.Net Custom Trace file name

Question

I would like my application to write out different trace files named like MachineName_UserName_yyyymmdd_hhmmss.txt where the username is the currently logged in user and the time is the start time of the application. The .Net listener TextWriterTraceListener only seems to support a hard coded file name specified in the config file. Is there a way to do this without writing a custom trace listener.

Assuming I have to write a custom trace listener, I have implemented a tracelistener like this:

Imports System.Diagnostics

Public Class MyCustomTraceListener
    Inherits TextWriterTraceListener

    Public Sub New()
        'Need to do it this way as the Base constructor call has to be the first statement
        MyBase.New(String.Format("AppNameTraceFile_{0}_{1}_{2}{3}{4}-{5}{6}{7}.txt", _
                                                       Environment.MachineName, _
                                                       Environment.UserName, _
                                                       DateTime.Now.ToString("yyyy"), _
                                                       DateTime.Now.ToString("MM"), _
                                                       DateTime.Now.ToString("dd"), _
                                                       DateTime.Now.ToString("HH"), _
                                                       DateTime.Now.ToString("mm"), _
                                                       DateTime.Now.ToString("ss")))
        Me.IndentSize = 4
    End Sub

End Class

In the config file, I have configured the trace source like this:

  <system.diagnostics>
    <trace autoflush="true"/>
    <sources>
      <source name="MyTraceSource"
              switchName="mySwitch"
              switchType="System.Diagnostics.SourceSwitch" >
        <listeners>
          <clear/>
          <add name="MyTraceListener"
            type="MyNameSpace.MyCustomTraceListener"
            traceOutputOptions="ProcessId, DateTime, Callstack" />
        </listeners>
      </source>
    </sources>
    <switches>
      <add name="mySwitch" value="Warning" />
    </switches>
  </system.diagnostics>

I am creating the trace source like so:

Dim tsTraceSource As TraceSource = New TraceSource("MyTraceSource")
tsTraceSource.TraceEvent(TraceEventType.Warning, 0, "warning message")

However, at startup, I keep getting an error that the type "MyNameSpace.MycustomTraceListener" could not be found.

Does anyone see what the problem is here ?

Thanks.

Answer 1

Don't you need to inform your type assembly?

<add name="MyTraceListener"
     type="MyNameSpace.MyCustomTraceListener, MyAssembly"
     traceOutputOptions="ProcessId, DateTime, Callstack" />