Crashing/Hanging Workbench

Stumbled across a workaround to a problem I have been having since I started using SS and thought it worthy of sharing, just in case it helps anyone else. Could be just my machine or environment, but also could be a common issue.

The workbench has ALWAYS hung (98% of the time) or crashed (2% of the time) for me, when running a scrape. The crash would occur within the first hour of scraping. This problem occurred every time, so my original workaround was to write my progress to a file, so that after it crashes I can resume from its last position.

I did see the FAQs on stability when using VBScript so I converted all my VBscripts to Java. Unfortunately, same problem, still hanging.

I just happened double check one script after I had started a scrape, before walking away from my PC with SS still viewing the script. To my surprise the scrape completed successfully (took about 24 hours to complete).

After a few more tests of both basic and professional (version 3.0), with or without auto scroll enabled, regardless of the size of the log buffer, I found if I left the log tab of the scraping session open the application will hang, every time. If I ensure I'm viewing a script (and hence the log tab is not visible) my scapes ALWAYS complete fine.

Crashing/Hanging Workbench

How embarrassing......could have saved myself a lot of time ;-)

Thanks for the info...

Crashing/Hanging Workbench

Thanks for the tip. One other suggestion--I'd highly recommend running your scrapes using the command line interface:

http://www.screen-scraper.com/support/docs/invoking_screenscraper_from_the_command_line.php

The workbench is really only intended for developing scraping sessions, not for running them fully.

Kind regards,

Todd Wilson