For a more detailed example setup, please see the Java + Logtail example project on GitHub .
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Logging Java apps in Logtail
Logtail allows you to collect logs directly from any Java project. It uses an appender for logback , allowing you to send logs to Logtail, via our HTTPS Ingest API.
This library relies on a JAX-RS v2 implementation (of your choice) with a Jackson JSON mapper.
How it works in action
First, copy this dependency into your pom.xml file.
<dependency>
<groupId>com.logtail</groupId>
<artifactId>logback-logtail</artifactId>
<version>{revnumber}</version>
</dependency>
Add Logback to your dependencies, and if you don't already have one in your project, add a JAX-RS implementation into your pom.xml like Jersey
, which is the one we use in the unit tests, RESTEasy
or Apache CXF
.
Example dependencies:
<dependency>
<groupId>ch.qos.logback</groupId>
<artifactId>logback-classic</artifactId>
<version>1.2.11</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>ch.qos.logback</groupId>
<artifactId>logback-core</artifactId>
<version>1.2.11</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.jaxrs</groupId>
<artifactId>jackson-jaxrs-json-provider</artifactId>
<version>2.13.3</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>jakarta.ws.rs</groupId>
<artifactId>jakarta.ws.rs-api</artifactId>
<version>3.0.0</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>jakarta.inject</groupId>
<artifactId>jakarta.inject-api</artifactId>
<version>2.0.1</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>jakarta.activation</groupId>
<artifactId>jakarta.activation-api</artifactId>
<version>2.1.0</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.glassfish.jersey.core</groupId>
<artifactId>jersey-client</artifactId>
<version>3.0.4</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.glassfish.jersey.inject</groupId>
<artifactId>jersey-hk2</artifactId>
<version>3.0.4</version>
</dependency>
Then, copy the following two Logtail appenders to your classpath:/logback.xml file. Here's a sample configuration:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<configuration>
<appender name="LogtailHttp" class="com.logtail.logback.LogtailAppender">
<appName>MyApp</appName>
<ingestKey>${LOGTAIL_INGEST_KEY}</ingestKey>
<mdcFields>requestId,requestTime</mdcFields>
<mdcTypes>string,int</mdcTypes>
</appender>
<appender name="Logtail" class="ch.qos.logback.classic.AsyncAppender">
<appender-ref ref="LogtailHttp" />
<queueSize>500</queueSize>
<discardingThreshold>0</discardingThreshold>
<includeCallerData>true</includeCallerData>
</appender>
<appender name="Console" class="ch.qos.logback.core.ConsoleAppender">
<encoder>
<pattern>%d{HH:mm} %-5level %msg%n</pattern>
</encoder>
</appender>
<root level="INFO">
<appender-ref ref="Logtail" />
<appender-ref ref="Console" />
</root>
</configuration>
Finally, you have to provide a LOGTAIL_INGEST_KEY, an API key you'll find in the Logtail console when creating a source. If you don't provide an API key, the appender will be automatically disabled (with a warning).
The queueSize and discardingThreshold are native Logback AsyncAppender attributes. Read the official docs
to learn more.
Configuration options
- You can use your own logging pattern, by using the
encoderoption, e.g.
<configuration>
<appender name="LogtailHttp" class="com.logtail.logback.LogtailAppender">
<encoder>
<pattern>[%thread] %msg%n</pattern>
</encoder>
<!-- ... -->
</appender>
<!-- ... -->
</configuration>
- Set up comma-separated MDC keys to index (from the MDC thread local binding).
- Set up one type for each MDC key. Possible types are string, boolean, int and long. The last two result in an indexed number in your Logtail console. You can then use these values as metrics and create Grafana dashboards around those.
- You can try to set up a specific
connectTimeoutandreadTimeoutfor the underlying JAX-RS client.
JSON parameters parsing
We automatically parse a JSON object at the end of any string log message.
For example, if you log the following message : My message { "id": 1, "value": "text" }, then Logtail will index both id and value into separate parameters you can then query.