Log4j 2 API

Event Logging

The EventLogger class provides a simple mechanism for logging events that occur in an application. While the EventLogger is useful as a way of initiating events that should be processed by an audit Logging system, by itself it does not implement any of the features an audit logging system would require such as guaranteed delivery.

The recommended way of using the EventLogger in a typical web application is to populate the ThreadContext Map with data that is related to the entire lifespan of the request such as the user's id, the user's IP address, the product name, etc. This can easily be done in a servlet filter where the ThreadContext Map can also be cleared at the end of the request. When an event that needs to be recorded occurs a StructuredDataMessage should be created and populated. Then call EventLogger.logEvent(msg) where msg is a reference to the StructuredDataMessage.

import org.apache.logging.log4j.ThreadContext;
import org.apache.commons.lang.time.DateUtils;

import javax.servlet.Filter;
import javax.servlet.FilterConfig;
import javax.servlet.ServletException;
import javax.servlet.ServletRequest;
import javax.servlet.ServletResponse;
import javax.servlet.FilterChain;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpSession;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
import javax.servlet.http.Cookie;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.TimeZone;

public class RequestFilter implements Filter {
    private FilterConfig filterConfig;
    private static String TZ_NAME = "timezoneOffset";

    public void init(FilterConfig filterConfig) throws ServletException {
        this.filterConfig = filterConfig;
    }

    /**
     * Sample filter that populates the MDC on every request.
     */
    public void doFilter(ServletRequest servletRequest, ServletResponse servletResponse, FilterChain filterChain)
            throws IOException, ServletException {
        HttpServletRequest request = (HttpServletRequest)servletRequest;
        HttpServletResponse response = (HttpServletResponse)servletResponse;
        ThreadContext.put("ipAddress", request.getRemoteAddr());
        HttpSession session = request.getSession(false);
        TimeZone timeZone = null;
        if (session != null) {
            // Something should set this after authentication completes
            String loginId = (String)session.getAttribute("LoginId");
            if (loginId != null) {
                ThreadContext.put("loginId", loginId);
            }
            // This assumes there is some javascript on the user's page to create the cookie.
            if (session.getAttribute(TZ_NAME) == null) {
                if (request.getCookies() != null) {
                    for (Cookie cookie : request.getCookies()) {
                        if (TZ_NAME.equals(cookie.getName())) {
                            int tzOffsetMinutes = Integer.parseInt(cookie.getValue());
                            timeZone = TimeZone.getTimeZone("GMT");
                            timeZone.setRawOffset((int)(tzOffsetMinutes * DateUtils.MILLIS_PER_MINUTE));
                            request.getSession().setAttribute(TZ_NAME, tzOffsetMinutes);
                            cookie.setMaxAge(0);
                            response.addCookie(cookie);
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }
        ThreadContext.put("hostname", servletRequest.getServerName());
        ThreadContext.put("productName", filterConfig.getInitParameter("ProductName"));
        Threadcontext.put("locale", servletRequest.getLocale().getDisplayName());
        if (timeZone == null) {
            timeZone = TimeZone.getDefault();
        }
        ThreadContext.put("timezone", timeZone.getDisplayName());
        filterChain.doFilter(servletRequest, servletResponse);
        ThreadContext.clear();
    }

    public void destroy() {
    }
}

Sample class that uses EventLogger.

import org.apache.logging.log4j.StructuredDataMessage;
import org.apache.logging.log4j.EventLogger;

import java.util.Date;
import java.util.UUID;

public class MyApp {

    public String doFundsTransfer(Account toAccount, Account fromAccount, long amount) {
        toAccount.deposit(amount);
        fromAccount.withdraw(amount);
        String confirm = UUID.randomUUID().toString();
        StructuredDataMessage msg = new StructureDataMessage(confirm, null, "transfer");
        msg.put("toAccount", toAccount);
        msg.put("fromAccount", fromAccount);
        msg.put("amount", amount);
        EventLogger.logEvent(msg);
        return confirm;
    }
}

The EventLogger class uses a Logger named "EventLogger". EventLogger uses a logging level of OFF as the default to indicate that it cannot be filtered. These events can be formatted for printing using the StructuredDataLayout.