Index of /~aslom/minilogger/v10

 Name                    Last modified       Size  Description

 Parent Directory        17-Mar-2003 16:56      -  
 INSTALL.txt             17-Mar-2003 16:55     1k  
 LICENSE.txt             17-Mar-2003 16:55     2k  
 build.bat               17-Mar-2003 16:55     1k  
 build.sh                17-Mar-2003 16:55     1k  
 build.xml               17-Mar-2003 16:55    12k  
 build/                  17-Mar-2003 16:55      -  
 classpath.bat           17-Mar-2003 16:55     2k  
 classpath.sh            17-Mar-2003 16:55     2k  
 doc/                    17-Mar-2003 16:55      -  
 lib/                    17-Mar-2003 16:55      -  
 run.bat                 17-Mar-2003 16:55     2k  
 run.sh                  17-Mar-2003 16:55     1k  
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miniLOGGER Documentation

miniLogger 1.0 Documentation

Overview

miniLOGGER is logging library that is easy to add to existing application and components and that works very reliably when tightly integrated into application/component code. When integrated with component the component logging code is independent from any existing logging APIs. That makes logging code immune to version incompatibilities of external logging libraries and makes easy to create application of components without having to deal with "Jar hell" of multitude of different versions of logging libraries is in CLASSPATH or needing to resolve conflicting configuration files used by different components to setup shared logging library.

It was tested on Windows, Solaris, IRIX and Linux for versions of SUN JDK from 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, and 1.41. It was internally used and tested in multiple projects for over two years (XSOAP, XCAT, Active Notebook, ...).

Features overview:

easy to integrate with any application and component and when integrated does not require any external logging library
very small size (13K)
automatically prints timestamp, thread name, source file name and number line
output can be redirected from System.err to file or any PrintStream
support for command line turning on and off debugging on parts of code with different output levels (from FINEST to SEVER)
logger hierarchy can easily mirror package/class hierarchy (does not require category parameter) or can be modified to suit any needs

Using miniLogger API

As expected miniLogger has a simple to use logging API that is very similar to log4j and JDK 1.4 logging (with exception that miniLogger works on all Java 2 versions and does not require JDK 1.4).

miniLogger API follow familiar API patter present in Log4J and JDK 1.4 API with obtaining access to logging with Logger logger = Logger.getLogger() and calling methods on logger instance such as logger.fine("hello logging").

For more details read API and see samples.

Command line configuration

Syntax of runtime properties (passed to java interpreter): -Dlog=logger_name[:level],logger_name[:level] where: logger_name is either package or fully qualified class name or some other naming schema if loggers were given explicit names. The level is one of following constants:

OFF (special level means no logging)
SEVERE
WARNING
INFO
CONFIG
FINE
FINER
FINEST
ALL - special level that can not be used directly means all levels and is equivalent to FINEST

Logger names are hierarchical separated by dots - selecting any name automatically selects all names below. If logger_name is empty string it will affect all loggers.

The loggers and level options are evaluated from left to right so on this example: -Dlog=:OFF,foo:FINE,foo.bar.Bar:FINEST logging will be switched by default but enabled for foo (and any sub-level such as foo.bar) on FINE level and finally overwritten for foo.bar.Bar class to be FINEST.

Additionally one more option is supported: -Ddebug is equivalent to -Dlog=:ALL

Integrating miniLogger into existing application

To make miniLogger part of your application simply change current package name form soaprmi.util.logging into any desired name (ex. foo.app.logging) and optionally in Logger.java modify prefix that will be used for System properties that are configuring miniLogger, for example: public static final String PROPERTY_PREFIX = "foo.app." and if such prefix is set then use -Dfoo.app.log=... instead of -Dlog=... used in description of system properties.

When those changes are finished you can simply have in your application

  import foo.app.logging.Logger;

and to use logger declare it as usual:

     private static Logger logger = Logger.getLogger()

or if you prefer explicit categories (by default logging category is derived from full class name for example "foo.app.BarClass") use this:

     private static Logger logger = Logger.getLogger("my.category")

IDEAS/TODO:

plugin to use Log4J as output
allow to select logging only for list of source files (including function name and source line ranges).

Additional documentation

How to run instructions.

How to build instructions.

FAQ

List of changes

Thanks to people that made MINILOGGER happen!

API documentation

Questions?

For the latest version and more information please see: miniLOGGER Home Page and XSOAP that is using extensively minilogger: XSOAP Home Page and XGWS user discussion list (where you can post minilogger and XSOAP related questions and check archives).

Hope you will enjoy it!

Aleksander Slominski