Improve log and trace facilities
Created on: Jan 19, 2009 4:07 AM by AndySteele - Last Modified: Jan 19, 2009 6:39 AM by AndySteele
- multiple trace levels such as INFO, WARNING, ERROR, CONFIG, DEBUG
- external configuration of logging including format, target, log level
- buffered writing of trace output for performance reasons
It would be nice to see a similar feature built in to EGL. From a Java perspective, basing it on the java.util.logging API would be ideal. This has the added benefit that for Webpshere applications you immediately plug into the Websphere logging and tracing framework with, amongst other things, dynamic runtime configuration of trace levels.
AndySteele says:
in response to: S.Westerlinck
Yes, that's a fair point. However, one of the key things I want to get across is:
the nice thing about the integration of java.util.logging with WAS is that the trace configuration is separate from the application. This means that when building my application I don't have to think about what the target environment is and therefore set my tracing configuration at build time e.g. make sure that debug trace is off for a live deployment. It also means in that live environment I can enable debug tracing for a very short time to diagnose a particular problem without disrupting my application.
Of course that is a very specific use case and will not be practical for example in COBOL generated applications or Java command line apps. Main thing is to get a more flexible logging framework in place.
S.Westerlinck says:
in response to: AndySteele
I fully agree with you and figured as much that was your goal. But what I wanted to point out is basically two things:
- Keep the philosophy of EGL in abstracting platform specific stuff, so indeed support what you suggest without thinking about the target environment.
- Unfortunately, the only thing available now is this build descriptor that might end up in some file in your target environment, that may or may not be editable at runtime.
sieber says:
And do not forget Cobol generation !
...and support/integrate this functionality also with the declarative tracing capabilities as set via properties within the build descriptor (that might end up in a deployment descriptor for those deploying in a JEE environment).