Is the WCF Service Trace Viewer tool indispensable?

Question

Do I need to learn the WCF Service trace viewer tool?

I understand I can use the WCF Service Trace Viewer tool to trace messages leaving from clients, or arriving at servers.

Can I configure WCF tracing to record REST messages as well as SOAP? Are there other neat tricks I can do?

I've developed with WCF for a long while but I've never spent the time to learn the trace tool. I've generally used HTTP bindings, and Fiddler works well for me there. I'm wondering if it is worth it to learn the tool. Just now I was reading the doc page and my eyes started to roll back in my head.

Will the WCF tool make my life better?

Answer 1

If you haven't needed it, I guess it's not indispensable to you.

I've found it to be of use because it can combine traces from the client and the server, including non-WCF traces. It can tell you what's going on at many levels, including down in the depths of WCF.

Answer 2

If you're doing anything beyond the most basic WCF stuff you should learn to use the tool. If your Kung Fu is strong you can even use it to debug/trace any application across tiers and layers.

So, it's a very valuable tool but I wouldn't say it's indispensable. That category is reserved for .NET Reflector and the SysInternals stuff.