object_context_logger

ObjectContextLogger

ObjectContextLogger is as simple utility that automatically prepends a given log message with the context that it was called from.

This utility was born out of the frustration of reading logs to debug a problem, finding a useful message, then wishing I knew which instance of a class/object or other context it was called from. Being lazy, instead of trying to remember to always include that context in the log message, I wrote this little bit of code.

Installation

Bundler

gem 'object_context_logger', '~> 0.1.0'

Gem install

$ gem install object_context_logger

Configuration

Rails

If you'll be using this in a Rails app, then you can generate the configuration initializer with this:

$ rails generate object_context_logger_initializer

Manually

If you'll be using this outside of a Rails app, you'll need to proved the configuration manually:

      ObjectContextLogger.configure do |config|
        # config.logger = Rails.logger # must respond to logger methods like :info, :debug
        # config.default_log_method = :info 
        # config.default_object_identifier_method = :to_gid  
        # config.log_to_stdout = false 
      end

Configuration Items

• logger - The only required setting, provide a logger object that must at least respond to :info
• default_log_method - This is the method sent to the logger object to register a log.
• default_object_identifier_method - By default, ObjectContextLogger uses GlobalID, if you are outside of a Rails project or dealing with objects that do not respond to to_gid by default, you'll want to use a different default identifier method, like to_s, appropriately defined on the objects you are logging from.
• log_to_stdout - Sometimes useful when debugging scripts.

Usage

The whole idea of this utility is to make logging with context simple:

In the context of an instance of User (id 1)

ctx_log "Your very informative log message"
#=> gid://gem-host/User/1: Your very informative message

If you want to use a particular logger facility, you can specify it:

ctx_log "Your very informative log message", :debug
#=> gid://gem-host/User/1: Your very informative message

If the object/class you are logging from requires some special identifier, you can specify it:

ctx_log "Your very informative log message", object_identifier: "some string or method call"
#=> some string or method call: Your very informative log message

In the context of a class User

ctx_log "Your very informative log message"
#=> User: Your very informative message

Finally, there is a helper method to use if you want to add context to exceptions:

raise "#{ctx_log_prefix}: Your very informative exception message"
#=> User: Your very informative exception message

Development

After checking out the repo, run bin/setup to install dependencies. Then, run rake test to run the tests. You can also run bin/console for an interactive prompt that will allow you to experiment.

Contributing

Bug reports and pull requests are welcome on GitHub at https://github.com/duskhacker/object-context-logger.

License

The gem is available as open source under the terms of the MIT License.