Tour: Advanced Usage

An advanced feature of SmartInspect is the ability to configure the logging behavior of a monitored application at runtime by using a configuration file. A SmartInspect configuration file specifies if logging is enabled, the active and default log level, the application name and the logging destinations.

; Set the connections string and enable logging
connections = file(filename="c:\log.sil")
enabled = true

; Set the properties which affect the log level
level = verbose
defaultlevel = message

; And finally set the application name
appname = client

Loading such a configuration file at runtime is done by adding only a single line of code to your application:

SiAuto.Si.LoadConfiguration("configuration.sic");
SiAuto.Si.LoadConfiguration("configuration.sic")
SiAuto.si.loadConfiguration("configuration.sic");
Si.LoadConfiguration('configuration.sic');

SmartInspect Configuration Builder

To help creating configuration files, SmartInspect comes with a tool called SmartInspect Configuration Builder. This tool enables you to build configuration files simply by selecting the desired options and specifying the logging destinations.

1. The main window of the Configuration Builder lets you specify both the general options of a configuration file and the logging destinations.
2. You can set the protocol options for each logging destination you add.

Process Flow Toolbox

The Process Flow toolbox displays all processes and threads of your log, their corresponding hostnames, start times and durations. With a press of a button you can create a new view for each entity and inspect the log entries independently from the rest of your log. This makes SmartInspect the ideal choice for debugging multi-threaded and distributed applications.

1. All processes and threads of the current log are shown in the Process Flow toolbox.
2. It is easily possible to create a filtered view for each thread and process of your log.

AutoView Rules

Sometimes it is useful to automatically create filtered views for each new thread, process or session of the current log. This can be done by defining AutoView rules or by using the built-in rules. An example: If you define a thread AutoView rule, the Console automatically creates a new filtered view when a log entry of a new thread arrives at the Console.

1. New views can be triggered by AutoView rules for session names, application names, hostnames, processes and threads.
2. The created views can automatically be named by using different variables.
3. All normal views and views created by AutoView rules can be grouped in categories.

Watches Graph

The Watches Graph toolbox can track numeric watches and displays them in a convenient time graph. It is especially useful for tracking and visualizing application resources like databases connections, file handles or the amount of allocated objects.

With the help of the Watches Graph it is possible to detect temporary peaks, to find resource leaks and to monitor the general resource behavior of your application.

End of Tour

Thank you for taking the time to learn more about SmartInspect. After taking the tour, why not download the fully functional 30-day trial or order your own copy and start using SmartInspect in your own applications today?

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