Log Debug Info

Audience: Low-code Engineers

Skill Prerequisites: Actions, Tokens

Writes a message to the Plant an App log files at Debug level. Use it to trace what an action list is doing, for example which branch ran or what value a token had, without showing anything to the user.

Debug messages are only written when the log level is set to Debug. By default it's Error, so the action does nothing visible until you change it. See Turning on debug logging.

This action is available in Listings and User Guides. In other modules, the same action is called Log Debug Message.

Typical Use Cases

• Check the value of a token at a certain point in an action list, for example Order total: [Total]
• Confirm which actions ran when a button behaves unexpectedly
• Leave tracing messages in place that only produce output when debugging is turned on

Don't use it to

• Record errors that need attention. Use Log Error, which is always written.
• Show a message to the user. Use Display Message.
• Keep an audit trail. Debug logging is usually off, so the messages won't be there. Save the data with Run SQL Query instead.

Related Actions

Action Name	Description
Log Debug Message	The same action, under the name used in other modules.
Log Error	Writes a message at Error level, which is logged by default.
Log Event	Writes an entry to the event log.
Context to JSON Object	Collects tokens into one JSON value, which you can then log.

Input Parameter Reference

Parameter	Description	Supports Tokens	Default	Required
Message	The text to log, for example Loaded customer [CustomerId], status [Status].	Yes	empty string	No

Turning on debug logging

Plant an App writes its logs to daily files in Portals/_default/Logs/PlantAnApp/ on the server. The files are in compact JSON format.

The log level is set in DesktopModules/DnnSharp/Common/Config/appsettings.json, under Serilog > MinimumLevel. To see messages from this action, either lower the level for everything:

"MinimumLevel": {
  "Default": "Debug"
}

or lower it only for this action, which keeps the log files small:

"MinimumLevel": {
  "Default": "Error",
  "Override": {
    "DnnSharp.Common.Actions.Debug.LogDebug": "Debug"
  }
}

note

The Debug Logging setting on the Tokens settings page only controls extra logging for tokens. It doesn't change the log level for this action.

Considerations

• Turn debug logging off again when you're done. At Debug level, the whole platform logs a lot more, which fills the log files quickly.
• Don't log secrets. Log files are plain text on the server. Avoid putting passwords, API keys or personal data in the message.
• The action never fails and doesn't change any tokens. The actions after it always run.

Examples

tip

To understand how to use the below examples, please see Running Examples.

1. Trace a value before saving

This action logs the item being saved, so you can check the values in the log file when debug logging is on.

{
    "Title": "Log Debug Info",
    "ActionType": "LogDebug",
    "Description": "Trace the order before it's saved",
    "Parameters": {
        "Message": "Saving order [OrderId] for customer [CustomerId], total [Total]"
    }
}

Revised 09/26/2026