Recipes

A recipe is a saved sequence of steps you build once and run whenever you want. Open Recipes from the System section of the sidebar.

Recipes is DataTray's automation: build the sequence once, then run it on whatever files you have that day. It always runs when you press Run, on files you pick — DataTray does not watch folders in the background or act on a file you have not handed it.

Building one

1. Press New recipe and give it a name (and a description, if it will not be obvious in three months).
2. Add steps. Each step picks one utility and its options. Steps run top to bottom; use the arrows to reorder them, and the bin to remove one.
3. Optionally give a step a rename template — the same {stem} and date tokens described in Where your files are saved.
4. Save.

To run it, press Run, then pick the files — drop them in, browse for them, or paste one path per line. DataTray tells you how many files were queued and how many were skipped (a duplicate path, or a file that is not there any more), and the work appears in the Job Queue like everything else.

Data Explorer can never be a step

The step picker does not offer Data Explorer, and if a hand-edited recipe names it anyway, DataTray refuses to save it. The reason is simple: Data Explorer needs you looking at the file while it runs — it exists to answer questions you ask as you go — so there is nothing sensible for it to do inside an unattended sequence. Every other tile can be a step.

If something goes wrong here

• "Add at least one step." or "Give the recipe a name." The recipe is incomplete; both are required.
• A step has no utility selected. Pick one from the dropdown, or delete the step.
• Some files were skipped. The run summary says how many. The usual causes are the same file listed twice and a path that no longer exists.
• The recipe saved but a step does nothing. Check the step's options — a step with no operation configured is valid but has nothing to do.