JSF 2 Logging with Tomcat

Monday, 06 June 2011 10:04

How JSF 2 is structured in term of logging categories

Find below a list of logger namespaces related to JSF . FacesLogger in com.sun.faces.util package contains an enum of all application loggers

javax.enterprise.resource.webcontainer.jsf.managedbean

javax.enterprise.resource.webcontainer.jsf.context

javax.enterprise.resource.webcontainer.jsf.renderkit

javax.enterprise.resource.webcontainer.jsf.facelets

javax.enterprise.resource.webcontainer.jsf.taglib

javax.enterprise.resource.webcontainer.jsf.lifecycle

javax.enterprise.resource.webcontainer.jsf.config

javax.enterprise.resource.webcontainer.jsf.timing

javax.enterprise.resource.webcontainer.jsf.resource

javax.enterprise.resource.webcontainer.jsf.application

How to create an application specific logging configuration for JSF

If you want to define your own logging configuration for your web application in Tomcat you need to create a logging.properties file in your src/main/resources folder for Maven users.

3 Steps to create configure :

1. Define the handlers
2. Configure the handlers
3. Define category levels

Define handlers

Lets define six file handlers :

prefix have been added to handler names, so that multiple handlers of a single class may be instantiated. A prefix is a String which starts with a digit, and ends with '.'.
For example, 22foobar. is a valid prefix.

handlers = org.apache.juli.FileHandler, java.util.logging.ConsoleHandler, \
 0error.org.apache.juli.FileHandler, \
 1managedbean.org.apache.juli.FileHandler, \
 2config.org.apache.juli.FileHandler, \
 3facelets.org.apache.juli.FileHandler, \
 4resource.org.apache.juli.FileHandler, \
 5lifecycle.org.apache.juli.FileHandler

.handlers = java.util.logging.ConsoleHandle

Configure handlers

Let's define handlers specific configuration for the five file handlers we have defined.As recommended by Tomcat documentation we are using Juli file handler. �We will store each categories in a separate file located in the logs folder of Tomcat in a sub folder called Ubiteck according to the path ${catalina.base}/logs/ubiteck.

0error.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.level = FINEST
0error.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.directory = ${catalina.base}/logs/ubiteck
0error.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.prefix = 00_error.
0error.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.formatter= com.ubiteck.jsf.util.WebAppCustomFormatter

1managedbean.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.level = FINEST
1managedbean.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.directory = ${catalina.base}/logs/ubiteck
1managedbean.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.prefix = 01_managedbean.
1managedbean.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.formatter= com.ubiteck.jsf.util.WebAppCustomFormatter

2config.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.level = FINEST
2config.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.directory = ${catalina.base}/logs/ubiteck
2config.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.prefix = 02_Config.
2config.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.formatter= com.ubiteck.jsf.util.WebAppCustomFormatter

3facelets.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.level = FINEST
3facelets.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.directory = ${catalina.base}/logs/ubiteck
3facelets.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.prefix = 03_Facelets.
3facelets.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.formatter= com.ubiteck.jsf.util.WebAppCustomFormatter

4resource.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.level = FINEST
4resource.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.directory = ${catalina.base}/logs/ubiteck
4resource.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.prefix = 04_Resource.
4resource.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.formatter= com.ubiteck.jsf.util.WebAppCustomFormatter

5lifecycle.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.level = FINEST
5lifecycle.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.directory = ${catalina.base}/logs/ubiteck
5lifecycle.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.prefix = 05_Lifecycle.
5lifecycle.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.formatter= com.ubiteck.jsf.util.WebAppCustomFormatter

Define category levels

Let's define what we do we want to see and at which level.

javax.enterprise.resource.webcontainer.jsf.level=SEVERE
javax.enterprise.resource.webcontainer.jsf.handlers = 0error.org.apache.juli.FileHandler

com.ubiteck.level=SEVERE
com.ubiteck.handlers = 0error.org.apache.juli.FileHandler

##
# Catalina listener start error logging
#

org.apache.catalina.core.level=SEVERE
org.apache.catalina.core.handlers = 0error.org.apache.juli.FileHandler

org.apache.catalina.level=SEVERE
org.apache.catalina.handlers = 0error.org.apache.juli.FileHandler

#
# Managed Bean
#
javax.enterprise.resource.webcontainer.jsf.managedbean.level=FINEST
javax.enterprise.resource.webcontainer.jsf.managedbean.handlers = 1managedbean.org.apache.juli.FileHandler

#
# Config
#
javax.enterprise.resource.webcontainer.jsf.config.level=FINEST
javax.enterprise.resource.webcontainer.jsf.config.handlers = 2config.org.apache.juli.FileHandler

#
# Facelets
#
javax.enterprise.resource.webcontainer.jsf.facelets.level=FINEST
javax.enterprise.resource.webcontainer.jsf.facelets.handlers = 3facelets.org.apache.juli.FileHandler

#
# Resource
#
javax.enterprise.resource.webcontainer.jsf.resource.level=FINEST
javax.enterprise.resource.webcontainer.jsf.resource.handlers = 4resource.org.apache.juli.FileHandler

#
# Lifecycle
#
javax.enterprise.resource.webcontainer.jsf.lifecycle.level=FINEST
javax.enterprise.resource.webcontainer.jsf.lifecycle.handlers = 5lifecycle.org.apache.juli.FileHandler

Both the logger and its handlers have Log Levels The order of filtering is Logger then Handlers. That means it checks to see if the log message passes the loggers filter first, then sends the message on to the individual handlers for filtering.

Conclusion

You can now restart your application. The fives logging file and the folder containing the files will be created at start time. You are ready to debug the most complex issues you will face using JSF 2 and Tomcat.

Logging Levels

The log levels define the severity of a message. The class Level is used to define which messages should be written to the log.

Log Levels in descending order are:

• SEVERE (highest)
• WARNING
• INFO
• CONFIG
• FINE
• FINER
• FINEST

In addition to that you have also the levels OFF and ALL to turn the logging of or to log everything.

For example the following will set the logger to level info which means all messages with severe, warning and info will be logged.

 LOGGER.setLevel(Level.INFO); 

Logging Handlers

Each logger can have access to several handler. The handler receives the log message from the logger and exports it to a certain target A handler can be turn off with setLevel(Level.OFF) and turned on with setLevel(...)

You have several standard handler provided by J2SE :

A simple handler for writing formatted records to an OutputStream.

A simple handler for writing formatted records to System.err

A handler that writes formatted log records either to a single file, or to a set of rotating log files.

A handler that writes formatted log records to remote TCP ports.

A handler that buffers log records in memory. 

Log Levels INFO and higher will be automatically written to the console.

Formatter

Each handlers output can be configured with a formatter

Available formatter

• SimpleFormatter Generate all messages as text
• XMLFormatter Generates XML output for the log messages

You can also build your own formatter.

Tomcat Juli

Java logging related articles

• Sample log4j.properties file