CloudWatch Log

Simple CloudWatch logging utility

Install

npm install --save cloudwatch-log

Examples

This library is designed to be used with an async/await pattern and exclusively uses promises. Callbacks are not currently supported

Simple Usage

This library is designed to be as easy to use as possible

// Import libraries
const CloudWatchLogsSDK = require('aws-sdk/clients/cloudwatchlogs');
const CloudWatchLog = require('cloudwatch-log');
 
// Instantiate the logger
const sdk = new CloudWatchLogsSDK({region: 'us-east-1'});
const log = new CloudWatchLog(sdk, '/log/group/name');
 
// Put a single log into CloudWatch
// A log stream will automatically be created with the current time as its name
await log.put('Some log');
 
// An array can also be provided
await log.put([
  'Event message 1',
  'Event message 2'
]);

Custom Log Stream Names

Each instance of the CloudWatchLog library is meant to be used with a single log stream. To use a custom log stream name, supply the desired name in the opts on instantiation

// Instantiate the logger
const customStreamNameLog = new CloudWatchLog(sdk, {
  logGroupName: '/log/group/name',
  logStreamName: 'custom-log-stream-name'
});
 
// Put an item into the custom log steam
await customStreamNameLog.put('Custom stream log');

Non-string Log Events

The put method supports parameters of types other than strings. Objects will automatically be converted into strings using JSON.stringify. The LogEvent helper class can also be used to take greater control of the events being put into CloudWatch. Use of the LogEvent class is also required to supply custom timestamps to individual log events

await log.put({
  testText: 'Objects are automatically stringified'
});
 
await log.put([
  {
    testNumber: 1337,
    testText: 'Types can also be freely mixed'
  },
  'Like this',
  new CloudWatchLog.LogEvent('Here is an explicit log event with a custom timestamp', 12345678)
])

Smart Buffering

CloudWatch Logs has a rate limit of 5 requests per second. This limit cannot (currently) be increased. This library uses a "smart buffering" strategy to prevent throttling errors

put requests will be delivered right away if there has been more than 200ms (one fifth of a second) since the last request. If there has been less than 200ms since the last request the events in the put request will be added to a buffer to be run at the next available interval. The promises returned from buffered requests will only resolve once the put request has actually been made

Additionally, this library will never throw errors in the event of problems with the CloudWatch API, so it is safe to lazily call the put requests

await log.put('This event will be sent right away');
 
await log.put('This event will be sent 200ms after the previous event was sent at the earliest')
 
for (let i=0; i<10; i++) {
  // All of these requests will be buffered into a single request
  log.put(`Buffered request number ${i}`);
}