AutoCrat merge stops/get's stuck with "Starting at..."

[ric...@zbulo.org]

AutoCrat regularly gets stuck merging a smaller number of rows.

• Upon form submission AutoCrat should merge 10-30 rows.
• There are three templates, each only a few KB heavy. 
• The templates that get stuck 5-10 merge fields of text, no images in either file.

I could reproduce the issue on every run. With the above 17 rows of sample data, it got stuck the first time after 10 rows, the second after 13.

Afterwards I deleted the MergeStatus column of those stuck and run AutoCrat manually on the remaining 4. After 3 it got stuck once more saying "Something is wrong. This should not be taking this long :(" 

Any best practices to prevent AutoCrat from getting stuck?

Thanks,
Ricardo

[Joseph Schmidt]

Are you changing the first row of data?  The way to control which rows get used is either by a filter in the setup or putting something in the status column.

Autocrat will not process a row with anything in the status column.  You need to delete the values in the status column if you want the rows to be processed.

I believe a form or time trigger will process all rows.

Joe Schmidt

 GLUA...@gmail.com

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[ric...@zbulo.org]

Hello Joe, this time I'm not following. ;)

Upon form submission the 

• Status columns are cleared by Google Script.
• A filter formula loads the rows.
• AutoCrat jobs are triggered,  a conditional column determines which template is used.
• While AutoCrat runs data is not being changed.

The first job that completes fine. Thus I would exclude delays in loading data as a potential culprit. 

The second job starts much later and gets stuck for reasons I cannot explain.

After the second job got stuck, I deleted the status column and started the job manually from the addon menu. Yet, it got stuck again. :s

Thanks!

[Christopher Johnston]

I  am also having this same issue.

Approximately 20 reports a day and 3 or 4 start merging but don't complete. I can not figure out why as if I go in and delete the status row and manually run one at a time it works fine.

Why does this happen? 

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[Joseph Schmidt]

• AutoCrat jobs are triggered,  a conditional column determines which template is used.

I'm confused by the above.  All merge jobs will run using the template that was used when the merge was created.  Do you mean that a filter in each merge controls which rows will be processed by that merge.

There is nothing in Autocrat that will make it wait until the script is finished.  I have seen where a script is used to modify the data and a time trigger is used for the Autocrat jobs.

Even though I'm confused if a merge doesn't run manually then there is something wrong with the data or the merge times out with the six minute limit.  

Does the merge always get stuck on the same row?  What do you mean by stuck?  Is there any error messages?

Joe Schmidt

 GLUA...@gmail.com

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[Brian Cheek]

I am having the same problem.  For example, I ran a job, and there were 3 records to be merged.  The first one did fine and completed, but the next two had the "Starting at..." in the status column and nothing else happened.

[Joseph Schmidt]

If you remove the "starting ..." from the status column of the rows that don't process and try again, do they run?

I suspect something in the data or filters.

Joe Schmidt

 GLUA...@gmail.com

New Visions Blog Entry - Joe Schmidt

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[Christopher Johnston]

Yes they run but have to do 1 or 2 at a time. 

As they run that time it tells us that there is nothing wrong with the data. 

Any ideas for a resolve.

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[Joseph Schmidt]

I would agree that if they run manually they should run on a trigger.  How many merge tags do you have?  What happens when they don't run?  Any clues?  

Can you share a copy of the spreadsheet and template that is failing with glua...@gmail.com?  I need edit rights.

Joe Schmidt

 GLUA...@gmail.com

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[ric...@zbulo.org]

Joe, I just shared my spreadsheet. 

As mentioned above 5-10 text merge tags. On automatic trigger they get stuck with "Starting at...", with manual run "Something is wrong. This should not be taking this long :(" 

The rows vary, it's never the same, something it goes through with a single manual run, other times stuck once more and requires two manual runs.

Same as described by Brian and Christopher.

[Mohit Goyle]

Same issue here!

Odd row gets stuck with "Starting at..." and autocrat would not complete the job. It is very random.

I have several independent forms using autocrat, this error shows up on different forms at different times. 

Am not using any scripts or any other modifications. 

Just that each form has multiple jobs, that use merge conditions depending on a column value.

Thanks

[Joseph Schmidt]

I find that it is best to have all merge jobs use the response sheet (tab) for the source.  It also helps to limit the number of merge jobs there are that run on the spreadsheet.  Autocrat has to run the merge to find out if that row should be processed.

Joe Schmidt

 GLUA...@gmail.com

New Visions Blog Entry - Joe Schmidt

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