How to collect application logs in Windows Phone 8.1?

Question

I am new to the Windows Phone platform. Is there anything available like logcat in android for windows to collect logs? Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Windows 8.1 introduced new classes to simplify logging. These classes are LoggingChannel , LoggingSession, and others .

Here is an example:

App.xaml.cs

LoggingSession logSession; LoggingChannel logChannel; public App() { this.InitializeComponent(); this.UnhandledException += App_UnhandledException; } void App_UnhandledException(object sender, UnhandledExceptionEventArgs e) { logChannel.LogMessage("Unhandled exception: " + e.Message); logSession.SaveToFileAsync(Windows.Storage.ApplicationData.Current.LocalFolder, "MainLog.log").AsTask().Wait(); } protected override void OnLaunched(LaunchActivatedEventArgs e) { logSession = new LoggingSession("MainLogSession"); Resources["MainLogSession"] = logSession; logChannel = new LoggingChannel("AppLogChannel"); logSession.AddLoggingChannel(logChannel); } 

MainPage.xaml.cs

 LoggingChannel logChannel; public MainPage() { this.InitializeComponent(); var logSession = (LoggingSession)Application.Current.Resources["MainLogSession"]; logChannel = new LoggingChannel("MainPageLogChannel"); logSession.AddLoggingChannel(logChannel); logChannel.LogMessage("MainPage ctor", LoggingLevel.Information); } 

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I highly recommend watching to make your Windows Store apps more reliable during the 2013 construction conference, where Harry Pearson demonstrates these new APIs in more detail (including uploading a log file to a server server using a background task that runs when the phone is connected to AC power).

Answer 2

You can use System.Diagnostics.Debug to view the logs in the Visual Studio console window, but you won’t be able to collect them later because it is displayed only during debugging.

I recommend using MetroLog, a lightweight logging system designed specifically for the Windows Store and Windows Phone applications.

You can install it using NuGet

 Install-Package MetroLog 

Here is an example:

 using MetroLog; using MetroLog.Targets; LogManagerFactory.DefaultConfiguration.AddTarget(LogLevel.Trace, LogLevel.Fatal, new FileStreamingTarget()); GlobalCrashHandler.Configure(); ILogger log = LogManagerFactory.DefaultLogManager.GetLogger<MainPage>(); log.Trace("This is a trace message."); 

You can find a tutorial explaining how to add it to your project at http://talkitbr.com/2015/06/11/adicionando-logs-em-universal-apps . There is also an explanation regarding the extraction of these logs.