Introduction

In this chapter, we will explore the tracing and logging techniques in the Oracle SOA Suite. Note that the BPEL specification does not define the tracing and logging in a BPEL process. Rather, both functionalities require a BPEL server vendor extension. Tracing as well as logging becomes handy in various situations. If there are problems during BPEL process deployment, we can check the logfiles to see what went wrong if the error is not recognized from the console.

Another example is in situations where we know something is wrong inside a BPEL process; however, we are unable to pinpoint the exact position in the code. In that case, we use the tracing functionality to drill down into the problem to find the root cause of the situation we are investigating. The tracing functionality is also used for tracking a business process execution. Tracing provides insightful information on the steps performed by the business process. Tracing is more focused on the business process execution...