E4/EAS/Logging and Tracing

Components are going to want a way to send information into a log somewhere. This needs to be pluggable so that they can contain and dictate where this information should go and how it should be logged. Ideally, the default output of what e4 applications produce should be consumable by the 'Error Log' view from Eclipse 3.x. It should also be possible for applications to enable tracing.

This service is related to status handling.

Eclipse 3.x API

Logging:

• org.osgi.service.log.LogService
• org.eclipse.core.runtime.ILog

Tracing:

• org.eclipse.core.runtime.Platform.getDebugOption(String)

Retrieving LogService in 3.x

A developer can retrieve the OSGi LogService via a ServiceTracker.

private LogService getLogService() {
  fLogServiceTracker = new ServiceTracker(fBundleContext, LogService.class.getName(), null);
  return (LogService) fLogServiceTracker.getService();
}

Retrieving ILog

The org.eclipse.core.runtime.Platform class defines a static getLog(Bundle) method for retrieving an ILog.

Any subclass of org.eclipse.core.runtime.Plugin can also retrieve an ILog via the public getLog() method.

public class MyPlugin extends Plugin {
  public void start(BundleContext context) throws Exception {
    getLog().log(new Status(IStatus.OK, "org.eclipse.e4.core", "Starting org.eclipse.e4.core bundle...");
  }
 
  public void stop(BundleContext context) throws Exception {
    getLog().log(new Status(IStatus.OK, "org.eclipse.e4.core", "Stopping org.eclipse.e4.core bundle...");
  }
}

e4 (Java)

Logging:

• org.eclipse.e4.core.services.Logger

Retrieving LogService in e4 (Java)

A developer can retrieve the OSGi LogService via a ServiceTracker as described above or they can query their Eclipse context for it.

private LogService getLogService() {
  return (LogService) fEclipseContext.get(LogService.class.getName());
}