TRACING

Tracing
Tracing is an activity of recording the diagnostic information
related to a specific web page that is being executed on the web
server
Need of Tracing
When the application are in development stage, developers can
use in-built debuggers for troubleshooting, but in the production
environment, using debuggers becomes a huge task for
administrators considering the security and related issues.
To debug Classic ASP applications, we were having no mechanism
to track the execution flow of ASP pages.
Thanks to .NET !!. Using .NET technology we can trace the flow
with really less efforts.
To collect the statistics like execution time, contents of certain
object, response.write was the only way in classic ASP.
Using trace we are now able to view the HTTP headers, session
state and likewise information on the trace output. Also, we have
flexibility to add our own contents in the trace output

Tracing Methods
On the Page
When this method is used, the trace output is displayed on the
page that is executed.
Out of Page
In this method, the tracing results are not displayed on the page
but these are stored on the web server and in the root folder of
the application in a file named as trace.axd. After execution of
the pages, this file can be viewed on the browser. For example
http://yourApplicationroot/trace.axd
How Do I trace?
The tracing can be enabled at two scopes:
Page Level
Application Level

Working with Page Level Tracing

The page level tracing can be enabled using page directive called
Trace
<%@ Page Language="vb" AutoEventWireup="False"
Trace="True" Codebehind="TraceTest.aspx.vb"
Inherits="TracingExample.Test"%>
Also, we have inbuilt Trace object to enable and disable the
tracing dynamically. In the page, on Load event if you write the
below line
Trace.IsEnabled = True
Working with Application Level Tracing
When you are working with page level Tracing, you need to know
probable page that is to be traced. If your application is complex
and if you want to trace you might not be aware exact page that
is to be traced. To avoid this problem we, .NET platform, provides
a facility to enable the tracing at application level
As we know that web.config is a file that manages the application
level settings. In the same file we can mention setting of the Trace
<trace enabled="true" pageOutput="true" requestLimit="10"
traceMode="SortByTime" localOnly="true" />

Properties of Trace
Enabled - Enable or Disable tracing for entire application.
PageOutput If this attribute value is set to true then the
trace output will be displayed on the page. If value of this
attribute is set to false trace, then the trace output can be
retrieved using browser. Typically the URL would be
http://<yourAppliccationRoot>/trace.axd.
RequestLimit This attribute is active only when the PageOutput
attribute value is set to false. This attribute defines the number of
page requests that are to be traced.
TraceMode To manage the order of the trace output, this
attribute is used. For Example SortByTime, SortByCategory etc.
localOnly - Set this attribute to "false" if you want access the
trace log from any client. Otherwise the log will be displayed on
local machine only

Trace Output
When the trace is enabled we get the trace output. This output
contains lot of details, some of the sections are as follows
Request Details - This section talks about the basic information
like session ID, Request Time, Type of HTTP Request, HTTP
response details.
Trace Information - This section provides messages and
categories. Also, this section will display the log that we have
displayed using Trace.Write or Trace.Warn.
Control Tree - This section displays the information about
controls that are used within the page that is being executed.
Cookies Collection - If the page is using any cookies, this
section will display the details of those cookies.
Header Information - This section displays detail of the header
that is transmitted. This will be a pair of name and value.
Server Variables - This section will display all server variables.
Again, in the form of name and value pair

THANK YOU