Using Information Trace Points

Consider these guidelines before adding information trace points to your code:

• Generally, use Trace.Level3 or Trace.Level4 for information, variable and data trace points. The trace level depends upon the significance, expense, and the verbosity of the information presented.

• Use Trace.Level3 and Trace.Level4 information and variable trace points to trace significant conditions, branches, and other information as they occur in the code path.

• A variable trace point is a convenience method that is the same as an information trace point, except that a variable trace point prints out variable=<variable> instead of just printing the argument value. In addition, this method does not format the information unless the trace level specified in the argument is matched.

• Do not use an information trace point if the method contains an exception condition but does not rethrow the exception. Use the caught method. For an example, see Using Exception Trace Points.

• Use Trace.Level3 and Trace.Level4 data trace points to show information in byte arrays. You can use a lower trace level if the information is appropriate for that trace level and the information presented is brief.

• You can use Trace.Level1 and Trace.Level2 information, variable, and data trace points to trace significant, but brief, information. However, you should rarely use these trace points at these levels.

Following is an example of a simple information trace statement. For this example, assume the following CLASS variables are declared.

private static final String CLASS = 
"com.waveset.adapter.MyResourceAdapter"; 
protected static Trace _trace = Trace.getTrace();

Example 5–3 Information Trace Point Example

_trace.info(_trace.LEVEL3, CLASS, METHOD, Some Message);
WavesetResult result = new WavesetResult(); 
try {   
   someMethod(); 
}  catch(Exception e) {   
   String msg = Some Error Message;   
   WavesetException we = new Waveset(msg, e);   
   _trace.caught(_trace.LEVEL3, CLASS, METHOD, e);   
   result.addException(we); 
}