Set up logging in Nexus Card SDK

This article describes logging in Nexus Card SDK.

Logging in Card SDK is made in two categories:

Generated by Card SDK itself: event log, system log and card jobs logging.
Not generated by Card SDK: the general "Java Console" output. This is not specific to Card SDK. Instead it is a general debugging technique for all client side Java programs.

Card SDK does NOT use the Windows Event Logging system.

As a general rule for logging in Card SDK, try to keep the logs as small as possible in size. To achieve this, consider the following:

Set up: When you are facing a reproducible error, it is a good idea to do all the preparation that you need to do, except for the final action that triggers the error. So click all the buttons you need to click, except for the final one.
Cleanse: Before you do that error inducing action, completely DELETE/EMPTY the existing log files. (Or, if you wish, instead of deleting, move them to a backup directory.)
Trigger: Do that error inducing action.
Remember: Note down the EXACT time that you did the error inducing action. (Hint: take a screenshot and make sure to include the Windows system clock in it.)
Collect: Collect the log files immediately. (So that they don't grow after the part that was actually interesting to you.)

Clean up the logs

After you're done, turn down the Log-Levels again (see "Set up System log" and delete any large logs. There is no automatic log rotation and no automatic log truncation. The logs will grow to be huge.

Logging generated by Card SDK

Card SDK event log

Set up Card SDK event log

There is no set up required (or possible).

Collect data

The standard path to the event log is: C:\ProgramData\cms

System log

Set up System log

Turn on the maximum amount of logging for Nexus Card SDK.

In Configuration Manager, click the information icon.
Click the system settings icon.The System Settings pop up is displayed.
Check Activate Log.
Enter the name of the Log File. See also under heading "Collect data" below.
Select Log-Levels (an example is shown in the image).

After you're done, turn down the Log-Levels again There is no automatic log rotation or log truncation so the log file will grow quickly.
Select Max. characters per line.
1. 200 – only 200 characters will be written
2. Unlimited – all will be written
Click OK.

Collect data

Path to log file

The standard path for idcardlog.txt is C:\Users\xxUSERNAMExx\AppData\Local\Temp

Additional log files

If you have enabled "Additional" in Log-Level when you set up the System log the following applies:
1. When you encode anything there will be several others logs of this filename pattern: C:\ProgramData\cms\idcardlog*.txt, for example
  1. idcardlog_jpkiencoder.txt
  2. idcardlog_Mifare.txt,
  3. idcardlog_PKI.txt
  4. etc.
Remember to collect these files as well.

Production job log

Set up Production job log

In Configuration Manager, double-click IDProductionService.
Check Save Last Production Jobs.
Enter Number of stored jobs.
1. Default: 0
2. If you enter, for example, 5, 5 jobs will be saved. See under "Collect data" below.
Click OK.

Collect data

Collect data under /CardJobs.

Use the collected production job data

You can resubmit the collected XML files to Card SDK via the web interface's Development tab.

In Configuration Manager, double-click IDProductionService.
Click Open Browser Interface...
Select the Development tab....

Java console logging

Set up Java console logging

In the Java Control Panel, under Java console, click Show console.
Click OK.

Use the Java console

When you run into an error, additional text may be shown here.
Manually copy the output and save it into a text file called, for example, javaconsole.txt.

It is also possible to enable saving automatically:

Open the Java Control Panel.
Go to Advanced > Debugging > Enable tracing.
The output of the Java console window will be directly written to disk underneath %UserProfile%\AppData\LocalLow\Sun\Java\Deployment\log\. But that directory tends to fill up quickly, so the manual way is preferred.