MIDAS Knowledge Base

How to enable debug logging

If you see a "MIDAS encountered an unexpected error" or "Unable to save settings" error in the normal course of usage of your MIDAS room booking system, we want to help! In order to help us identify the specific cause of the error you may need to enable debug logging.

For security reasons, debug logging in MIDAS is disabled by default. As a result, in the unlikely event that your MIDAS encounters an error, very limited information will be shown to end-users.

If you're running MIDAS v4.16 (or later), then you can enable/disable debug logging via MIDAS Admin Options → Manage MIDAS → Miscellaneous → Enable Debug Logging.

If the error prevents you from reaching the Manage MIDAS settings page, or if you're running MIDAS v4.15 (or earlier), then you can manually enable debug logging as follows:

MIDAS v4.22+

To enable debug logging, you will need access to the server where your MIDAS resides. You'll then need to do the following:

Locate the "midas.dat" file within your MIDAS installation and open this in a standard text editor. This is a JSON file.
Search the file for the phrase "debug", if present, change its corresponding value from empty/zero to "3". If the phrase isn't present in the "midas.dat" file, then add it:
On the second line of this file, add the following on its own line (ensuring the line ends with a comma):
"debug" : 3,
Save changes to the midas.dat file back to your server.

MIDAS pre v4.22

To enable debug logging if you're running an older version of MIDAS (pre v4.16), you will need access to the server where your MIDAS resides. You'll then need to do the following:

Locate the "midasglobal.dat" file within your MIDAS installation and open this in a standard text editor. This is an XML file.
Search the file for the phrase "" and if present, change its corresponding value from empty/zero to "3". If the phrase isn't present in the "midasglobal.dat" file, then add it as follows:
On line 3 of this file (after the <midas> tag on the previous line), add the following:
<debug>3</debug>
Save changes to the midasglobal.dat file back to your server.

Once debug logging has been enabled, try to recreate the conditions which led to the "MIDAS encountered an unexpected error" or "Unable to save settings" message in your browser, and additional diagnostic information may be shown on screen along with the generic error message.

In addition, a "debug.dat" file may also be created on your server (at the location where your MIDAS is installed), which will contain further specifics on the error.

We recommend only enabling debug logging to troubleshoot a specific issue, or when requested to by MIDAS support. Once your issue has been resolved, you should disable debug logging again and remove any created "debug.dat" file from your server.

If you're running a self-hosted edition of MIDAS v4.33 (or later), it's now even easier to send a bundle of diagnostic information to our support team. This can greatly aid our team in troubleshooting your issue. For more information, please see "Making it easier to support our self-hosted customers".