Day to Day

What are the day to day activities of the touch table? For the most part, the touch table is pretty sustainable, but there are a few things to keep in mind.

Turning it on: Currently, this is the job of exhibits, who should turn on the touch table each morning.

Starting the App: Once the computer starts, a shell script (runGZTable.bat) starts and keeps the touch table app running. This means, if the app ever crashes or fails for whatever reason, the app will reopen after it is closed. This keeps visitors from playing around on the table. If you ever need to do work on the table, you can always connect a keyboard, press with "Windows" key and minimize the app to do any work you need to do or close the shell script and then the GZTouchTable app.

Logs: This is the only real "maintenance" that needs to be done on the table. Whenever the app starts, a new log file is created and stored in the computers Documents folder. Once a month I take these files and move them to a shared Google folder called "Logs" within a broader "Evaluation" folder. The "Evaluation" folder contains info used by external evaluators. This link points to the "Logs" folder where the logs should be placed. You need to log in using your Adler/Zooniverse Google account to access this folder.

Note: At some point, it's probably possible that the computer could get filled up with a ton of logs, so it's important to transfer these and delete them so they don't clog up the file system.

Turning it off: Currently, this is the job of exhibits, who should turn off the touch table each evening. Previously the touch table was set to turn off automatically at 4pm or 6pm (depending on the season) -- see the Windows Task Scheduler to see if or when the touch table is currently set to turn off.

Event Logs (Troubleshooting): Sometimes, whenever Sentry sends me an error, I'll open the Windows Event Viewer, where I can see a list of every program running as well as those that have crashed. If the app crashed, you can go to Windows Logs -> Application, where you should find the app listed aside a red X which contains some information about the crash.