Centralized Log Viewing in Loupe 5: What's Changing?

Loupe View is by far the most used module in Loupe 4, and we expect Loupe 5 to have a similar distribution. In fact, I’ve been using Loupe 5 for a while now, and the View module is where I spend most of my time. It’s just an efficient tool for organizing and searching an extensive log data collection.

So, of course, when a new major version of Loupe comes out, the View module will see many changes. Here, we’ll go over two significant updates for View, and give you a sneak peek of Loupe 5!

Redesigned for Efficient Viewing

When we apply the version update to the Loupe SaaS in the coming months, the first thing we expect users to notice is the new design. The navigation is svelt, the design is a bit more modern, and it’s all centered around a new split-screen UI. The new UI allows for the following:

• Faster navigation through multiple sessions, events, and more. For the most part, you never have to navigate back to the larger list, as it’s always there. If I’m done looking at the data from one session, I can move on to the next just by moving to the left side of my screen. Depending on the page/module used, the same goes for search results, events, and other items.

• Less loading times. Now, when you click on a session, it’s still loading data, but the time it takes to view that data has generally been reduced. This is partly because you never have to actually leave the page and helped by other optimizations made for Loupe 5.

• You can still focus on a single item when necessary. If you click the “expand” button on any item, it will travel to a new page dedicated to that single item. In that case, the split-screen UI adapts to have the item details tab on the left side of the screen and throws other links you travel through on the right (like the screenshot below).

The main takeaway is that the new look is not just a design change; it will fundamentally change the way people use Loupe. Less time navigating trying to find what you need, more time viewing your data.

Get More From Your Metrics

Many of our users already collect various performance metrics along with the pure log data, such as database query times and memory utilization. On Loupe Desktop, this data is really put to work, as you can make custom charts and graphs using metric data. But this feature is a bit difficult to use, and it’s not available on Loupe Server. Therefore, many users didn’t get much use from this data, despite already putting in the effort to collect it.

So, with Loupe 5 we’ve made accessing metric data graphs simpler, as Loupe will build these graphs automatically when the data is available. Just navigate to the metrics tab for a session or event, and you can pick and choose a metrics graph. Let’s take a look at an example using a more condensed version of the Loupe 5 interface:

This is a Database Query Performance graph, used to measure the duration of queries over a period of time. It’s one of the metrics we can graph automatically along with total processor time, page hits, error and message count, and others. I narrowed down the time frame even further using the time range below the graph.

Additionally, some metrics generate their own dedicated tabs. The same query data is used in the “Database” tab, which allows me to see the average time and total count for each query performed in the session:

Overall, Loupe 5 takes the elements of Loupe desktop we have loved for metric viewing and simplifies the execution. This way, anyone taking full advantage of Loupe’s logging capabilities (for example, using the performance counters agent) can get the most out of our software.

Want to Learn More about Loupe 5?

These changes are just a glimpse of what’s new in Loupe 5, but a major part of what View users will interact with daily. If you would like to learn more about Loupe 5, you can take a quick look at what’s coming here, and join our email list so you don’t miss an announcement!