SOAP Request Tracing

This is a page on how to turn on tracing of SOAP requests coming in and out of web services. This is not necessarily specific to xWeb, although it can be helpful for that use as well. The 2007.01 build added tracing implemented at the application level - the ws_activity_log table - but this can be used if that logging is not available or not preferred. Please be aware that turning this on can result in additional processing time for web requests.

How to get it to work:

This functionality exists in the Web Services Enhancements 2.0 package. It works if SP3 is installed, older versions may also work, but I have only worked with SP3. This package must be installed on the server. Once it's installed, I did not have to restart IIS, although I did make changes to the web.config effectively restarting the xWeb application for the site I was trying to turn this on for.

There are several settings that need to be put in the web.config, as follows:

1. In the ConfigSections add a new section:

<section name="microsoft.web.services2" type="Microsoft.Web.Services2.Configuration.WebServicesConfiguration, Microsoft.Web.Services2, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35" />

2. In the webServices element, which is in the system.web element, add a new node:

<soapExtensionTypes>
<add type="Microsoft.Web.Services2.WebServicesExtension, Microsoft.Web.Services2, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35" priority="1" group="0" />
</soapExtensionTypes>

3. A new section must be added microsoft.web.services2, which must be directly under the configuration element:

<microsoft.web.services2>
<diagnostics>
<trace enabled="true" input="InputTrace.webinfo" output="OutputTrace.webinfo" />
</diagnostics>
</microsoft.web.services2>

Once this configuration is complete, any SOAP call made to xWeb will be logged in the files specified in the input and output parameters of the trace element. The request will be saved to the input file and the response will be saved to the output file.

SOAP Request Tracing

See Also