Better failure messages

[Sparky (Dave Sparks)]

@L4ZZA

That link only sends you to the collapsible log which is not easy enough to read.

We agree and have lots of plans to improve the build log, including showing an error view. Note that as of v1.8.1.682 the latest error message is shown in the build log at the end of each failed action.

We also have shorter term plans to add expressions which you can use to extract error messages from the log file.

@L4ZZA

Is there a way to tell CI what name to give to the log file so that it can be associated with the build “name” instead of have them all named as “log.txt”?
The ideal solution would be to include the custom build identifier we set to the configuration variable %BuildIdentifier% .

I’m not sure why you would need to do this. The log.txt file is already in a folder associated the build. The workspace folder is unique to the build and ends with the build number.

You can use the Copy action to copy it to another folder and a Rename action to rename it. You can use the expression $Build.BuildNumber$ in the New Name field to the Rename action to identify the build. If you put these actions under a Catch action, then they will run when the stage fails.

@L4ZZA

Is there an API to communicate to CI via scripting language (i.e. Python, C#, Lua, etc.)

We have been working on a Rest API, but this is currently on hold until we can convert the code base to .net core. You can run external programs, PowerShell scripts or FinalBuilder scripts from build actions to read and parse the log file.

@L4ZZA

As for the update, we’re relatively small company but with slower processes than a corporate and I don’t think the update will happen any time soon…

We are also a small company. Our processes are fast but with have a large feature list to implement. Note that you’ll need to upgrade to take advantage of any new features that we implement based on your requests.