When you install a package into a Sitecore instance you have no idea what is going on behind the scenes because all you see is a progress bar.  If the package fails then it will let you know but don’t get to see what is happening.  And sometimes if it is a large package you don’t really know if there was an error and if the package is going to be installed, has installed, or is trying to be installed so you wait and wait but don’t want to end the installation because then you will have to start over but you really don’t know.  Well…now you can know and it’s very simple.  This will help you to know in real-time what errors are happening during the install and what items are being installed.

You can monitor any Windows log file in real time by using Windows PowerShell.  I am not a command line type of guy but there is only one command you need to know and I will explain the steps you need to take:

1. Open up Windows PowerShell on your machine
2. Get the file path and file name with extension to most recent Sitecore log file
3. Type in:

   type -wait PATHTOFILEANDFILENAMEWITHEXTENSION

   Example:

   // Use if path has no spaces in path folder names
   type -wait C:\inetpub\wwwroot\SitecoreSandbox\Data\logs\log.20140812.txt
   
   // Use if path has spaces in the path folder names
   type -wait "C:\inetpub\wwwroot\Sitecore Sandbox\Data\logs\log.20140812.txt"

   Then press Enter.

   

   Windows PowerShell Command

4. Now install your package using the Installation Wizard

You will see the log now being updated in real-time as the package installs.

In my most recent install this saved me a lot of time troubleshooting because I was able to see why my package was failing in real-time because of MemoryMonitor thresholds, InvalidItemNameChars, and ItemNameValidation.  Once I adjusted these values in the Web.config my package was installed in my local development environment.  Now I can change them back and keep coding like a ninja.  Happy coding!