Reviews & Testimonials

SmartInspect – a Delphi perspective

After some years of Java and web programming I returned to my programming roots and took a job at Ten Hove ICT in Stadskanaal (Groningen, The Netherlands) as a Delphi programmer. The first thing I did was to take stock of the available tools within the organization and I found that debugging was done exclusively with the fairly excellent debugger that comes integrated with Delphi.

By now, coming from a Java development environment, I was used to using Log4J to provide me with a more persistent insight into the inner workings of my programs. So naturally I went looking for an equivalent in Delphi. That proved harder than I would have expected.

The available freeware solutions all lacked the sheen of professionalism and wide community support that Log4J offered. Even worse, none of them were truly usable. So I widened my search to include commercial products.

It didn't take long to find SmartInspect. The clean-cut website made it easy to digest the content, and the content looked good to me. While it wasn't the first commercial logging tool I encountered that looked like it could do the job, it sure was the first to do it in a programmer friendly way.

It also was the only tool I found to support Delphi, .NET and Java! A quality I highly value because we also do projects in .NET sometimes, and from what I've heard the default logging libraries for .NET aren't that good. However, the true value of the multi language implementation is of course found in the fact that I don't have to learn to use different logging tools for different languages.

Where the other tools make it possible to log formatted text to plain text files, SmartInspect takes this concept to the next level by providing specific methods to log the available data types, database content and even screenshots to a custom, binary log file. A separate console application is provided/needed to view the log file.

While needing a separate and specific application to view your log might sound like a drawback, I can assure you that it isn't. The level of control you get over the contents of the log file is way better than any plaintext editor could ever provide. You can navigate quickly to any of the log entry types, create different views and filters, and perform a full text search of the log.

The SmartInspect Console comes in two versions, a full-blown version for developers and a somewhat toned down redistributable version that can be shipped with your SmartInspect enabled programs.

While SmartInspect can't ensure that you create useful log files, it does take away the hassle of logging by providing you with a powerful set of tools to do the job. This makes it much easier to concentrate on the content of your log file.

A product might be ok on its own merits, but can become really good when there are committed developers backing it up. I think this is the case with SmartInspect and Gurock software. All the signs are there, a well designed and 'to-the-point' website, frequent updates of the product within the current version and, maybe most important of all, solid support on technical issues.

In conclusion I can say that, although the art of logging is by now a public secret, SmartInspect really makes a difference when it comes to usability and comfort for both developers and end-users.