C# Cookbook

6.2. Providing Fine-Grained Control Over Debugging/Tracing Output

Problem

Your application consists of multiple components. You need, at specific times, to turn on debug/trace output for a select few components, while leaving all other debug/trace output turned off. In addition, you need control over the type and amount of information that is produced by the Trace/Debug statements.

Solution

Use the BooleanSwitch class with an application configuration file (*.config). The following method creates three switches for our application: one that controls tracing for database calls, one that controls tracing for UI components, and one that controls tracing for any exceptions that are thrown by the application:

public class Traceable
{
    BooleanSwitch DBSwitch = null;
    BooleanSwitch UISwitch = null;
    BooleanSwitch exceptionSwitch = null;

    public void EnableTracing( )
    {
        DBSwitch = new BooleanSwitch("DatabaseSwitch", 
                   "Switch for database tracing");
        Console.WriteLine("DBSwitch Enabled = " + DBSwitch.Enabled);

        UISwitch = new BooleanSwitch("UISwitch", 
                   "Switch for user interface tracing");
        Console.WriteLine("UISwitch Enabled = " + UISwitch.Enabled);

        exceptionSwitch = new BooleanSwitch("ExceptionSwitch", 
                          "Switch for tracing thrown exceptions");
        Console.WriteLine("ExceptionSwitch Enabled = " + exceptionSwitch.Enabled);
    }
}

After creating each switch, the Enabled property is displayed, indicating whether the switch is on or off.

Creating these switches without an application configuration file results ...