Tracing messages

Tracing is an optional debugging feature you can turn on to closely follow a connector's behavior. Tracing messages are configurable and can be changed dynamically. You set various levels depending on the desired detail. Trace messages, by default, are written to STDOUT.

You can also configure tracing to write to a file. The following table describes the types of tracing messages that the iSeries connector outputs at each trace level. All the trace messages appear in the file specified by the connector property TraceFileName. These messages are in addition to any tracing messages output by the IBM WebSphere Business Integration Adapter architecture. For more on configuring trace messages, see the connector configuration properties in "Configuring the connector." For more information on tracing, including how to enable and set it, see the Connector Development Guide.

Table 6 lists the recommended content for connector tracing message levels.

Table 8. Tracing messages content level description

Tracing level Tracing messages
Level 0 Use this trace level for trace messages that identify the connector version. No other tracing is performed at this level.
Level 1 N/A
Level 2 Use this trace level for trace messages that:
  • Identify the BO handler used for each object that the connector processes.
  • Log each time a business object is posted to the integration broker
  • Indicate each time a request business object is received
Level 3 N/A
Level 4 Use this trace level for trace messages that:
  • Identify application-specific information. Examples of this include the values returned by the methods that process the application-specific information fields in business objects.
  • Identify when the connector enters or exits a function. These messages help trace the process flow of the connector.
  • Record any thread-specific processing. For example, if the connector spawns multiple threads, a message logs the creation of each new thread.
Level 5 Use this trace level for trace messages that:
  • Indicate connector initialization. This type of message can include, for example, the value of each connector configurator property that has been retrieved from the broker.
  • Detail the status of each thread that the connector spawns while it is running.
  • Represent statements executed in the application. The connector log file contains all statements executed in the target application and the value of any variables that are substituted, where applicable.
  • Record business object dumps. The connector should output a text representation of a business object before it begins processing (showing the object that the connector receives from the collaboration) as well as after it finishes processing the object (showing the object that the connector returns to the collaboration).

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