@niceties/logger

Logger

Experimental logger/reporter for async tasks.

• Provides API for reporting async events that can be later handled by custom appender.

• Provides default appender that uses console for output.

• Modular and configurable

• Small size

Installation

npm install --save @niceties/logger

Changlelog

Example

import { createLogger } from '@niceties/logger';

const logger = createLogger();

try {
    logger.start('starting something');
    ...
    // some async code
    ...
    logger.finish('finished something');
} catch(e) {
    logger.finish('finished something', 3);
}

API

Logger factory:

function createLogger<ErrorContext = Error>(...args: [] | [string | Identity | undefined] | [string, Identity]): ((message: string, loglevel?: LogLevel, context?: ErrorContext | undefined) => void) & {
    start(message: string, loglevel?: LogLevel | undefined, context?: ErrorContext | undefined): void;
    update(message: string, loglevel?: LogLevel | undefined, context?: ErrorContext | undefined): void;
    finish(message: string, loglevel?: LogLevel | undefined, context?: ErrorContext | undefined): void;
    appender(appender?: Appender<ErrorContext> | undefined): (message: LogMessage<ErrorContext>) => void;
};

Will return a logger instance that can be viewed as an entry for a single async task.

const logger = createLogger('tag');
const logger2 = createLogger(logger);
const logger3 = createLogger('tag2', logger);

tag can be used to distinguish between async tasks (will be provided to appender). logger can be used as parent of another logger (will be provided as parentId to appender).

const log = createLogger();

try {
    // some code
    log('some message');
} catch (e) {
    log('some message', 1, e);
}

Logger can be used as a function that logs message or error with context. Context type can be defined during creation of the logger (only in typescript).

const log = createLogger<Context>();

try {
    // some code
    log('some message');
} catch (e: Context) {
    log('some message', LogLevel.info, e);
}

start(message: string, loglevel?: LogLevel | undefined, context?: ErrorContext | undefined): void;

Emits start event inside a logger. If loglevel provided it will be remembered and used as default loglevel in subsequent events in the same logger instance. Default loglevel (if argument is not provided) is info.

update(message: string, loglevel?: LogLevel | undefined, context?: ErrorContext | undefined): void;

Emits update event. Can be used to inform user that we are doing something else in the same async task. loglevel used to redefine default loglevel.

finish(message: string, loglevel?: LogLevel | undefined, context?: ErrorContext | undefined): void;

Emits finish event. Can be used to inform user that task finished. loglevel is optional and equals initial loglevel if omitted.

const logger = createLogger();
logger.appender(someFancyAppender);

Sets different appender for the specific instance of the logger.

const logger = createLogger();
const appender = logger.appender();

Returns current appender for the specific instance of the logger.

Log levels

const enum LogLevel {
    verbose, // for debugging logs, not for displaying on screen in normal cases
    info, // should be printed to user but not an error
    warn, // something is probably wrong, but we can continue
    error // operation completely failed
}

Setting another appender

User or another library can set another appender by calling:

function appender<ErrorContext = Error>(appender?: Appender<ErrorContext>): Appender<any>;

where appender is a function with following type

(message: LogMessage<ErrorContext>) => void;

const enum Action {
    start,
    update,
    success,
    fail
}

type LogMessage<ErrorContext = Error> = {
    inputId: number;
    loglevel: LogLevel;
    message: string;
    action: Action.start | Action.update | Action.finish;
    tag?: string;
    parentId?: string;
    ref: WeakRef<never>;
} | {
    inputId?: number;
    loglevel: LogLevel;
    message: string;
    action: Action.log;
    tag?: string;
    parentId?: string;
    ref?: WeakRef<never>;
    context?: ErrorContext;
};

Same appender function without arguments can be used to get current appender.

FAQ

Can I use more than 4 log levels

Despite the fact loglevel defined as an enum it is just a number. Logger does not make assumptions about loglevels besides defining default loglevel as 1 (LogLevel.info).

It is generally safe to expand loglevels into both positive and negative range (finer debug messages) as far as appender takes them into account.

As an example:

const log = createLogger();

log('some message', -1);

will send a log message with finer loglevel than verbose through appender but default appender will ignore it.

Can I use multiple appenders?

It is possible using combuneAppenders and appender functions:

import { createLogger, appender } from "@niceties/logger";
import { combineAppenders } from "@niceties/logger/appender-utils";

appender(combineAppenders(appender(), appender2));

Can I set filter for certain loglevel

It is possible using filterMessages and appender functions:

import { filterMessages } from "@niceties/logger/appender-utils";

let desiredLoglevel = 0;

appender(filterMessages((msg) => msg.loglevel >= desiredLoglevel, appender()));

function setLoglevel(loglevel) {
    desiredLoglevel = loglevel;
}

Subpackages

Default subpackage '@niceties/logger' exports types, createLogger() factory and appender() function.

Subpackage '@niceties/logger/default-formatting' exports formatting constants that is part of default configuration of the console appender.

Subpackage '@niceties/logger/core' exports createLogger() factory.

Subpackage '@niceties/logger/simple' exports createLogger() factory.

Subpackage '@niceties/logger/console-appender' exports createConsoleAppender() factory.

Subpackage '@niceties/logger/format-utils' exports createFormatter() and terminalSupportsUnicode() functions.

Subpackage '@niceties/logger/global-appender' exports appender() and globalAppender.

Subpackage '@niceties/logger/appender-utils' exports combineAppenders() and filterMessages().

simple (default), core and console-appender exists as umd packages as well but probably require some effort to consume them.

Prior art

• loglevel
• winston
• node-bunyan
• log4js
• pino

License

MIT