WSE 2.0 Trace Tool

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been searching for tools to display trace output for WSE 2.0. Many tools available today seem to be too expensive, over engineered, complex to install or don’t offer the features I want. My criteria for the perfect trace tool has to be:

  • Must be very easy to run and copy between machines (i.e. no complex install. Single .exe is ideal)
  • Must be very easy to setup
  • Must be transport independent (i.e. no binding to tcp sockets, http, IIS, or listening on ports)
  • Must not require any modifications to app.config file or the underlying application

WSE 2.0 itself has the ability to record both input and output to trace files, yet working with plain text files can be frustrating. I wanted to see if there is anything I could do to help better display this output. In true “geek style”, I created my own:

WseTrace is a utility that graphically displays the trace files automatically generated by WSE 2.0. It’s a small, self contained .exe, and can be run from Windows Explorer as well as the command line.  The tool offers the following:

  • Correlates the input and output webinfo files to display a split screen trace (as shown above)
  • Dynamically monitors changes to the WSE 2.0 trace files. If the underlying files change, the tool refreshes the trace.
  • Uses the wsu:TimeStamp header (if present) to record the time of the message.
  • Enables you to drag and drop the messages from the tool to Outlook, Word (or other Windows app). Helps with reporting or other analysis.

You can download my latest version of the tool (1.0.1692.22729) here.

Comments, thoughts and ideas welcome.