GregH
23-01-2006 10:09:51
Hi Folks,
If you're savvy with System.Reflection please ignore this post.
I wanted to give something back to the Community.
This may or may not be useful, but I've spent a reasonable amount of time playing with System.Reflection as a debugging tool. This was motivated by the fact that I wanted to see *all* of a specified object or class's properties and their current values without having to write buckets of code. I wanted it in the Output Window (or a log file) and I wanted it now. And I wanted to call it with one line of code.
The following Sub can go anywhere as long as you Import System.Reflection and any other relevant libraries (eg: OgreDotNet) and also note you should change the parameter line to read the specific type of object you wish to interrogate...in this example it's a Camera...but it can be used in any VB.Net app with any object, and I usually don't pass an object to it as I use it within a class with Me.GetType instead of pObject.GetType so a class becomes self reporting (in a half-shaded ListView object conjured on a form from within the class - very sexy).
...and just for the sake of absolute clarity/context (which most of us are guilty of forgetting)... you use it like this in your calling app...
Now look in the Visual Studio Output Window and hey presto the object reveals its inner most secrets...except for properties that are shy (aka "Unknown") ...and while I'm on that subject - why on earth is the Camera.LookAt property a writeonly property ????????????? One might want to know what vector the camera is looking at...and I suspect this to be an **issue** in my current investigation about grumpy cameras. Hmmm..might need to use the AutoTrack instead methinks.
I hope you find it useful...I'm about to interrogate the aforesaid grumpy camera to find out why it's breaking my app. Oh..and keep this in mind...I'm going to compare the debug output of a working camera against this SOB's output. One line spew. Way to go !!!
BTW, If you find this useful, please attach a reply because I'm new to the whole forum environment and need to know if I'm doing the right thing, or just telling you stuff you already knew.
Cheers,
G.
If you're savvy with System.Reflection please ignore this post.
I wanted to give something back to the Community.
This may or may not be useful, but I've spent a reasonable amount of time playing with System.Reflection as a debugging tool. This was motivated by the fact that I wanted to see *all* of a specified object or class's properties and their current values without having to write buckets of code. I wanted it in the Output Window (or a log file) and I wanted it now. And I wanted to call it with one line of code.
The following Sub can go anywhere as long as you Import System.Reflection and any other relevant libraries (eg: OgreDotNet) and also note you should change the parameter line to read the specific type of object you wish to interrogate...in this example it's a Camera...but it can be used in any VB.Net app with any object, and I usually don't pass an object to it as I use it within a class with Me.GetType instead of pObject.GetType so a class becomes self reporting (in a half-shaded ListView object conjured on a form from within the class - very sexy).
Imports System.Reflection
Module ObjectDebug
Public Sub ReportProperties(ByVal pObject As Camera)
'This subroutine uses reflection to interogate the properties
'of this class...
Dim PInfo As PropertyInfo
Dim Spaces As Integer
Dim MaxProperyNameLength As Integer
Debug.WriteLine(vbCr & "--- Property Report for " & pObject.GetType.ToString & " ---" & vbCr)
'Determine the longest property name (for formatting purposes)...
For Each PInfo In pObject.GetType.GetProperties()
If PInfo.Name.Length > MaxProperyNameLength Then
MaxProperyNameLength = PInfo.Name.Length
End If
Next PInfo
'By this stage, we know the length (in chars) of the
'longest property name.
For Each PInfo In pObject.GetType.GetProperties()
Try
'Determine the details for this property..
Spaces = (MaxProperyNameLength - PInfo.Name.Length) + 1
Debug.WriteLine("Property " & PInfo.Name & Space(Spaces) & _
"Value: " & PInfo.GetValue(pObject, Nothing).ToString)
Catch ex As Exception
Debug.WriteLine("Property " & PInfo.Name & Space(Spaces) & _
"Value: Unknown")
End Try
Next PInfo
Debug.WriteLine(vbCr & "--- End of Property Report for " & pObject.GetType.ToString & " ---" & vbCr)
End Sub 'ReportProperties
End Module
...and just for the sake of absolute clarity/context (which most of us are guilty of forgetting)... you use it like this in your calling app...
...
...
Dim MyCamera As Camera = MySceneManager.CreateCamera("MainCam")
ReportProperties(MyCamera)
...
...Now look in the Visual Studio Output Window and hey presto the object reveals its inner most secrets...except for properties that are shy (aka "Unknown") ...and while I'm on that subject - why on earth is the Camera.LookAt property a writeonly property ????????????? One might want to know what vector the camera is looking at...and I suspect this to be an **issue** in my current investigation about grumpy cameras. Hmmm..might need to use the AutoTrack instead methinks.
I hope you find it useful...I'm about to interrogate the aforesaid grumpy camera to find out why it's breaking my app. Oh..and keep this in mind...I'm going to compare the debug output of a working camera against this SOB's output. One line spew. Way to go !!!
BTW, If you find this useful, please attach a reply because I'm new to the whole forum environment and need to know if I'm doing the right thing, or just telling you stuff you already knew.
Cheers,
G.