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javaeclipseloggingerror-handlingeclipse-plugin

Proper Logging for Eclipse plug-in development

When I am catching an exception that I have thrown, what is the proper logging of that exception? I know the user can see the "error log" view in eclipse.

Here are a couple different ways that I can log... Not sure which is the best and what exactly the user will see when I log it this way.

  1. Simply print the stack trace. Will this show in the "error log" view?
  2. Activator.getDefault().log(e.getMessage(), e); In each catch clause, I can log the information with the Activator that is associated with the plug-ins ID.

Are there betters way to log the error in eclipse?

Solution

  • Printing the stack trace will not go in the error log, it will just be lost (except when running from within Eclipse or with a console).

    The Activator based logging is the usual way to log. The code logging provided by the Plugin or AbstractUIPlugin class is:

    ILog log = Activator.getDefault().getLog();

log.log(new Status(....));

    Status has a number of different constructors depending on exactly what you want to log. For example:

    new Status(IStatus.ERROR, ID, errorNumber, message, exception);

new Status(IStatus.ERROR, message, exception);

    Activator is the class defined as the plug-in activator in the Bundle-Activator in the plug-in's MANIFEST.MF.

    If the plug-in does not have an activator you can get get the ILog using:

    ILog log = Platform.getLog(getClass());

    or

    ILog log = Platform.getLog(bundle);

    where bundle is the Bundle for the plug-in.