How to trace invocation of method from some assembly that is shipped like DLL?

Question

I'm using some framework that is shipped as a set of DLL's and source code. When I run my app, which is based on that framework, part of it is not working in my unit tests due to some variable is not assigned. That variable is assigned in internal methods of that framework's classes. I can't override them or break-point that somehow. Though I've found methods that assign value to that variable it is hard to track methods invocation sequences(what is called from where). That framework is based on object composition and it is quite complicated in run-time.

So my question is - are there some utilities that allow me to attach to some process and observe how methods are called in run-time, what exactly is invoked in assemblies when I click sthm.

Answer 1

First of all, I suggest you to test your classes in isolation, especially in isolation from code you don't own. But of course there is a way to debug third party libraries. E.g. Reflector Pro add-in for Visual Studio allows to do that - it generates pdb files for referenced assemblies and makes debugging possible.