Comments on: If Computers Could Barf – Salesforce Debug Log

By: Andy

Andy — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 10:16:16 +0000

I’ve been using the “Debug Logs” page in the SF UI and struggling with the debug code ever since they changed the output. I can’t believe I’ve only just realised that the debug logs will also appear in the “System Log” pop-up. Am I an idiot, or is this not particularly well sign-posted in the docs?

All of the examples I’ve seen of the system log being used showed somebody manually typing in and executing a method, etc. My debugging potentially just got a lot easier….

By: David

David — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 22:36:32 +0000

Fast forward to August 2011. What are your opinions on the debug log now?

By: Sebi

Sebi — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 11:45:00 +0000

They should dim the “extra lines” and make the old stuff stand out more. That way the noise is somewhat out of the way. If you need the info, you can always focus on it with a glance.

By: Jason

Jason — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 16:21:49 +0000

By: John Hart

John Hart — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:12:57 +0000

The big issue for me is that I can’t get the output of System.debug() statements without also getting METHOD_ENTRY/EXIT spew (as both are in the “Apex Code:DEBUG” level).

I think System.debug() statements should be placed into a separate Log Level than METHOD_ENTRY/EXIT. Perhaps METHOD_ENTRY/EXIT should be moved into the “Fine” log level.

Note the Log Level-vs-Events issue is confused, because there isn’t an Event for System.debug() statements – they show up at DEBUG, but the System Log’s “Events” list only adds METHOD_ENTRY/EXIT when you go from “INFO” to “DEBUG”.

Also, it would be useful to break METHOD_ENTRY/EXIT into USER_METHOD_ENTRY/EXIT and SYSTEM_METHOD_ENTRY/EXIT. The first only traces non-System methods; the second traces system methods. They should be placed in “FINE” and “FINER” levels, respectively.

By: Gary B

Gary B — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:01:26 +0000

@Gary B OK, I take part of that back - it seems (some) method names *are* in the log, apologies!

By: Gary B

Gary B — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 12:46:39 +0000

@Rich Unger
Rich, I can understand this is laying the foundations for things to come, and I get an idea of what’s coming down the line… but in the here and now, things appear to have gotten more difficult.

I’m persevering as I don’t want to write it off just because it’s different; similarly, I’m wary of making myself look an idiot because I’ve yet to grok how the feature actually works. But as far as I can tell, names of custom built methods no longer appear in the log output, which is a massive thorn in my side. I’m trying to investigate something in a production environment, updating code and deploying just for the sake of some debug statements is not exactly ideal for me…

And as for the “makes parsing easier” – are there any tools out there at the moment that can help with this with output from Spring 10?

Apologies for shooting the messenger, and I realise I’m partly to blame as I didn’t try it earlier and offer my feedback!

By: Mike Eaton

Mike Eaton — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 18:27:41 +0000

Agree with you 100%. I feel like we’ve taken a giant step backwards. Hopefully we’ve hit the bottom of the barrel and can only go up from here. Keep up the good work!

By: Rich Unger

Rich Unger — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 00:27:38 +0000

BTW, one workaround you can use if you just want to see the System.debug() output is to use the logging levels, e.g.: System.debug(LoggingLevel.INFO, ‘foo’)
and set your filter for the APEX_CODE category to INFO. The METHOD events get logged in the DEBUG level, which is one below INFO.

By: Jason

Jason — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 23:20:29 +0000

@Rich

Being easy to parse is nice…. but since I am human, not a computer, I would say being easy to read takes priority for me.

I’m guessing (hoping) now that it’s easy to parse you will have some UI improvements that will make it easy to read.

I’m glad to hear you can see, in it’s current state, it is rough to use and improvements are on the way.