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Hello

When developing for Java, I’ve long been disappointed by the tools available for viewing and searching log messages. The capabilities of the logging frameworks far outstrip the capabilities of the tools used to consume those logs. I’ve used Lumbermill and (to a lesser extent) Chainsaw with a degree of success, but it seemed possible to do so much more. When dealing with a deployed application, the ability to modify the logging properties on the server is often limited, and too often you’re stuck wandering around a text file in vim, either cursing the verbosity of the logs that hide the important information or wishing that debug logging was turned on so you could see that one critical missing message. Sometimes just getting that much is difficult.

So, what then?

My vision is for a web-based log viewing tool that can be deployed alongside an app, allowing remote access to logging data along with a viewing experience that allows for easy searching and the ability to perform filtering by subtrees. This project aims to provide such a solution, catering for Log4j at the start (though minimizing the dependency on a particular logging framework).

And you’re building this how?

The log viewer will be deployed as a WAR file, will listen on a TCP port, and will process incoming log messages from a standard Log4j SocketAppender. The backend is Spring-based, and for the UI I’m planning to use a mix of Spring MVC and Google Web Toolkit.

It doesn’t do nothin’

I’m taking this project at a leisurely pace. A primary (personal) goal of the project is to hone my skills with Spring and GWT, and so I’m particularly interested in doing things ‘right’. Which is just a fancy way of saying that there ain’t much here yet, and there might not be for some time.