For the most part, the same logging information is available in BlueDragon as in CFMX. The files may be in a different location, and the BlueDragon admin console doesn't offer an interface to view them all, but most of them are there, including the mail.log, scheduler.log, an equivalent to the server.log, and a substantial enhancement over CF's limited application.log.

Where ColdFusion stores log files cfusionmx\logs directory, the name and location of BlueDragon's log files depend on the edition of BlueDragon installed.

For BlueDragon Server and Server JX, a "logs" directory is created under the directory where the BlueDragon Server product is installed, such as C:\BlueDragon_Server_JX_61\. It will be referred to generically as [BlueDragon]. In that same directory is another, called "work"', which has its own log files (and subdirectories with additional ones).

The [BlueDragon]\logs directory contains primarily the BlueDragon Server JX.log (or BlueDragon Server.log in the Server edition), which is similar to the server.log file in CFMX (though with more detail). It tracks the status of the server as its started and stopped, but unlike CF a different log file is created for each run, and logs of past runs are kept as renamed backups. Installation log files are also placed in the same directory where BlueDragon is installed.

The [BlueDragon]\work\ directory contains still more log files. Perhaps of most interest is the bluedragon.log file. Containing in some ways information that seems similar to the previously mentioned BlueDragon Server.log, it tracks different aspects of server startup and shutdown. Unlike the BlueDragon Server.log, this bluedragon.log is not recreated for each run of the server, but is instead appended to continuously.

Additionally, this [BlueDragon]\work\server.log file tracks when CFML errors occur. Rather than detail here the details of the error in a single line (as CF's application.log file does), BlueDragon instead writes an entire page of HTML with the error as shown in the browser (including debugging info at the bottom of the page). This makes tracking errors much more effective, as you have a whole page of information to evaluate rather than a single line. The server.log file tracks when this HTML page of error details is written, and it indicates the name and location of the file.

These error detail pages are written [BlueDragon]\work\temp\rtelogs\ directory, with names such as bderror999.html. This file name is also displayed on the error page shown to the developer/user. By the way, if you don't want these details written to the screen, or to this log file, both options can be controlled by the BlueDragon Admin console.

The [BlueDragon]\work\ directory also contains other subdirectories with their own log files related to other features in CFML, such as the [BlueDragon]\work\cfmail\ directory with its mail.log and also spool and undelivered directories, which perform the same function as in CF. The [BlueDragon]\work\cfschedule\ directory contains a schedule.log for tracking scheduled tasks, as in CF.

Bluedragon does not currently support the option, "log pages taking longer than xx seconds".

Since the Java EE edition of BlueDragon involves deploying CFML in a Java EE web app, there is no BlueDragon server to start/stop, and therefore no logs related to that. The bluedragon.log, mail.log, and schedule.log described above are available in a Java EE deployment of BlueDragon. They are found in the web application's \WEB-INF\bluedragon\work\ directory. Here you will also find the temp\rtelogs\ directory and all the html pages tracking any errors that have occurred in CFML pages. Since there is no installer for the Java EE edition, there is no installer log file.

BlueDragon for the Microsoft .NET Framework offers most of the same kind of log files described previously. The location of these, however, will depend on the choices made when installing the product. As discussed in the product's documentation, it can be installed either in a global manner (for one or more web sites) or in a localized form, for a single virtual directory.

For all but the single virtual directory option (see below), a default directory called C:\BlueDragon.NET is created to hold various support files, including log files. Here will be found a BlueDragonInstaller.log.

Additionally, for each web site (and each virtual directory), a separate directory is created that holds configuration and logging information for each. On a machine with a single default web site, a C:\BlueDragon.NET\Web Site 1\ directory will exist that has its own work directory, containing the bluedragon.log and the subdirectories for mail and schedule logging discussed above. Additionally, any virtual directories created within that web site will have its own subdirectory with its own work directory and associated log files. (So if you have a "test" virtual directory in your default web site, there would exist a C:\BlueDragon.NET\Web Site 1\test\ directory with its own work directory and log files.) This is important to remember when trying to locate log files for code running in a virtual directory. (For more information on virtual directories and their impact on BlueDragon/.NET, see the product documentation.)

If the "Single Virtual Directory" option is chosen during installation of BlueDragon/.NET, then all configuration and logging files are stored in that virtual directory, specifically in a bluedragon subdirectory of the virtual directory's document root. If the docroot was C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\test\, then the log files would be in C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\test\bluedragon\work\ directory. Again, note that this is only when the "Single Virtual Directory" option is chosen at installation. Virtual directories configured in web sites that have been configured for BlueDragon will have their log files located as discussed in the previous section.

Author: Charlie Arehart
Last Updated: 12/22/2004 10:32 AM
Created: 12/22/2004