A modular open-source logging framework for FileMaker.
Loggermodule: Provide an interface for logging.- Call this module from any script you want to create a log entry from.
Log Writermodules: Save log data to a single destination.- Call Log Writers from the Logger module.
Log Viewermodules: View log data.- Provide a user interface for viewing log data.
Log.fmp12: Main file for this project.- This file can be included with your current application to handle all your logging needs. It has been designed as both a self-standing logging application as well as an example file/documentation for the included Log-related modules.
LogWritersdirectory: Additional Log Writer modules.
Most documentation for this project exists in READ ME scripts in the Log.fmp12 file:
- File Module > READ ME
- Modules > Logger > Logger: READ ME
- Modules > Log Writer: FM > Log Writer: FM: READ ME
- Modules > Log Viewer: FM > Log Viewer: FM: READ ME
Consider using additional LogWriters. View the READ ME scripts in each of those files if you choose to implement one.
By including a log level with each call to the Logger module, it allows you to write your scripts with debugging code right from the start and leave that debugging code in your script while in production. By using the LogWriteEnabled function, you can reduce the overhead imposed by this logging method on code in production by only calling the Logger module if logs of the specified level are supposed to be saved.
An example of this implementation can be seen in the PluginChecker.fmp12 file from my PluginManager project. Open the ~PluginChecker: Test Plugin ( ... ) script from the Modules > PluginChecker > PluginChecker: Private folder. That script uses the $$PLUGINCHECKER.LOGLEVELTOWRITE global variable instead of the LogWriteEnabled custom function, but the concept is the same. It also calls the local PluginChecker: Config: Create Log Entry script instead of directly calling the Logger module, which allows users to configure logging (or not), however they choose.
In the ~PluginChecker: Test Plugin ( ... ) script, you will see many calls to the ...Create Log Entry script, but most of them are only called if the log level to write is defined as 4 (debug) or 5 (trace). This means that $$PLUGINCHECKER.LOGLEVELTOWRITE can be set to 1-3 while in production and the module would only create a single log entry and only if it encountered an error. Or, while developing/debugging an issue, you can set $$PLUGINCHECKER.LOGLEVELTOWRITE to 4 or 5 and get many log entries which explain every major decision the script made, along with the data that existed at the time that decision was made.
When using this method of debugging, you don't have to remove your debugging code before going to production mode. That also means you don't have to add that code again when you run into issues while in production. It's also platform agnostic, this method of debugging works just as well for a script being run on the server as it does for one run in FileMaker Pro, or Pro Advanced.