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Log viewer Improvements

Berend Veldkamp
Edited

There are some annoying issues that could be improved in the log viewer in Studio Go:

  • If the log viewer is open, and a new log message is appended, the list scrolls back to the top. Even if I'm looking at older messages
  • After running the application for a while, the log viewer becomes very slow. Even just opening the log viewer sometimes takes several seconds
  • When selecting the Debug log level when the application's log level is not set to Debug yet, there's a message telling me to change the log level. Please give me an option to change that setting directly from that message, e.g. Do you want to change the setting now [yes] [no]
  • Messageboxes block the log viewer. Sometimes it's useful to scroll through messages the moment a messagebox is open (e.g. an error messagebox). When closing the messagebox to see the messages, a hundred or so new messages are appended and you have to search for the place the error occurred
  • The log viewer blocks the Go application, you can't use the app while logging is visible. Please make the log viewer non-modal, possibly docked somewhere, or show it in a separate window. (I realize that last option will probably only work on Windows)

 

And specific for development with the Mobile SDK:

  • Sometimes when pressing F12 to open the log viewer while running from Visual Studio, the application closes itself. This doesn't happen all the time, and in fact, I can't reproduce it right now :-)
  • The selected log level is always reset to Info when closing the application. This makes it harder to debug issues that occur at startup

 

2

Comments

1 comment

Date Votes
  • Jack Basha

    Hi Berend,

    This is Jack from the Mobile team and I'll do my best to answer your points or try to understand a bit more of what's going on. These are all great suggestions and I thank you for the time you took to write them up, and apologies for taking this long to get to this.

     

    If the log viewer is open, and a new log message is appended, the list scrolls back to the top. Even if I'm looking at older messages

    I have some concerns regarding this approach, especially if you have the log level set to “Debug.” Forcefully scrolling will make you lose sight of what you were looking into. On the other hand, if the log viewer is all the way at the top, the viewer will be docked to the top.

     

    After running the application for a while, the log viewer becomes very slow. Even just opening the log viewer sometimes takes several seconds

    This is something we are aware of and have tracked in our backlog. We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused so far.

     

    When selecting the Debug log level when the application's log level is not set to Debug yet, there's a message telling me to change the log level. Please give me an option to change that setting directly from that message, e.g. Do you want to change the setting now [yes] [no]

    As I am not a developer, I can only assume that there was a reason this was done this way. However, I appreciate your suggestion and agree with it. I will pass this on alongside your replies to the other items to our project manager.

     

    Messageboxes block the log viewer. Sometimes it's useful to scroll through messages the moment a messagebox is open (e.g. an error messagebox). When closing the messagebox to see the messages, a hundred or so new messages are appended and you have to search for the place the error occurred

    I'm not exactly sure what you mean by “Messagebox.” Do you mean a dialog window or you mean inspecting one of the log items? We have the filters and search specifically so you can exactly find what you're looking for :)

     

    The log viewer blocks the Go application, you can't use the app while logging is visible. Please make the log viewer non-modal, possibly docked somewhere, or show it in a separate window. (I realize that last option will probably only work on Windows)

    As you mentioned, when considering the various screen sizes we support, it becomes problematic to try and fit a docked log viewer somewhere that is still visible and doesn't impact the experience. In case you weren't aware, you can also access the logs file from your local file system either from the packages folder on Windows or the app's data folder on Android/iOS. If you need help doing so, I highly suggest you submit a support ticket so our support team can guide you through the process.

     

    Sometimes when pressing F12 to open the log viewer while running from Visual Studio, the application closes itself. This doesn't happen all the time, and in fact, I can't reproduce it right now :-)

    Happy to hear it's not reproducing :)

     

    The selected log level is always reset to Info when closing the application. This makes it harder to debug issues that occur at startup

    After checking with one of our developers, we confirmed that this is the case. This is not intended so it will be something we'll work on when we're able to. As a fix, you can add an App.config file, that looks like the following code block, as a <Content/> item in the project alongside app.json, layout-large, license.txt…

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
  <setting key="LogLevel" value="INFO" />
  <!-- If this setting is turned on, then all localized strings will be displayed like '!Localized String!'; this is intended only for testing. -->
  <setting key="IndicateLocalizableStrings" value="False" />
  <setting key="GenericApp" value="False" />
  <!-- Debugging - Use the Trimble R2 Emulator as the GNSS device on startup -->
  <setting key="GnssEmulatorDebugging" value="False" />
  <setting key="HapticFeedbackEnabled" value="False" />
</configuration>

     

    Please feel free to reach out to me or our support team if you have any further questions/suggestions as they'd be able to provide support and open tickets if needed.

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