Overview

Recorder Log Viewer allows you to view the logs recorded by Recorder installed in Standalone mode. This guide shows how to use Recorder Log Viewer.

Recorder installed in Standalone mode is useful for trial purposes. Its limitations affect the recorded logs:

• Recorded logs are stored on users' computers and are not sent to Recording Service for processing, so there are no forms in these logs. If you plan to upload logs to Timeline for trial purposes, first open your logs in the Recorder Log Viewer utility. As a result, the forms will be detected automatically and the Forms folder inside your logs will be created. Next, to upload the processed logs to Timeline, follow the instructions in the Timeline guide, see Projects, Tools, and Data Analysis > Task Mining > Data Upload > Logs upload without Recording Service.
  Important: Forms are supported in Recorder Log Viewer 6.0 and later.
• Only passwords are encrypted in text logs, other text data are not encrypted, and data in screenshots aren't blurred.

Installation

Recorder Log Viewer tool is installed with ABBYY Recorder set to the Standalone mode. For detailed information on installing and using Recorder, see ABBYY Timeline Deployment Guide on Windows systems.

Usage

Input

Recorder Log Viewer expects Recorder logs as input.

• By default, logs are stored in the %AppData%\Roaming\ABBYY\Recorder\Recorded folder.
• Recorder records user activity to a folder with a name that contains a timestamp and session number: YYYYMMDD-HH24:MI:SS-N.
  For example, 20230127-1735-0.
• In Recorder installed in the Standalone mode log folder may contain the following subfolders:
  • Screenshots - it appears during log recording and stores screenshots.
  • Commands - it appears after the recording stopped.
  • Backup and Forms - they appear after the log is opened in Recorder Log Viewer.
• Logs recorded during a new recording session are stored in a separate folder.

Main Steps

Recorder Log Viewer can typically be used in the following scenario:

• Install Recorder in the Standalone mode. For detailed instructions on installing and using Recorder, see ABBYY Timeline Deployment Guide on Windows systems.
• Run Recorder and start recording. After the recording stopped, the logs are available to view.
• Click Start > Run > ABBYY Recorder > Log Viewer to open Recorder Log Viewer.
• Click Open and select a local or network folder with logs. Note. If you try to open an invalid log folder, you will see an error: An error occurred: Folder contains no valid logs or no screenshots.
• The selected log will be open.

Workspace

The Recorder Log Viewer workspace has three main components that are immediately visible:

1. Command Bar where you access all program functions:
   • To open a log, click Open.
     When you open a log, its contents are displayed in the Session Explorer. You can open multiple logs and navigate between them using the Session Explorer.
   • To open one of the previously viewed logs, click the arrow on the Open button. The list shows you 5 recent logs that you've opened. You can open a log by clicking on its entry. If the log you want isn't on the recent logs list, click Open and browse to find the log.
   • To close all open logs, click Close All Sessions button.
2. Screenshot Viewer to see the screenshots of the recorded forms.
3. Session Explorer to navigate recording sessions of the opened logs. You can find a detailed description of the Session Explorer for different versions of the Recorder Log Viewer below.

The picture below shows the workspace of Recorder Log Viewer 6.0

Session Explorer in Recorder Log Viewer 6.0 and later

It shows each log as a separate recording session. Each recording session is represented by its node. A node contains a list of recorded form views. Each form view is a separate iteration (session) of the user's actions in an application before moving to another application.

1. Select a form view and you will see screenshots illustrating certain user actions.
2. Expand a form view to see the user actions recorded in this form. A user action consists of the following entries:
   • application
     Contains the path to the application EXE file or website URL where the user
     acted.
   • element type
     Optional element. Contains the type of item associated with the form. For
     example, the Window, Button.
   • selected menu
     Optional element. Contains the menu selected by a user in the application.
   • value / new value / old value
     Optional element. May contain encrypted copied or pasted text, URL if the event happened in the browser, and coordinates of the mouse click in the following format: x, y.
     new value and/or old value may appear if an element had a value set and a user changed it to another one.
   • key sequence
     Optional element. Contains the key a user pressed.
3. Double-click a form view to open it in the Form instance view window. You will see recorded user actions and screenshots.
4. To close all open logs, click Close All Sessions.

Session Explorer in Recorder Log Viewer 5.3 and earlier

It shows all recorded events in a session. For each event, you can see the following entries:

1. application
   Contains the path to the application EXE file or website URL where the user performed the action.
2. element type
   Optional element. Contains the type of item associated with the event. For example, the Window, Button.
3. value
   Optional element. May contain encrypted copied or pasted text, URL if the event happened in the browser, coordinates of the mouse click in the following format: x, y.

To close one of the open logs, select the session and press Delete key.