump files.

PayDrApi sets up an array of buffers on the initialize request message and uses them in a round robin fashion. The buffer array from the previous run is released back to the operating system and a new one is allocated, which allows for the tester to make changes in the configuration file between runs without shutting down the XP.

There are several configuration parameters which facilitate creation of the snapshot.

MessageBufferCount: Default is 8. Specifies the number of buffers in array. The range is 1 to unknown. The upper limit has not been defined.
Note: The results of setting this too high causes failures in unpredictable ways because the buffers are allocated from heap memory. If set extremely high, it would show up during initialization time as a failure to start up. If however it is set high enough to pass the initialization, it may fail during the run because heap is dynamic and there may not be enough to satisfy a request. This is why it is unpredictable as to how it may fail.

The next set of parameters controls the snapshot dump.

DumpFileName: The default file name is dump.log. The default path is the same as the main configuration file.
DumpRetainInitMsg: Retains the buffer that processed the initialize request message no matter how many documents are run. The default is off.
DumpTrigger_Term: Automatically writes the snapshot at terminate. On the sorter, this also occurs on subsequent initialize requests. The default is off.
DumpFmtFileToo: Normally the binary file is dumped with a LOG extension. This option also writes the formatted version (.fmt). The default is off.

Example settings:

MessageBufferCount  64
DumpFileName        c:\Sorter\MyDump.log
DumpRetainInitMsg   yes
DumpTrigger_Term    on
DumpFmtFileToo      on