SimplyLog
SimplyLog is a project meant to bring flexible and controllable logging into javascript. The primary goals are extensibility, simplicity, and compatibility. Something that allows developers to quickly turn logging on and off as they are debugging a site, and even control the amount of logging that gets output. In addition to allowing a developer or a team to attach more information to the debugging. And for teams allowing a standard logging style to be setup for their projects.
And lastly the syntax and API is intended to be as clear and easy to use as possible.
Usage
Creating a new logger
// Create a new console logger named example logger
// A console logger is a logger with the console appender already
// attached to it
var log = SimplyLog.consoleLogger('exampleLogger');
// Change the logging level from its default to TRACE level
log.setLevel(SimplyLog.TRACE);
// Send a message to the appender (which currently is a console appender)
log.trace('hello there', '!');
// The above line will result in the output exampleLogger:trace -> hello there!
// Changes this log to only output error messages
log.setLevel(SimplyLog.ERROR);
// This line won't actually output anything because the log level is set above it
log.debug('hello user');
Usage in Node
// Add the logger
var logger = require('simply-log');
var myLog = logger.consoleLogger('myLog');
myLog.setLevel(logger.TRACE);
Other Notes
SimplyLog keeps track of all loggers you create within it, this means you can reuse loggers in different parts of your app as long as SimplyLog is at the root. For instance
var logger = require('simply-log')
logger.getLogger('stuffLogger').setLevel(logger.TRACE);
var doStuff = function() {
// Do some stuff
var myLog = logger.consoleLogger('stuffLogger');
myLog.info("Info World");
myLog.trace("Trace World");
}
var adjustLogging = function(level) {
// Adjust the logger used in the 'doStuff' function
logger.getLogger('stuffLogger').setLevel(level);
}
doStuff();
// Turn down logging to level of INFO, this will turn off the TRACE
adjustLogging(logger.INFO)
doStuff();
Output from the above code chunk is, trace is turned off for our second call
stuffLogger:info -> Info World
stuffLogger:trace -> Trace World
stuffLogger:info -> Info World
API Crash Course
Logging a message
Messages are sent to the log appenders by calling the appropriate log level method. The method to call is always the level you want to send in all lower case. As of now the current levels are error, info, warn, debug, trace. Any number of arguments can be passed to these methods For instance the following is legal
SimplyLog.error('Lorem', 'ipsom', $(window));
Logging levels
SimplyLog currently supports the following logging levels in order of highest level to lowest level, setting the level a level down will also send all log levels above it to the appender.
SimplyLog.OFF
Highest level, will disable all outputSimplyLog.ERROR
Intended for error level loggingSimplyLog.INFO
General information levelSimplyLog.WARN
Display api level warningsSimplyLog.DEBUG
Display debug level messagesSimplyLog.TRACE
Trace level, most verbose level of logging
Default level
You can setup SimplyLog to automatically set the logging level for all logs built by it by calling
SimplyLog.setDefaultLevel(SimplyLog.{level});
Default Appenders
Adding a default appender will cause every log created after that point to also have that appender. You can add default appenders by calling the method
SimplyLog.addDefaultAppender(/*function(name, level, args) {}*/);
The arguments for the function you pass are
- name - The name of the logger that is appending
- level - The level of the message it is appending
- args - All the args passed to the logging statement
Appenders
Appenders are a way of allowing the log system to be extended, anything you can code can be called as an appender. Any number of appenders can be added to a logger to allow Tutorial and more complex appenders to come, to get started now take a look at the defaultConsoleAppender in simply-log.js
, or take a look at the example below which is a copy of the defaultConsoleAppender but adds the timestamp. Please note that adding more default appenders but using SimplyLog.consoleAppender will cause you to get a consoleAppender with all extra default appenders attached as well.
var logFactory = require('simply-log');
logFactory.addDefaultAppender(function(name, level, args) {
args.unshift(Date.now() + ' ' + name + ':' + level + ' ->');
Function.prototype.apply.call(console.log, console, args);
});