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loglayer

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loglayer standardizes log entry definitions, contextual data, metadata, and error reporting, streamlining your logging process using your logging library of choice like pino / winston / bunyan / etc.

Before loglayer

Defining a log entry can vary significantly between different libraries:

// Using `winston`:
winston.info('my message', { some: 'data' })

// Using `bunyan`:
bunyan.info({ some: 'data' }, 'my message')

Handling errors can also be inconsistent:

// Using `roarr` with a direct error object:
roarr.error({ err: new Error('test') })

// With serialized error data:
roarr.error({ err: serialize(new Error('test')) })

Simplicity with loglayer

Focus on creating logs with clear, consistent syntax:

logLayer
  .withMetadata({ some: 'data'})
  .withError(new Error('test'))
  .info('my message')

Table of Contents

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Installation

$ npm i loglayer

Example installations

console

import { LoggerType, LogLayer } from 'loglayer'

const log = new LogLayer({
  logger: {
    instance: console,
    type: LoggerType.CONSOLE,
  },
})

pino

pino docs

import pino, { P } from 'pino'
import { LogLayer, LoggerType } from 'loglayer'

const p = pino({
  level: 'trace'
})

const log = new LogLayer<P.Logger>({
  logger: {
    instance: p,
    type: LoggerType.PINO,
  },
})

bunyan

bunyan docs

bunyan requires an error serializer to be defined to handle errors.

import bunyan from 'bunyan'
import { LogLayer, LoggerType } from 'loglayer'

const b = bunyan.createLogger({
  name: 'test-logger',
  // Show all log levels
  level: 'trace',
  // We've defined that bunyan will transform Error types
  // under the `err` field
  serializers: { err: bunyan.stdSerializers.err },
})

const log = new LogLayer({
  logger: {
    instance: b,
    type: LoggerType.BUNYAN,
  },
  error: {
    // Make sure that loglayer is sending errors under the err field to bunyan
    fieldName: 'err'
  }
})

winston

winston docs

import winston from 'winston'
import { LogLayer, LoggerType } from 'loglayer'
import { serializeError } from 'serialize-error'

const w = winston.createLogger({})

const log = new LogLayer<winston.Logger>({
  logger: {
    instance: w as unknown as LoggerLibrary,
    type: LoggerType.WINSTON,
  },
  error: {
    serializer: serializeError,
  },
})

roarr

roarr docs

import { LogLayer, LoggerType } from 'loglayer'
import { Roarr as r, Logger } from 'roarr'
import { serializeError } from 'serialize-error'

const log = new LogLayer<Logger>({
  logger: {
    instance: r.Roarr,
    type: LoggerType.ROARR,
  },
  error: {
    serializer: serializeError,
  },
})

electron-log

You can use electron-log with LogLayer in your electron app for logging.

electron-log docs

// Main process logger
import log from 'electron-log/src/main';
// or Renderer process logger
// import log from 'electron-log/src/renderer';

const logger = new LogLayer({
  logger: {
    instance: log,
    type: LoggerType.ELECTRON_LOG,
  },
});

log4js-node

log4js-node docs

import { LogLayer, LoggerType } from 'loglayer'
import log4js from 'log4js'

const log4jsInstance = log4js.getLogger()

// Enable logging output
// note: You'll most likely want to use appenders and a custom layout
// instead to write your logs in log4js-node
log4jsInstance.level = "trace";

const log = new LogLayer({
  logger: {
    instance: log4jsInstance,
    type: LoggerType.LOG4JS_NODE,
  },
})

signale

signale docs

import { LogLayer, LoggerType } from 'loglayer'
import { Signale } from 'signale'

const log = new LogLayer<Signale>({
  logger: {
    instance: new Signale(),
    type: LoggerType.SIGNALE,
  },
})

// if you need to use a signale-specific method
const s = log.getLoggerInstance()
s.success('Operation successful');

consola

consola docs

import { LogLayer, LoggerType } from 'loglayer'
import { type ConsolaInstance, createConsola } from "consola";

const log = new LogLayer<ConsolaInstance>({
  logger: {
    instance: createConsola({
      level: 5
    }),
    type: LoggerType.CONSOLA,
  },
})

@datadog/browser-logs

@datadog/browser-logs docs

import { datadogLogs, type Logger } from '@datadog/browser-logs';
import { LogLayer, LoggerType } from 'loglayer'

datadogLogs.init({
  clientToken: '<client token>',
  site: 'datadoghq.com',
  forwardErrorsToLogs: true,
})

// Ex 1
const log = new LogLayer<Logger>({
  logger: {
    instance: datadogLogs.logger,
    type: LoggerType.DATADOG_BROWSER_LOGS,
  },
})

// Ex 2
const logger = datadogLogs.createLogger('my-logger')
const log2 = new LogLayer<Logger>({
  logger: {
    instance: logger,
    type: LoggerType.DATADOG_BROWSER_LOGS,
  },
})

Example integration

Using express and pino:

import express from 'express'
import pino from 'pino'
import { LogLayer, LoggerType } from 'loglayer'

// We only need to create the logging library instance once
const p = pino({
  level: 'trace'
})

const app = express()
const port = 3000

// Define logging middleware
app.use((req, res, next) => {
  req.log = new LogLayer({
    logger: {
      instance: p,
      type: LoggerType.PINO
    }
    // Add a request id for each new request
  }).withContext({
    // generate a random id
    reqId: Math.floor(Math.random() * 100000).toString(10),
    // let's also add in some additional details about the server
    env: 'prod'
  })
  
  next();
})

app.get('/', (req, res) => {
  // Log the message
  req.log.info('sending hello world response')
  
  res.send('Hello World!')
})

app.listen(port, () => {
  console.log(`Example app listening at http://localhost:${port}`)
})

API

Constructor

new LogLayer<LoggerInstanceType = LoggerLibrary, ErrorType = any>(config: LogLayerConfig)

Generics (all are optional):

Configuration options

interface LogLayerConfig {
  /**
   * Set to false to drop all log input and stop sending to the logging
   * library.
   *
   * Can be re-enabled with `enableLogging()`.
   *
   * Default is `true`.
   */
  enabled?: boolean
  /**
   * If set to true, will also output messages via console logging before
   * sending to the logging library.
   *
   * Useful for troubleshooting a logging library / transports
   * to ensure logs are still being created when the underlying
   * does not print anything.
   */
  consoleDebug?: boolean
  /**
   * The prefix to prepend to all log messages
   */
  prefix?: string
  /**
   * If set to true, will not include context data in the log message.
   */
  muteContext?: boolean
  /**
   * If set to true, will not include metadata data in the log message.
   */
  muteMetadata?: boolean
  logger: {
    /**
     * The instance of the logging library to send log data and messages to
     */
    instance: ExternalLogger
    /**
     * The instance type of the logging library being used
     */
    type: LoggerType
  }
  error?: {
    /**
     * A function that takes in an incoming Error type and transforms it into an object.
     * Used in the event that the logging library does not natively support serialization of errors.
     */
    serializer?: ErrorSerializerType
    /**
     * Logging libraries may require a specific field name for errors so it knows
     * how to parse them.
     *
     * Default is 'err'.
     */
    fieldName?: string
    /**
     * If true, always copy error.message if available as a log message along
     * with providing the error data to the logging library.
     *
     * Can be overridden individually by setting `copyMsg: false` in the `onlyError()`
     * call.
     *
     * Default is false.
     */
    copyMsgOnOnlyError?: boolean
  }
  context?: {
    /**
     * If specified, will set the context object to a specific field
     * instead of flattening the data alongside the error and message.
     *
     * Default is context data will be flattened.
     */
    fieldName?: string
  }
  metadata?: {
    /**
     * If specified, will set the metadata data to a specific field
     * instead of flattening the data alongside the error and message.
     *
     * Default is metadata will be flattened.
     */
    fieldName?: string
  }
  /**
   * An array of plugins to be executed in the order they are defined.
   */
  plugins?: Array<LogLayerPlugin>
}
Supported log library types

Config option: logger.type

Use the other value for log libraries not supported here. loglayer may or may not work with it.

export enum LoggerType {
  BUNYAN = "bunyan",
  CONSOLA = "consola",
  CONSOLE = "console",
  ELECTRON_LOG = "electronLog",
  LOG4JS_NODE = "log4js-node",
  PINO = "pino",
  ROARR = "roarr",
  SIGNALE = "signale",
  WINSTON = "winston",
  OTHER = "other",
}
Serializing errors

Config option: error.serializer

By default, loglayer will pass error objects directly to the logging library as-is.

Some logging libraries do not have support for serializing errors, and as a result, the error may not be displayed in a log.

If you use such a library, you can define a function that transforms an error, which is in the format of:

type ErrorSerializerType = (err) => Record<string, any> | string

For example:

import { LoggerType, LogLayer } from 'loglayer'

const log = new LogLayer({
  logger: {
    instance: console,
    type: LoggerType.CONSOLE,
  },
  error: {
    serializer: (err) => {
      // Can be an object or string
      return JSON.stringify(err)
    }
  }
})
Data output options

By default, loglayer will flatten context and metadata into a single object before sending it to the logging library.

For example:

log.withContext({
  reqId: '1234'
})

log.withMetadata({
  hasRole: true,
  hasPermission: false
}).info('checking permissions')

Will result in a log entry in most logging libraries:

{
  "level": 30,
  "time": 1638138422796,
  "hostname": "local",
  "msg": "checking permissions",
  "hasRole": true,
  "hasPermission": false,
  "reqId": 1234
}

Some developers prefer a separation of their context and metadata into dedicated fields.

You can do this via the config options, context.fieldName and metadata.fieldName:

const log = new LogLayer({
  ...,
  metadata: {
    // we'll put our metadata into a field called metadata
    fieldName: 'metadata'
  },
  context: {
    // we'll put our context into a field called context
    fieldName: 'context'
  }
})

The same log commands would now be formatted as:

{
  "level": 30,
  "time": 1638138422796,
  "hostname": "local",
  "msg": "checking permissions",
  "metadata": {
    "hasRole": true,
    "hasPermission": false
  },
  "context": {
    "reqId": 1234
  }
}

Child logger

LogLayer#child(): LogLayer

You can create a child logger, which will copy the configuration you used for creating the parent, along with the existing context data and plugins.

The copied context data is a shallow copy.

const parentLog = new LogLayer(<config>).withContext({ some: 'data' })

// Creates a new LogLayer with <config> copied over and the context
const childLog = parentLog.child()

Disable / enable logging

Logging messages

type MessageDataType = string | number | null | undefined

Some logging libraries do not support a trace or fatal level. loglayer will re-map to the following levels in that situation:

Your logging library may or may not support passing multiple parameters. See your logging library's documentation for more details.

// Can be a single message
log.info('this is a message')

// Or passed through multiple parameters to be interepreted by your logging library.
// For example, in roarr, the subsequent parameters after the first are for sprintf interpretation only.
// Other libraries do nothing with additional parameters.
log.info('request id: %s', id)

Including a prefix with each log message

Via configuration

const log = new LogLayer({ prefix: '[testing]' })

Create a child logger with the prefix

LogLayer#withPrefix(prefix: string): LogLayer

This calls LogLayer#child() with prefix set as part of the configuration.

const parentLog = new LogLayer(<config>)

const childLog = parentLog.withPrefix('[testing]')

// The message will be "[testing] this is a request"
childLog.info('this is a request')

Including context with each log message

LogLayer#withContext(data: Record<string, any>): LogLayer

log.withContext({
  requestId: 1234
})

// Your logging library will now include the context data
// as part of its logging output
log.info('this is a request')

Output from pino:

{
  "level": 30,
  "time": 1638146872750,
  "pid": 38300,
  "hostname": "local",
  "requestId": 1234,
  "msg": "this is a request"
}

Getting context

log.withContext({
  requestId: 1234
})

// Should return { requestId: 1234 }
const context = log.getContext()

Logging metadata

With a message

LogLayer#withMetadata(data: Record<string, any>): ILogBuilder

Use this if you want to log data that is specific to the message only.

log.withMetadata({ some: 'data' }).info('this is a message that includes metadata')

Standalone

LogLayer#metadataOnly(data: Record<string, any>, logLevel: LogLevel = 'info'): void

Use this if you want to only log metadata without including a message.

// Default log level is 'info'
log.metadataOnly({ some: 'data' })

// Adjust log level
log.metadataOnly({ some: 'data' }, LogLevel.warn)

Muting context / metadata

Sometimes you may want to disable context or metadata from being included in the log message.

Useful for local development or troubleshooting where you may not want to see the context or metadata due to verbosity.

Setting the mute flag is persistent until the unmute method is called.

Via configuration

const log = new LogLayer({ muteContext: true, muteMetadata: true })

Via method

Logging errors

With a message

LogLayer#withError(error: Error): ILogBuilder

Use this to include an error object with your message.

// You can use any log level you want
log.withError(new Error('error')).error('this is a message that includes an error')

Standalone

LogLayer#errorOnly(error: Error, opts?: OnlyErrorOpts): void

Options:

interface OnlyErrorOpts {
  /**
   * Sets the log level of the error
   */
  logLevel?: LogLevel
  /**
   * If `true`, copies the `error.message` if available to the logger library's
   * message property.
   *
   * If the config option `error.copyMsgOnOnlyError` is enabled, this property
   * can be set to `false` to disable the behavior for this specific log entry.
   */
  copyMsg?: boolean
}

Use this if you want to only log metadata without including a message.

// Default log level is 'error'
log.errorOnly(new Error('test'))

// Adjust log level
log.errorOnly(new Error('test'), { level: LogLevel.warn })

// Include the error message as part of the logging library's message field
// This may be redundant as the error message value will still be included
// as part of the message itself
log.errorOnly(new Error('test'), { copyMsg: true })

// If the loglayer instance has `error.copyMsgOnOnlyError = true` and you
// want to disable copying the message for a single line, explicitly
// define copyMessage with false
log.errorOnly(new Error('test'), { copyMsg: false })

Get the attached logger library instance

LogLayer#getLoggerInstance()

Returns back the backing logger used in the event you need to call methods specific to that logging library.

Plugins

Plugin definition

A plugin is a plain object that defines callbacks to be executed at specific points in the log lifecycle.

In advanced use-cases, you may want to create a class that implements the plugin interface.

export interface LogLayerPlugin {
  /**
   * Unique identifier for the plugin. Used for selectively disabling / enabling
   * and removing the plugin.
   */
  id?: string;
  /**
   * If true, the plugin will skip execution
   */
  disabled?: boolean;
  onBeforeDataOut?(params: PluginBeforeDataOutParams): Record<string, any> | null | undefined;
  onBeforeMessageOut?(params: PluginBeforeMessageOutParams): MessageDataType[];
  shouldSendToLogger?(params: PluginShouldSendToLoggerParams): boolean;
  onMetadataCalled?(metadata: Record<string, any>): Record<string, any> | null | undefined;
}

Lifecycle

Plugins are executed in the order they are defined.

The event lifecycle is as follows:

  1. onBeforeDataOut is called to modify the data object before it is sent to the logging library.
  2. onBeforeMessageOut is called to modify the message data before it is sent to the logging library.
  3. shouldSendToLogger is called to determine if the log entry should be sent to the logging library.

Management

Add plugins outside of configuration

LogLayer#addPlugins(plugins: Array<LogLayerPlugin>)

This adds new plugins to the existing configuration.

Disable / enable a plugin

The id must be defined in the plugin to disable / enable it.

Remove a plugin

The id must be defined in the plugin to remove it.

LogLayer#removePlugin(id: string): LogLayer

Callbacks

Modify / create object data before being sent to the logging library
export interface PluginBeforeDataOutParams {
  /**
   * Log level of the data
   */
  logLevel: LogLevel;
  /**
   * The object containing metadata / context / error data. This
   * is `undefined` if there is no object with data.
   */
  data?: Record<string, any>;
}

onBeforeDataOut(params: PluginBeforeDataOutParams) => Record<string, any> | null | undefined

The callback onBeforeDataOut can be used to modify the data object that contains the context / metadata / error data or create a custom object before it is sent out to the logging library.

Return null or undefined to not modify the data object.

Subsequent plugins will have the data property updated from the results of the previous plugin if a result was returned from it.

import { 
  LoggerType, 
  LogLayer, 
  PluginBeforeDataOutFn,
  PluginBeforeDataOutParams,
} from 'loglayer'

const onBeforeDataOut: PluginBeforeDataOutFn = (params: PluginBeforeDataOutParams) => {
  if (params.data) {
    params.data.modified = true 
  }
  
  return params.data 
}

const log = new LogLayer({
  ...
  plugins: [{
    onBeforeDataOut,
  }]
})

log.withContext({ test: 'data' }).info('this is a test message')
{
  "test": "data",
  "modified": true,
  "msg": "this is a test message"
}
Modify / create message data before being sent to the logging library
export interface PluginBeforeMessageOutParams {
  /**
   * Log level of the message
   */
  logLevel: LogLevel;
  /**
   * Message data that is copied from the original.
   */
  messages: any[];
}

onBeforeMessageOut(params: PluginOnBeforeMessageOutParams) => any[]

Called after onBeforeDataOut and before shouldSendToLogger. This allows you to modify the message data before it is sent to the destination logging library.

Parameters

import { 
  LoggerType, 
  LogLayer,
  PluginBeforeMessageOutParams,
  PluginBeforeMessageOutFn,
} from 'loglayer'

const onBeforeMessageOut: PluginBeforeMessageOutFn = (params: PluginBeforeMessageOutParams) => {
  return [params.messages[0], 'modified message']
}

const log = new LogLayer({
  ...
  plugins: [{
    onBeforeMessageOut,
  }]
})

// Assuming your logging library supports multiple parameters and will interpret the %s
log.info('this is a test message: %s')
{
  "msg": "this is a test message: modified message"
}
Conditionally send or not send an entry to the logging library
export interface PluginShouldSendToLoggerParams {
  /**
   * Message data that is copied from the original.
   */
  messages: any[];
  /**
   * Log level of the message
   */
  logLevel: LogLevel;
  /**
   * The object containing metadata / context / error data. This
   * is `undefined` if there is no object with data.
   */
  data?: Record<string, any>;
}

shouldSendToLogger(params: PluginShouldSendToLoggerParams) => boolean

The callback shouldSendToLogger is called before the data is sent to the logger. Return false to omit sending to the logger. Useful for isolating specific log messages for debugging / troubleshooting. If multiple plugins are defined, all must return true for the log entry to be sent.

Parameters

import { 
  LoggerType, 
  LogLayer, 
  PluginShouldSendToLoggerFn, 
  PluginShouldSendToLoggerParams
} from 'loglayer'

const shouldSendToLogger: PluginShouldSendToLoggerFn = ({ messages }: PluginShouldSendToLoggerParams) => {
  // Define custom logic here (ex: regex) to determine if the log should be sent out or not
  
  // Read the first parameter of info() / warn() / error() / debug() / etc
  if (messages[0] === 'do not send out') {
    return false;
  }
  
  return true;
}

const log = new LogLayer({
  ...
  plugins: [{
    shouldSendToLogger,
  }]
})

// Will not send the log entry to the logger
log.info('do not send out')
Intercept metadata calls

onMetadataCalled(metadata: Record<string, any>) => Record<string, any> | null | undefined

The callback onMetadataCalled is called when withMetadata() or metadataOnly() is called with the input being a shallow clone of the metadata from withMetadata() / metadataOnly().

One use-case would be for situations where you may want to redact sensitive information from the metadata before it is sent to the logging library and defining the onBeforeDataOut plugin callback is too much of a hassle.

import { 
  LoggerType, 
  LogLayer,
  PluginOnMetadataCalledFn, 
} from 'loglayer'

const onMetadataCalled: PluginOnMetadataCalledFn = (metadata: Record<string, any>) => {
  // Modify the metadata object
  metadata.modified = true
    
  return metadata
}

const log = new LogLayer({
  ...
  plugins: [{
    onMetadataCalled,
  }]
})

// Metadata will now include the modified field in the output
log.withMetadata({ some: 'data' }).info('modified metadata')
import { 
  LoggerType, 
  LogLayer,
  PluginOnMetadataCalledFn, 
} from 'loglayer'

const onMetadataCalled: PluginOnMetadataCalledFn = (metadata: Record<string, any>) => {
  // Return null to prevent the metadata from being sent to the logging library
  return null
}

const log = new LogLayer({
  ...
  plugins: [{
    onMetadataCalled,
  }]
})

// Metadata will be completely omitted from the log print
log.withMetadata({ some: 'data' }).info('no metadata included')

Mocking for tests

Rather than having to define your own mocks for loglayer, we have a mock class you can use for your tests:

import { MockLogLayer } from 'loglayer'

// You can use the MockLogLayer in place of LogLayer
// so nothing will log

Running tests

$ npm run test:ci