I want to make a iis log viewer for websites I develop. I know there are utilities already developed out there, for e.g http://visuallogparser.codeplex.com/ , but I want to develop something of my own. Couple of questions I’ve is, how can I access files on the windows 2003 server.The log files are stored in a particular folder on the server. I’ve to manually open the files and then look through them for the information that might be relevant.
The first problem I see is being able to first get this file as input to let’s say perl or python for file processing and then the issue of sorting and filtering data as is desired. Also getting a GUI for this.
I’ve no clue in what language or any framework this can be build. Looking for guidance here.
Personally, I think C# is head-and-shoulders above the competition for building standalone GUIs. It also has good support for parsing text, including decent support for regular expressions.
According to http://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Topic525288-146-1.aspx you can just run a query to find out where your SQL-Server instance keeps it’s log (and data) files.
If you’re just starting out programming it’d be a real good idea to work through “the basics” in tutorials before you get started on project like this. Once you “feel ready” then have a go, looking for tutorials/discussion on each aspect as it arrises… and if you get stuck you can ask more specific questions right here.
One other piece of advise: Before you start coding this sort of thing sit down and do a mock-up of the interface. Workout what operations you want to perform. Analysing the problem WHILE you attempt to code a solution is a CLASSIC recipe for spending a lot of time to get not-much done. You need clear goals BEFORE you start coding… and then, of course, you “adapt” your goals as you learn more… as you go along… But it REALLY helps to be clear about what (roughly) you want before you start.
It might help you to use a couple of those existing log-presenters. Find-out what other people have done… what THEY find useful. If you find a particular functionality useful then you could attempt to copy-cat it… or maybe something someone else has done just gets you wondering “HOW do they do that?” and that get’s your creative juices running.
finally, The blank canvas is the scariest one. Just get SOMEthing really simple working, and then add functionality to that, iteratively.
Cheers. Keith.