Better Stack Java logging

Start logging in 5 minutes

Collect logs from your Java applications using Logback.

1. Dependencies

Add Better Stack Logback appender to your pom.xml or build.gradle file:

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.logtail</groupId>
    <artifactId>logback-logtail</artifactId>
    <version>0.3.3</version>
</dependency>

dependencies {
    // ...existing dependencies...
    implementation 'com.logtail:logback-logtail:0.3.3'
}

You will need a Logback logger with a data-binding package for Jackson.

Don't have Logback in your project yet?
Add these dependencies to your pom.xml or build.gradle file:

<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.core</groupId>
    <artifactId>jackson-databind</artifactId>
    <version>2.13.5</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
    <artifactId>slf4j-api</artifactId>
    <version>1.7.7</version>
</dependency>

dependencies {
    // ...existing dependencies...
    implementation 'ch.qos.logback:logback-classic:1.2.11'
    implementation 'ch.qos.logback:logback-core:1.2.11'
    implementation 'com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-databind:2.13.5'
    implementation 'org.slf4j:slf4j-api:1.7.7'
}

2. Setup

Set up log appenders in your logback.xml configuration:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<configuration>
    <appender name="Logtail" class="com.logtail.logback.LogtailAppender">
        <appName>MyApp</appName>
        <sourceToken>$SOURCE_TOKEN</sourceToken>
        <mdcFields>requestId,requestTime</mdcFields>
        <mdcTypes>string,int</mdcTypes>
    </appender>
    <appender name="Console" class="ch.qos.logback.core.ConsoleAppender">
        <encoder>
            <pattern>%d{yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss.SSS} %-5level %msg%n</pattern>
        </encoder>
    </appender>
    <root level="INFO">
        <appender-ref ref="Logtail" />
        <appender-ref ref="Console" />
    </root>
</configuration>

3. Start logging 🎉

Import and use the logger:

import org.slf4j.Logger;
import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;

public class App {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Logger logger = LoggerFactory.getLogger(App.class);
        logger.error("Something bad happened.");
        String json = "{ \"item\": \"Orange soda\", \"price\": 100.00 }";
        logger.info("Log message with structured logging " + json);
    }
}

You should see your logs in Better Stack → Live tail.

Find structured data under the message_json field.
Better Stack parses any JSON at the end of the log line.

Need help?

Please let us know at hello@betterstack.com.
We're happy to help! 🙏

Additional information

• New to logging in Java? Check out our Intro guide to logging in Java.
• Want to support more data types? Install an add-on module for Jackson and register it in the Logtail appender's <objectMapperModule> tag. For example, see adding JavaTimeModule on Github.
• Need to fine-tune logging? Configure more options inside <appender name="Logtail"> tag in logback.xml:
  • appName - Application name for Better Stack indexation.
  • sourceToken - Your Better Stack source token.
  • mdcFields - MDC fields that will be sent as metadata, separated by a comma.
  • mdcTypes - MDC fields types that will be sent as metadata, in the same order as mdcFields are set up, separated by a comma. Possible values are string, boolean, int, and long.
  • maxQueueSize - Maximum number of messages in the queue. Messages over the limit will be dropped. Default: 100000.
  • batchSize - Batch size for the number of messages to be sent via the API. Default: 1000.
  • batchInterval - Maximum wait time for a batch to be sent via the API, in milliseconds. Default: 3000.
  • setConnectTimeout - Connection timeout of the underlying HTTP client, in milliseconds. Default: 5000.
  • readTimeout - Read timeout of the underlying HTTP client, in milliseconds. Default: 10000.
  • maxRetries - Maximum number of retries for sending logs to Better Stack. After that, current batch of logs will be dropped. Default: 5.
  • retrySleepMilliseconds - Number of milliseconds to sleep before retrying to send logs to Better Stack. Default: 300.
  • objectMapperModule - Registers an add-on data type module for Jackson to serialize logged data, e.g. com.fasterxml.jackson.datatype.jsr310.JavaTimeModule. Can be used multiple times.

Example project

Want to try a more detailed example with Maven or Gradle?
See our Java Logtail example projects on GitHub.