LogExpert, a tail tool for Windows

V 1.2 isn't ready yet. But here's a list of features you can expect for the next release.

Inserting blank lines

This is a feature request. This feature will not really insert blank lines, but it will increase the height of a line each time you press the Enter key.

Bookmark comments

You can add a comment to each bookmark. The comments will be displayed as text bubbles directly in the log view. You can drag the bubbles to any position.

Tab renaming

You can rename each tab window (by double-clicking the tab).

Persistence

LogExpert stores a persistence file for each open log file. The file stores the following data:

• All bookmarks and their comments and text bubble positions
• All inserted blank lines
• Selected line and scroll position of the log file
• Tail mode (on/off)
• Filter window on/off and its size
• Bookmark window on/off and its size
• Name of the tab
• Filter and all Filter-tabs

Session files

You can save and reload a session. A session is simply a collection of all currently open log files. You can easily load a session by dragging the file onto LogExpert or via command line.

Session Export

Sessions can be exported to a ZIP file or directory that will contain all log files of the session, their corresponding persistence files and a session file. This is usefull if you want to give a bunch of related log files to someone else (e.g. workflow between support and development).  

Session export feature is cancelled for V 1.2 because it would delay the upcoming release.

New Plugin API

There's an additional plugin API for adding context menu entries to LogExpert. The plugin will get the currently selected line and can add an entry to the context menu each time the right mouse button is pressed.

The first available plugin is already done. It's a plugin that scans the selected line for a valid Java stack trace entry. If valid, the class name and line number will be sent via TCP/IP to a configurable listener. I will release an Eclipse IDE plugin (written by my most active beta tester) that receives this messages. It loads the class and locates to the line number given in the stack trace.