Debugging Connector Problems

Watson™ Explorer Engine connectors can be divided into two general types:

• Curl connectors
• Java connectors

Curl connectors are those connectors that use the Watson Explorer Engine internal implementation of libcurl to retrieve data from an external resource. If you encounter a problem crawling a URL with the HTTP, HTTPS or file protocol, they're probably using libcurl. To test these URLs, use the `curl` binary in the bin directory of the Watson Explorer Engine installation from the command line. This will give you a simple test to see if there is an issue retrieving the requested document outside of the Watson Explorer Engine connector framework.

Java connectors use proprietary Watson Explorer Engine libraries built to query remote systems for documents. Enabling connector debug logging will provide excellent information into the scope of a problem. Because the connectors are meant to be used within Watson Explorer Engine -- there isn't a way to execute them outside of a Watson Explorer Engine search collection. There may be information available in the logs of the remote system.