Trace logging with the Enterprise Library for MS Dynamics CRM 2011 plug-ins - part 3

In part one of this series I described how to use the enterprise library for trace logging in MS Dynamics CRM 2011 plug-ins (it should also work for MS Dynamics CRM 4.0) and in part two, I described how to use add the necessary changes to the various configuration files using Wix.

In this post, I provide a simple sample of how to use the Enterprise Library for trace logging.

Ensure that you add a reference to Enterprise Logging Application Block to your project, if this is not showing up, you probably don't have the Enterprise Library installed.

Sample Code:

 using System;
 using System.Collections.Generic;
 using System.Linq;
 using System.Text;
 using System.Diagnostics;
 using Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Logging;
 using System.IO;
 
 namespace ELSample
 {
     class Program
     {
         static void Main(string[] args)
         {
             string file = @"c:\myfile.txt";
             
             try
             {
                 WriteLogEntry("Trace",string.Format("Start to read file {0}.", file)); 
 
                 using (StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(file))
                 {
                     //do something here.
                 }
 
                 WriteLogEntry("Trace", string.Format("Finished reading file {0}.", file)); 
             }
             catch (Exception ex)
             {
                 WriteLogEntry("Error", "Exception Occurred.");
                 WriteLogEntry("Error", string.Format("Source: {0}.", ex.Source));
                 WriteLogEntry("Error", string.Format("Type: {0}.", ex.GetType()));
                 WriteLogEntry("Error", string.Format("Message: {0}.", ex.Message));
 
                 if (ex.InnerException != null)
                 {
                     WriteLogEntry("Error", string.Format("Inner Exception: {0}.", ex.InnerException.Message));
                 }
             }
 
         }
 
         /// <summary>
         /// Write a log entry using the Enterprise Library
         /// </summary>
         /// <param name="LogCategory">This is the name of the Trace Listener, e.g. Trace, Error</param>
         /// <param name="LogMessage">Log Entry to write</param>
         public static void WriteLogEntry(string LogCategory, string LogMessage)
         {
             LogEntry entry = new LogEntry();
             entry.Categories.Add(LogCategory);
             entry.Message = LogMessage;
 
             StackTrace trace = new StackTrace();
 
             entry.Title = string.Format("{0}.{1}",
                 trace.GetFrame(1).GetMethod().ReflectedType.Name, trace.GetFrame(1).GetMethod().Name);
 
             Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Logging.Logger.Write(entry);
         }
 
   
     }
 }

A few things to note:

1. I know that the sample is not from a plug-in.
2. Same config section, the logging part, as in the first post.
3. If you turn a trace listener off, the WriteLogEntry method will not write any entries, but there will be some processing done, so it will run slower than without it, as with everything in life it's a trade off.
4. It probably makes sense to have a separate method for logging exceptions.
5. I normally only bother with two trace listeners, Trace and Error. The former is normally equivalent to Verbose logging, the latter to ... Error logging.