log-vwer

log-vwer ⚡

Stop logging into a black hole. Give your logs a beautiful, powerful, and interactive home.

log-vwer is the ultimate plug-and-play toolkit for Node.js developers who are tired of messy console.log statements. It instantly gives you a professional-grade dashboard to view, search, and filter your application logs in real-time.

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Your application logs, beautifully organized & instantly accessible.

Why You'll Love log-vwer (The Simple Explanation)

Imagine you're building an app. Things go wrong. Users sign up, payments fail, servers crash. How do you see what's happening? You probably use console.log("something happened") everywhere. It’s messy, hard to read, and gets lost in your server terminal.

log-vwer fixes this.

It takes all your logs and puts them into a beautiful, web-based dashboard that you can open in your browser. It's like having a dedicated TV screen just for your app's internal story.

• ✨ It Just Works, Instantly: You add it to your project, write two lines of code, and it's running. No complicated setup, no long tutorials.
• 💾 You Choose Where to Save Logs:
  • MongoDB: Perfect for your live, production app. All logs are saved permanently and can handle millions of entries.
  • File: Great for smaller projects or when you want logs saved in a simple text file on your server.
  • Memory: Amazing for testing. Logs appear instantly but are deleted when you restart your app. No cleanup needed.
• 🔐 It's Secure: Your logs can have private user information. log-vwer is built to be secure. You can easily put your own login system in front of it, so only you and your team can see the logs.
• ❤️ Built for Developers: This tool was created by a developer who was tired of the same old problems. It’s designed to be simple, powerful, and a joy to use.

🚀 Getting Started: Your First Log Dashboard in 2 Minutes

Follow these three simple steps to get up and running.

Step 1: Install it

Open your project's terminal and run this command:

npm install log-vwer

This downloads and adds log-vwer to your project.

Step 2: Add it to Your Code

Go to your main server file (usually app.js or server.js) and add the following code.

// Import the necessary tools
const express = require('express');
const { setupLogger, viewerMiddleware } = require('log-vwer');

// Create your Express app
const app = express();
const PORT = process.env.PORT || 3000;

// This is an async function to make sure we connect to the database *before* starting the server.
async function startServer() {
  try {
    // === Part 1: Set up the logger ===
    // This tells log-vwer how to work.
    // We're choosing MongoDB here, but you can also choose 'file' or 'memory'.
    const logger = await setupLogger({
      serviceName: 'My Awesome E-Commerce App',
      store: 'mongodb',
      mongoUrl: 'mongodb://localhost:27017/my_app_logs',
    });

    // === Part 2: Activate the dashboard ===
    // This tells your app: "When someone goes to /_logs, first check the password, then show the log dashboard."
    app.use('/_logs', myAuthMiddleware, viewerMiddleware(logger));

    // === Part 3: Start using your new logger! ===
    // Now, instead of console.log, use logger.info, logger.error, etc.
    app.get('/', (req, res) => {
      logger.info('A user visited the homepage!', { 
        ipAddress: req.ip,
        browser: req.get('User-Agent'),
      });
      res.send('Welcome! Your visit has been logged. Check it at /_logs');
    });

    app.get('/error-test', (req, res) => {
      try {
        // Let's pretend something broke
        throw new Error('The payment gateway is offline!');
      } catch (error) {
        logger.error('CRITICAL: Payment gateway failed!', { 
          errorMessage: error.message,
          errorCode: 'PG-503',
        });
        res.status(500).send('Oh no! Something broke. The error has been logged.');
      }
    });

    // Start your server only after everything is ready
    app.listen(PORT, () => {
      logger.warn(`Server is alive on port ${PORT}. Ready to rock!`);
      console.log(`Log dashboard is live at: http://localhost:${PORT}/_logs`);
    });

  } catch (error) {
    // If the database connection fails, the server won't start.
    console.error("🔴 FATAL ERROR: Could not start server. Is your database running?", error);
    process.exit(1);
  }
}

// Run the function to start the server!
startServer();

Step 3: See the Magic!

• Start your app: node server.js
• Open your browser and go to http://localhost:3000. This will create your first "info" log.
• Now go to http://localhost:3000/error-test. This will create your first "error" log.
• Finally, open http://localhost:3000/_logs. You'll see your beautiful new dashboard with the logs you just created!

⚙️ The Details: How to Configure log-vwer

You can customize log-vwer to fit your needs perfectly.

setupLogger(options)

This is the main function you use to create your logger. It returns a Promise that gives you the logger object.

Option	What it does	Choices	Example
serviceName	(Required) A name for your app. This helps if you have multiple apps logging to the same place.	Any string	'My API', 'User Authentication Service'
store	Where you want to save your logs. Defaults to 'memory'.	'mongodb', 'file', 'memory'	store: 'file'
mongoUrl	(Required for MongoDB) The full connection address for your MongoDB database.	A MongoDB connection string	'mongodb+srv://user:[e-mail]/logs'
filePath	(Required for File) The path to the file where you want to save logs.	A file path	'./logs/app.log'

The logger Object

Once you create a logger, it gives you these simple methods to use:

• logger.info("User signed up.", { userId: 123 }) - For general information.
• logger.warn("Cache is getting full.") - For things that aren't errors yet, but might become a problem.
• logger.error("Database connection failed!", { error: err.message }) - For when things break.
• logger.debug("Calculating user scores...", { step: 1 }) - For detailed developer-only messages.

Each method takes two arguments:

• message (string): The main thing you want to say.
• metadata (object, optional): Any extra data you want to save with the log. This is super useful for debugging.

💾 A Closer Look at Storage Options

Choosing the right storage is important. Here's a simple guide:

Storage	Best For...	Why?	Downsides?
mongodb	Your live, public website.	It's powerful, can store millions of logs, and never forgets them. You can search it very quickly.	You need to have a MongoDB database running somewhere.
file	Small projects or servers.	It's very simple. It just creates a text file with all your logs. Easy to read and backup.	Can get slow if you have too many logs. You have to manage the file yourself.
memory	Developing and testing on your own computer.	It's incredibly fast and requires zero setup. When you stop your app, all logs disappear.	Logs are not saved permanently. They are lost on every restart.

🔐 How to Properly Secure Your Log Dashboard

This is extremely important. Your logs might contain user emails, IP addresses, or other private data. You should never make your log dashboard public.

log-vwer is designed to be a "plugin" for your existing security. Just add your security check (middleware) right before you add viewerMiddleware.

Example with Passport.js (A popular login library):

const passport = require('passport'); // Let's assume you've already set up Passport.js

// This tells the app: "For the /_logs page, first make sure the user is logged in with a valid token.
// If they are, then show them the log dashboard."
app.use(
  '/_logs',
  passport.authenticate('jwt', { session: false }),
  viewerMiddleware(logger)
);

👑 About the Author

This tool was built with love and lots of coffee by Qitmeer Raza, a passionate developer dedicated to creating tools that make other developers' lives easier.

Find him, connect with him, or see his other projects:

• GitHub: @iamqitmeer
• LinkedIn: /in/iamqitmeer
• X (Twitter): @iamqitmeer
• Instagram: @iamqitmeer
• Facebook: /iamqitmeer

🤝 Want to Help?

Contributions make the open-source community an amazing place to learn, inspire, and create. Any contributions you make are greatly appreciated.

• Found a bug? Open an issue.
• Have an idea for a new feature? Start a discussion.
• Want to write some code?
  • Fork the Project
  • Create your Feature Branch (git checkout -b feature/AmazingNewFeature)
  • Commit your Changes (git commit -m 'Add some AmazingNewFeature')
  • Push to the Branch (git push origin feature/AmazingNewFeature)
  • Open a Pull Request

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for more details.