Debug Tracing in BizTalk Orchestrations and Custom C# Components

It’s not immediately obvious how you can debug code in BizTalk orchestrations, custom pipelines, custom fuctoids etc. After investigating a couple of options I found the easiest way is to use a tool called Debugview which is a simple executable (no installation required) supplied by Microsoft for free.

1. Download the executable and install it on the desktop or somewhere else thats easy to get to
2. In an orchestration enter the following code in either a Message Assignment or Expression shape with whatever you want to

   System.Diagnostics.Trace.WriteLine(System.String.Format("Message content is - {0}",msgMyEmployees.OuterXml));
   

3. Or in c# you can write the same code in your custom functoid or custom pipeline
4. Deploy / GAC / Restart host instances as usual then kick off DbgView.exe .
5. Ensure Capture Win32 Capture Global Win32 are all checked under the capture menu
6. Click on Capture (the magnifying glass)
7. Run your test case through BizTalk and the output will be printed to the window. Nice and easy.