TraceDisplay allows you not only to view the various system logs but also to view system logging in real-time.

The figure below shows the main TraceDisplay window with a single child window displaying data from the hospitality service log.

The data displayed is largely intended to aid technical support in troubleshooting system problems and will not be discussed in any detail here. However, an onsite technician may also find these logs useful for troubleshooting on occasion. The following table provides a basic overview of the fields contained in each log entry:

Log statements can be a little cryptic and are generally intended as a debugging aid for the manufacturer's technicians and developers. Still, they can sometimes be useful even to on-site technicians to verify or troubleshoot certain issues.

To view one or more logs in real-time, use the tree view pane on the left to select which log(s) to view. The logs are grouped in broad categories such as Telephony and Hospitality; click on the '+' or '-' symbols to expand or collapse each category. To open a log, double-click on it.

Sometimes the logging statements may accrue faster than you can read them. If you are viewing the log(s) to catch a particular event, you can wait for the event to occur and then take a “snapshot” of the log by clicking on the camera icon on the toolbar (the next-to-last icon).

This will open a new window that will contain all the log statements from the active window up until the point you clicked the icon. You can then peruse those statements at your leisure while the main window continues to accrue log statements in real-time.

If you are viewing one or more logs live in order to debug a particular event, you may end up combing through dozens (if not hundreds) of log statements looking for the ones that specifically relate to the event you are debugging. To help alleviate this problem, an erase option is available on the toolbar (the eraser icon). While the log is running, you can click that icon to instantly delete all data from the window. This does not delete the statements from the log file, only from the window.

So for a typical debugging session, you could open a window set to display the appropriate log(s) in real-time, wait until just before the event occurs that you are trying to debug, click the erase icon, wait for the event to occur (and finish), and then click the camera icon to open a window that displays all the log statements from the active window up to the point you clicked the icon (as discussed in the Taking a Snapshot section above).

To clear all windows displaying real-time data, click the Clear All icon on the toolbar (the one to the left of the eraser icon).

To open a log file to view past logging statements, select File | Open, press Ctrl-O, or click on the File Open icon on the toolbar. This will open a standard Windows File Open dialog from which you can select the file you want to view. Select the file and click Open to open it in a new window.

Normally, only a very minimal amount of log statements are generated, including error statements. However, when a technical support agent is trying to debug a particular problem, he or she may need to increase the amount of logging in order to better track what is occurring within the system. This can be done by toggling the debug filter on.

To enable or disable the debug filter, click the Filter icon on the toolbar, the one at the far right that looks like a funnel.

When the debug filter is enabled, all live log windows will have (debug) added to the title bar next to the log name and those windows will start including debug log statements in the display.

Most PBXLinks use the filename as a prefix in case multiple profiles use the same PBXLink method, in this case the log file name is shown on the Profile General page which uses that PBXLink.