When a converter is expected to run, but doesn't it is usually because of one of two
causes:
- The converter was not triggered because the rule to trigger it was not matched
- the converter failed to execute properly
In the case of a converter not being triggered, this is usually an issue when either the
Type-In or the filter are not the same as the source document being enqueued. Be sure to check
that the converter has the correct configuration and that the server providing the source
document is specifying the correct document type.
When a converter fails to execute properly, there is usually an error message recorded for
the URL. Checking the crawler logs will provide a detailed error message. Common error
messages encountered in converters are:
- XPath errors - When XSL converters attempt to access data at invalid XPaths, the
XSL parser will return an error indicating which line the error occurred on.
- Execution Exceptions - When external converters fail to execute properly, the
conversion framework will record the command line used and the error message returned. To
test an external converter, copy the command used to execute it into a command line terminal
and execute it outside of Watson Explorer Engine. This will usually highlight if the problem
was caused by Watson Explorer Engine, or the converter itself.