Hack 8. View the Event Log

Your device has a hidden Event Log that can be viewed using a certain key combination.

Similar to the event log on a Windows computer, there is an Event Log on your BlackBerry device where applications and the BlackBerry operating system itself can log information. Not only does this provide a central place to view all events from the system and applications, but it allows application developers to use an easy and consistent API for logging events so that each developer doesn't have to create his own.

You can view the Event Log on your device and even filter certain events, copy them to the clipboard even email the entire log to someone. You won't find an icon for the Event Log viewer program. You'll have to enter a "secret" key combination to get it to appear.

1.9.1. View the Log

From your Home screen, type the following key sequence: Alt-L,G,L,G. This should bring up the Event Log viewer as shown in Figure 1-19.

Figure 1-19. The Event Log program

From within the Event Log, you can view the details of each event by pressing the Enter key. Figure 1-20 shows the details of an event.

You can copy specific events to the clipboard on your device by clicking the trackwheel when viewing the details of an event and selecting Copy Event. From the main viewer, you can copy a summary of the current day's events to the clipboard by using the trackwheel to access the menu and selecting Copy Today's Contents. Once the summary is on your clipboard, you can paste it into any other program, including in a new message, by using the trackwheel menu and choosing Paste.

Figure 1-20. The details of a particular event

When you access the Event Log, the program reads the current events and displays them on the screen. As you are viewing the events, additional events may have been logged since you started the program. Choose Refresh from the trackwheel menu to reread the events to make sure you're displaying the most recent events.

1.9.2. Customize Event Log Options

You can use a number of options to filter the events or even expand your view to include events that have a lower severity. To access the filter options, click on the trackwheel and choose Options from the menu. By default, the Event Log displays events with a severity of Warning. You can change the Minimum Log Level setting in your Event Log as shown in Figure 1-21.

Figure 1-21. Changing the minimum log level

Modifying the Minimum Log Level changes the threshold for any events that get logged after you make the change. So you cannot change the level from Warning to Information or Debug and expect to see additional events retroactively only new events will be affected by your change. Also, consider the impact of setting the threshold to Debug Info: as with debugging logs on any platform, they can quickly fill and consume system resources.

You can also control which applications' events show up in the Event Log. By default, the events from all applications are displayed in the Event Log. To modify which program events appear, uncheck the checkbox beside the applications you'd like to not appear in the log. Be sure and save your changes after you make modifications to the Options screen. This is useful for troubleshooting a specific application you're having problems with.

The Event Log program also gives you the ability to clear the log. Choose Clear Log from the trackwheel menu to purge all entries in the Event Log as shown in Figure 1-22 to start from scratch when troubleshooting a problem.

Figure 1-22. Clear the Event Log