[slf4j-dev] EventLogging (was Re: [logback-dev] RFC: LoggingEvent redesign)

[Ralph Goers]

On Apr 23, 2009, at 8:55 AM, Ceki Gulcu wrote:

>
>
> Ralph Goers wrote:
>> Also, As that message says I added the documentation for the two  
>> classes. The email you quoted was from almost 2 months ago. I had  
>> expected to get feedback on this long before this and had come to  
>> the conclusion that there was no objection.
>
> The code was committed for the sake of discussion but there was  
> none. I am simply asking whether you still feel the EventData class  
> is still warranted to be part of the slf4j-ext package. When do you  
> convert XML data back to EventData? Do you actually perform such  
> conversions?
>>

Yes, I think EventData and EventLogger are useful. I am recommending  
all my projects use it. The answer to when the EventData is converted  
back is "it depends". It can be stored in a database as is and then  
converted back when a reader wants to manipulate the event data as a  
HashMap. It can be converted back in a layout so that it can be  
manipulated as part of the pattern similar to how the MDC is accessed  
- I imagine it wouldn't be hard to create a converter for Logback that  
could be used in the PatternLayout. But specifically when it needs to  
be converted depends on the Appender in use and what the desired  
output should be.

We have been struggling trying to find a good solution for aggregating  
all our event/audit/activity logging across the servers and network  
segments. Using EventData and EventLogger has freed us up from having  
to worry about what the final product ends up being as our  
applications are now insensitive to it. We can just plug in a new  
Appender (or possibly leverage an existing Appender with a pattern  
layout) and go.

Ralph