Question

I am trying to add logging component to distributed system. It is written in AspectJ to avoid chaining current source-code. I use socket appender to send logs, but I’d like to try something more effective.

I’ve heard I should use JMSAppender and AsyncAppender, but I failed to configure it. Should I create Receiver which gathers logs and pass them to database and to GUI (I use ChainSaw)?

I tried to follow turorial1 and tutorial2 , but they aren’t clear enough.

Edit:

In a small demo I’ve prepared I sent 6 logs for a request (simulation of 3 components)

[2012-08-08 15:40:28,957] [request1344433228957] [Component_A] [start]
[2012-08-08 15:40:32,050] [request1344433228957] [Component_B] [start]
[2012-08-08 15:40:32,113] [request1344433228957] [Component_C] [start]
[2012-08-08 15:40:32,113] [request1344433228957] [Component_C] [end - throwing]
[2012-08-08 15:40:32,144] [request1344433228957] [Component_B] [end]
[2012-08-08 15:40:32,175] [request1344433228957] [Component_A] [end]

Using socket Appender. So my log4j.properties is:

log4j.rootLogger=DEBUG, server

log4j.appender.server=org.apache.log4j.net.SocketAppender
log4j.appender.server.Port=4712
log4j.appender.server.RemoteHost=localhost
log4j.appender.server.ReconnectionDelay=1000

so I run

>java -classpath log4j-1.2.17.jar org.apache.log4j.net.SimpleSocketServer 4712 log4j-server.properties

with configuration

log4j.rootLogger=DEBUG, CA, FA

#
log4j.appender.CA=org.apache.log4j.ConsoleAppender
log4j.appender.CA.layout=org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout
log4j.appender.CA.layout.ConversionPattern=[%d] [%t] [%c] [%m]%n

#
log4j.appender.FA=org.apache.log4j.FileAppender
log4j.appender.FA.File=report.log
log4j.appender.FA.layout=org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout
log4j.appender.FA.layout.ConversionPattern=[%d] [%t] [%c] [%m]%n

Then I send my logs from file to Chainsaw:

It is absolutely basic, but I want to learn how to do it better. First of all, I’d like to send logs asynchronously. Then create very simple Receiver, which e.g. can pass logs to a file.

I tried to follow tutorials I listed above, but I failed. So question is: could you provide some example configuration? Example of Receiver.java and log4.properties files?

Answer 1

Finally I’ve found how to configure it. I put 2 files into src folder.

jndi.properties

topic.logTopic=logTopic

and log4j-jms.properties

log4j.rootLogger=INFO, stdout, jms

## Be sure that ActiveMQ messages are not logged to 'jms' appender
log4j.logger.org.apache.activemq=INFO, stdout

log4j.appender.stdout=org.apache.log4j.ConsoleAppender
log4j.appender.stdout.layout=org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout
log4j.appender.stdout.layout.ConversionPattern= 

## Configure 'jms' appender. You'll also need jndi.properties file in order to make it work
log4j.appender.jms=org.apache.log4j.net.JMSAppender
log4j.appender.jms.InitialContextFactoryName=org.apache.activemq.jndi.ActiveMQInitialContextFactory
log4j.appender.jms.ProviderURL=tcp://localhost:61616
log4j.appender.jms.TopicBindingName=logTopic
log4j.appender.jms.TopicConnectionFactoryBindingName=ConnectionFactory

Then I run my program with VM argument

-Dlog4j.configuration=log4j-jms.properties

and receive logs in class Receiver.java

public class Receiver implements MessageListener {

    PrintWriter pw = new PrintWriter("result.log");
    Connection conn;
    Session sess;
    MessageConsumer consumer;

    public Receiver() throws Exception {


        ActiveMQConnectionFactory factory = new ActiveMQConnectionFactory("tcp://localhost:61616");
        Connection conn = factory.createConnection();
        Session sess = conn.createSession(false, Session.AUTO_ACKNOWLEDGE);
        conn.start();
        MessageConsumer consumer = sess.createConsumer(sess.createTopic("logTopic"));
        consumer.setMessageListener(this);
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        new Receiver();

    }

    public void onMessage(Message message) {
        try {
            LoggingEvent event = (LoggingEvent) ((ActiveMQObjectMessage) message).getObject();

            DateFormat df = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss,SSS"); 
            String nowAsString = df.format(new Date(event.getTimeStamp())); 

            pw.println("["+ nowAsString + "]" + 
                    " [" + event.getThreadName()+"]" +
                    " ["+ event.getLoggerName() + "]" +
                    " ["+ event.getMessage()+"]");
            pw.flush();
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}