Programmatically logging to the Sharepoint ULS

Question

I'd like to log stuff in my Sharepoint Web Parts, but I want it to go into the ULS. Most examples that I've found log into the Event Log or some other file, but I did not really find one yet for logging into the ULS.

Annoyingly, Microsoft.SharePoint.Diagnostics Classes are all marked Internal. I did find one example of how to use them anyway through reflection, but that looks really risky and unstable, because Microsoft may change that class with any hotfix they want.

The Sharepoint Documentation wasn't really helpful either - lots of Administrator info about what ULS is and how to configure it, but i have yet to find an example of supported code to actually log my own events.

Any hints or tips?

Edit: As you may see from the age of this question, this is for SharePoint 2007. In SharePoint 2010, you can use SPDiagnosticsService.Local and then WriteTrace. See the answer from Jürgen below.

Counterpoise

Answer 1

Yes this is possible, see this MSDN article: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/hi-in/library/aa979595(en-us).aspx

And here is some sample code in C#:

using System;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration;

namespace ManagedTraceProvider
{
class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        TraceProvider.RegisterTraceProvider();

        TraceProvider.WriteTrace(0, TraceProvider.TraceSeverity.High, Guid.Empty, "MyExeName", "Product Name", "Category Name", "Sample Message");
        TraceProvider.WriteTrace(TraceProvider.TagFromString("abcd"), TraceProvider.TraceSeverity.Monitorable, Guid.NewGuid(), "MyExeName", "Product Name", "Category Name", "Sample Message");

        TraceProvider.UnregisterTraceProvider();
    }
}

static class TraceProvider
{
    static UInt64 hTraceLog;
    static UInt64 hTraceReg;

    static class NativeMethods
    {
        internal const int TRACE_VERSION_CURRENT = 1;
        internal const int ERROR_SUCCESS = 0;
        internal const int ERROR_INVALID_PARAMETER = 87;
        internal const int WNODE_FLAG_TRACED_GUID = 0x00020000;

        internal enum TraceFlags
        {
            TRACE_FLAG_START = 1,
            TRACE_FLAG_END = 2,
            TRACE_FLAG_MIDDLE = 3,
            TRACE_FLAG_ID_AS_ASCII = 4
        }

        // Copied from Win32 APIs
        [StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)]
        internal struct EVENT_TRACE_HEADER_CLASS
        {
            internal byte Type;
            internal byte Level;
            internal ushort Version;
        }

        // Copied from Win32 APIs
        [StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)]
        internal struct EVENT_TRACE_HEADER
        {
            internal ushort Size;
            internal ushort FieldTypeFlags;
            internal EVENT_TRACE_HEADER_CLASS Class;
            internal uint ThreadId;
            internal uint ProcessId;
            internal Int64 TimeStamp;
            internal Guid Guid;
            internal uint ClientContext;
            internal uint Flags;
        }

        [StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential, CharSet = CharSet.Unicode)]
        internal struct ULSTraceHeader
        {
            internal ushort Size;
            internal uint dwVersion;
            internal uint Id;
            internal Guid correlationID;
            internal TraceFlags dwFlags;
            [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.ByValTStr, SizeConst = 32)]
            internal string wzExeName;
            [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.ByValTStr, SizeConst = 32)]
            internal string wzProduct;
            [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.ByValTStr, SizeConst = 32)]
            internal string wzCategory;
            [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.ByValTStr, SizeConst = 800)]
            internal string wzMessage;
        }

        [StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)]
        internal struct ULSTrace
        {
            internal EVENT_TRACE_HEADER Header;
            internal ULSTraceHeader ULSHeader;
        }

        // Copied from Win32 APIs
        internal enum WMIDPREQUESTCODE
        {
            WMI_GET_ALL_DATA = 0,
            WMI_GET_SINGLE_INSTANCE = 1,
            WMI_SET_SINGLE_INSTANCE = 2,
            WMI_SET_SINGLE_ITEM = 3,
            WMI_ENABLE_EVENTS = 4,
            WMI_DISABLE_EVENTS = 5,
            WMI_ENABLE_COLLECTION = 6,
            WMI_DISABLE_COLLECTION = 7,
            WMI_REGINFO = 8,
            WMI_EXECUTE_METHOD = 9
        }

        // Copied from Win32 APIs
        internal unsafe delegate uint EtwProc(NativeMethods.WMIDPREQUESTCODE requestCode, IntPtr requestContext, uint* bufferSize, IntPtr buffer);

        // Copied from Win32 APIs
        [DllImport("advapi32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Unicode)]
        internal static extern unsafe uint RegisterTraceGuids([In] EtwProc cbFunc, [In] void* context, [In] ref Guid controlGuid, [In] uint guidCount, IntPtr guidReg, [In] string mofImagePath, [In] string mofResourceName, out ulong regHandle);

        // Copied from Win32 APIs
        [DllImport("advapi32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Unicode)]
        internal static extern uint UnregisterTraceGuids([In]ulong regHandle);

        // Copied from Win32 APIs
        [DllImport("advapi32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Unicode)]
        internal static extern UInt64 GetTraceLoggerHandle([In]IntPtr Buffer);

        // Copied from Win32 APIs
        [DllImport("advapi32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
        internal static extern uint TraceEvent([In]UInt64 traceHandle, [In]ref ULSTrace evnt);
    }

    public enum TraceSeverity
    {
        Unassigned = 0,
        CriticalEvent = 1,
        WarningEvent = 2,
        InformationEvent = 3,
        Exception = 4,
        Assert = 7,
        Unexpected = 10,
        Monitorable = 15,
        High = 20,
        Medium = 50,
        Verbose = 100,
    }

    public static void WriteTrace(uint tag, TraceSeverity level, Guid correlationGuid, string exeName, string productName, string categoryName, string message)
    {
        const ushort sizeOfWCHAR = 2;
        NativeMethods.ULSTrace ulsTrace = new NativeMethods.ULSTrace();

        // Pretty standard code needed to make things work
        ulsTrace.Header.Size = (ushort)Marshal.SizeOf(typeof(NativeMethods.ULSTrace));
        ulsTrace.Header.Flags = NativeMethods.WNODE_FLAG_TRACED_GUID;
        ulsTrace.ULSHeader.dwVersion = NativeMethods.TRACE_VERSION_CURRENT;
        ulsTrace.ULSHeader.dwFlags = NativeMethods.TraceFlags.TRACE_FLAG_ID_AS_ASCII;
        ulsTrace.ULSHeader.Size = (ushort)Marshal.SizeOf(typeof(NativeMethods.ULSTraceHeader));

        // Variables communicated to SPTrace
        ulsTrace.ULSHeader.Id = tag;
        ulsTrace.Header.Class.Level = (byte)level;
        ulsTrace.ULSHeader.wzExeName = exeName;
        ulsTrace.ULSHeader.wzProduct = productName;
        ulsTrace.ULSHeader.wzCategory = categoryName;
        ulsTrace.ULSHeader.wzMessage = message;
        ulsTrace.ULSHeader.correlationID = correlationGuid;

        // Pptionally, to improve performance by reducing the amount of data copied around,
        // the Size parameters can be reduced by the amount of unused buffer in the Message
        if (message.Length < 800)
        {
            ushort unusedBuffer = (ushort) ((800 - (message.Length + 1)) * sizeOfWCHAR);
            ulsTrace.Header.Size -= unusedBuffer;
            ulsTrace.ULSHeader.Size -= unusedBuffer;
        }

        if (hTraceLog != 0)
            NativeMethods.TraceEvent(hTraceLog, ref ulsTrace);
    }

    public static unsafe void RegisterTraceProvider()
    {
        SPFarm farm = SPFarm.Local;
        Guid traceGuid = farm.TraceSessionGuid;
        uint result = NativeMethods.RegisterTraceGuids(ControlCallback, null, ref traceGuid, 0, IntPtr.Zero, null, null, out hTraceReg);
        System.Diagnostics.Debug.Assert(result == NativeMethods.ERROR_SUCCESS);
    }

    public static void UnregisterTraceProvider()
    {
        uint result = NativeMethods.UnregisterTraceGuids(hTraceReg);
        System.Diagnostics.Debug.Assert(result == NativeMethods.ERROR_SUCCESS);
    }

    public static uint TagFromString(string wzTag)
    {
        System.Diagnostics.Debug.Assert(wzTag.Length == 4);
        return (uint) (wzTag[0] << 24 | wzTag[1] << 16 | wzTag[2] << 8 | wzTag[3]);
    }

    static unsafe uint ControlCallback(NativeMethods.WMIDPREQUESTCODE RequestCode, IntPtr Context, uint* InOutBufferSize, IntPtr Buffer)
    {
        uint Status;
        switch (RequestCode)
        {
            case NativeMethods.WMIDPREQUESTCODE.WMI_ENABLE_EVENTS:
                hTraceLog = NativeMethods.GetTraceLoggerHandle(Buffer);
                Status = NativeMethods.ERROR_SUCCESS;
                break;
            case NativeMethods.WMIDPREQUESTCODE.WMI_DISABLE_EVENTS:
                hTraceLog = 0;
                Status = NativeMethods.ERROR_SUCCESS;
                break;
            default:
                Status = NativeMethods.ERROR_INVALID_PARAMETER;
                break;
        }

        *InOutBufferSize = 0;
        return Status;
    }
}

}

Colchicine

I have used the code from this MSDN article in the past and can it has worked effectively for me. – Deas

How about another question but for Microsoft: Why isn't this functionality built-in already? Why the need for our own encapsilation class? – Hypothermia

Answer 2

The credit goes to: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg512103(v=office.14).aspx
I have just published a post on my blog, but pasting the code here.

Define name of your solution in the code for following line:

private const string PRODUCT_NAME = "My Custom Solution";

Following are sample code on how to use it:

UlsLogging.LogInformation("This is information message");
UlsLogging.LogInformation("{0}This is information message","Information:");  

UlsLogging.LogWarning("This is warning message");
UlsLogging.LogWarning("{0}This is warning message", "Warning:");  

UlsLogging.LogError("This is error message");
UlsLogging.LogError("{0}This is error message","Error:");  

Following is the code:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration;
namespace MyLoggingApp
{
    public class UlsLogging : SPDiagnosticsServiceBase
    {
        // Product name
        private const string PRODUCT_NAME = "My Custom Solution";

        #region private variables

        // Current instance
        private static UlsLogging _current;

        // area
        private static SPDiagnosticsArea _area;

        // category
        private static SPDiagnosticsCategory _catError;
        private static SPDiagnosticsCategory _catWarning;
        private static SPDiagnosticsCategory _catLogging;

        #endregion

        private static class CategoryName
        {
            public const string Error = "Error";
            public const string Warning = "Warning";
            public const string Logging = "Logging";
        }

        private static UlsLogging Current
        {
            get
            {
                if (_current == null)
                {
                    _current = new UlsLogging();
                }
                return _current;
            }
        }

        // Get Area
        private static SPDiagnosticsArea Area
        {
            get
            {
                if (_area == null)
                {
                    _area = UlsLogging.Current.Areas[PRODUCT_NAME];
                }
                return _area;
            }
        }

        // Get error category
        private static SPDiagnosticsCategory CategoryError
        {
            get
            {
                if (_catError == null)
                {
                    _catError = Area.Categories[CategoryName.Error];
                }
                return _catError;
            }
        }

        // Get warning category
        private static SPDiagnosticsCategory CategoryWarning
        {
            get
            {
                if (_catWarning == null)
                {
                    _catWarning = Area.Categories[CategoryName.Warning];
                }
                return _catWarning;
            }
        }

        // Get logging category
        private static SPDiagnosticsCategory CategoryLogging
        {
            get
            {
                if (_catLogging == null)
                {
                    _catLogging = Area.Categories[CategoryName.Logging];
                }
                return _catLogging;
            }
        }

        private UlsLogging()
            : base(PRODUCT_NAME, SPFarm.Local)
        {
        }

        protected override IEnumerable<SPDiagnosticsArea> ProvideAreas()
        {
            var cat = new List<SPDiagnosticsCategory>{
                new SPDiagnosticsCategory(CategoryName.Error, TraceSeverity.High,EventSeverity.Error),
                new SPDiagnosticsCategory(CategoryName.Warning, TraceSeverity.Medium,EventSeverity.Warning),
                new SPDiagnosticsCategory(CategoryName.Logging,TraceSeverity.Verbose,EventSeverity.Information)
            };
            var areas = new List<SPDiagnosticsArea>();
            areas.Add(new SPDiagnosticsArea(PRODUCT_NAME, cat));

            return areas;
        }

        // Log Error
        public static void LogError(string msg)
        {
            UlsLogging.Current.WriteTrace(0, CategoryError, TraceSeverity.High, msg);
        }
        public static void LogError(string msg,params object[] args)
        {
            UlsLogging.Current.WriteTrace(0, CategoryError, TraceSeverity.High, msg,args);
        }

        // Log Warning
        public static void LogWarning(string msg)
        {
            UlsLogging.Current.WriteTrace(0, CategoryWarning, TraceSeverity.Medium, msg);
        }
        public static void LogWarning(string msg, params object[] args)
        {
            UlsLogging.Current.WriteTrace(0, CategoryWarning, TraceSeverity.Medium, msg,args);
        }

        // Log Information
        public static void LogInformation(string msg)
        {
            UlsLogging.Current.WriteTrace(0, CategoryLogging, TraceSeverity.Verbose, msg); 
        }
        public static void LogInformation(string msg,params object[] args)
        {
            UlsLogging.Current.WriteTrace(0, CategoryLogging, TraceSeverity.Verbose, msg,args);
        }

    }
}

Zo

i used this and it works great and as expect, thanks for saving me from a headache! – Eclampsia

Answer 3

Here you find another great article about logging with SharePoint: http://www.parago.de/2011/01/how-to-implement-a-custom-sharepoint-2010-logging-service-for-uls-and-windows-event-log/

Kindig

That's a great article, the inability to change the name from "Unknown" to something sane always annoyed me. – Counterpoise

Answer 4

Try Below Code: (add this reference: using Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration;)

try
        {

            SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges(delegate()
            {
                SPDiagnosticsService diagSvc = SPDiagnosticsService.Local;
                diagSvc.WriteTrace(123456, new SPDiagnosticsCategory("Category_Name_Here", TraceSeverity.Monitorable, EventSeverity.Error), TraceSeverity.Monitorable, "{0}:{1}", new object[] { "Method_Name", "Error_Message"});
            });
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
        }

Now open uls viewer and filter by your category name.

Coquet

Answer 5

This DID NOT work for me, and hung up my webpart consistently. I had it working for a second and then not. And only, only when I removed the Trace register/unregister/etc statements would it work.

So I recommend this excellent article which worked for me: http://sharepoint.namics.com/2008/05/logging_in_webparts.html

Essentially, you should use:

Common Infrastructure Libraries for .NET.

I downloaded it from here: http://netcommon.sourceforge.net/

I used gacutil (or the control pane/admin tools/.net config tool) to add the 2.0/release dll's to the gac.

I added references to my code to the dll's (from the download). Everything compiled.

I had to create a directory and empty log file, and bam! on the first web part load it worked. I tried for hours and hours to get logging for my web part and this worked wonderfully, and it's a good standard, like log4j.

Sensory

The link is broken. Could you indicate what didn't work? You could mean the orginal question's dismissed solution or the MSDN article suggested by another answer. – Bookerbookie