Working with tracing in Log Viewer

To troubleshoot a problem, you can turn on tracing. Trace messages help you monitor actions taken in components of the WebSphere InterChange Server Express system. Trace levels define the amount of detail written to the trace file. The higher the trace level, the more detail you receive.

Tracing is off by default because it produces messages that are more detailed than you normally need. You can turn tracing on and off as necessary when InterChange Server Express is running.

For background information about tracing, see Trace files. For configuration information about tracing, see Configuring logging and tracing.

Overview of Log Viewer and tracing

Use LogViewer to display trace information for InterChange Server Express. In addition to displaying the debugging trace information for collaborations, it allows you to view the progression of a business object as it passes from one processing point to another, for example as the business object exits the collaboration processing point and is sent on to other collaborations or connectors for processing or is forwarded to the mapping stage for data transformation. For information about flow tracing, see Business object tracing (flow tracing).

InterChange Server Express system message logging is used to communicate messages, component state changes, and failures.

Note:
Log Viewer views log files and therefore does not need InterChange Server Express to be running. The InterChange Server Express system administrator must have the appropriate file system permissions set to view log files.

You can view log files containing messages and explanations of system messages either of these ways:

Log Viewer allows you to see all messages contained in a log file. You can sort and filter the output display and print, save, and e-mail of the file.

A sample log file is shown displayed in Log Viewer in Figure 53..

Figure 53. Log Viewer


Steps for starting Log Viewer

Perform one of these steps to start Log Viewer:

Steps for setting Log Viewer preferences

Perform the following steps to set Log Viewer preferences:

  1. Click Edit > Preferences.

    The User configuration options dialog box appears, with the General tab selected (see Figure 54).

    Figure 54. Log Viewer User configuration options dialog box, General Properties tab


  2. Under Open action, select how to display the log file when you open a log file:
  3. To change the background color and font of the Log Viewer messages, click the Format tab.

    The Format tab appears (see Figure 55).

    Figure 55. Log Viewer User configuration options, Format tab


  4. Select options to display the various types of log messages:
  5. To change which Log Viewer columns are displayed, click the Columns tab.

    The Columns tab opens (see Figure 56).

    Figure 56. Log Viewer User configuration options, Columns tab


    This window allows you to determine which columns display in Log Viewer:

Overview of Log Viewer display options

The View menu contains additional options to change how Log Viewer appears:

Overview of Log Viewer display output

Several options are available for manipulating Log Viewer output. In the File menu, there are options for print previewing, printing, saving, refreshing the display, sending to an e-mail recipient, and determining the style for page setup, headers, and footers. The variables for headers and footers are:

$F
Name of file

$A
Application name

$P
Page number

$N
Total number of pages

$D
Date (can be followed by additional parameters (for example $D{%y:%h:%m})

Steps for filtering messages

Perform the following steps to filter messages in Log Viewer:

  1. Click View > Filter >Use Filter. The Filter Settings dialog box appears. The Filter Settings dialog box displays categories that correspond to the parameters of the logging message format (see Table 17 for a descriptive list of the parameters).
  2. Select a tab under Set up Filters to display the items that you want to use for filtering messages. For example, select the BusObj tab to display a list of business objects to be used in filtering, and select Time if you want to filter according to the timestamp of the message. You can set up multiple filters, and use them either separately or with one another.
  3. In the displayed list of items, select each item for which you want to view messages in Log Viewer. For example, if you want to view messages related only to the Cost and Customer business objects, select only those business objects in the list. If you want to view only messages that are time-stamped between 5 March 2002 at 9:00 a.m. and 6 March 2002 at 5:00 a.m., select the range for those times under the Time tab.

    You can use the buttons below the list box to select all the displayed items, to clear all the displayed items, or to invert your current selected choices.

  4. Under Activate Filters, select the check box for each filter type that you want to activate. For example, if you want to see all messages for the Cost and Customer business objects (which you specified in the previous step), activate only the BusObj filter. If you want to see only those messages for the Cost and Customer business objects that have a particular timestamp, activate both the BusObj filter and the Time filter.
  5. Click OK. The Filter Settings dialog box closes, and the Log Viewer refreshes to show only those messages that you have allowed through the filters.

Note that in addition to filtering according to the categories, you can also display only those messages that contain a specific text string. To do so, click Message under Set up Filters, type the specific text for which you want to show messages, and select the check box for Message under Activate Filters.

Steps for tracing a business object flow

Flow tracing a business object, or access flow, allows you to track its progress throughout each of the processing points in its life cycle. Using Log Viewer, you can follow the progress by checking the trace messages that display. Each business object has an flow initiator ID associated with it for this purpose. If you sort the Log Viewer display by flow initiator ID and date/time, the trace messages for the business object are grouped together so you can easily follow its status. Sort by ascending or descending order to see a historical perspective or the latest event displayed first.

Note:
Flow tracing is performed only when the business object is within the domain of InterChange Server Express, that is, from the connector controller of the source application to the connector controller of the destination application. Business object flow tracing is not performed when the business object is processed by connector agents or applications.

Perform the following steps to trace a business object flow:

  1. Set the trace log file destination, if necessary (see Configuring logging and tracing).
  2. Select the originating triggering business object (not the generic business object) to trace and set its trace level (see Steps for configuring tracing levels for InterChange Server Express, business objects, and collaborations).
  3. Send an event from the source connector to the destination connector.
  4. Open Log Viewer (see Steps for starting Log Viewer).
  5. Set the display preferences to view the flow tracing (see Overview of Log Viewer display options).
  6. Click any error message button in the MsgID column to view the text of the message.
  7. Click any of the business object name buttons in the BusObj column to view the data contained within the business object.

    This action uses the Business Object Viewer, which allows you to save the data to a separate file. The file can then be read by either the Mapping tool or the Test Connector.

Copyright IBM Corp. 2004