Debug File Format

If the API supports debugging (not a mandatory feature), the API is completely responsible for the format of the debug file.

Notes Concerning Debug File Format:

• The API vendor should completely document the format of the file so that the end-user can readily assist in debugging of a possible application or API problem.
• The file should be in standard ASCII format readable by "notepad.exe" or "wordpad.exe" and should contain line breaks (CR/LF) at the end of each entry.
• The information should be delineated such that it can be imported into a spreadsheet or programmatically parsed with relative ease.
• Comments in the vendor RP 1210 INI file will help the user to understand what levels of debugging that the API is capable of.

If an API vendor does not support debugging, then the vendor should initialize the INI file variable "DebugLevel" to -1. If an API vendor does support debugging, then the vendor should initialize the INI file variable "DebugLevel" to 0.

It is assumed that if an API supports debugging that it only checks the variable on the first client connection and does not check the variable with each additional client. Therefore, to initialize debugging:

1. All client applications would need to disconnect.
2. The user changes the DebugLevel variable.
3. The user reinitializes the application to debug.
4. The user creates the anomaly (while the API writes to the debug file).
5. The user then assists the appropriate technical support staff to debug.