elf-logger

node-elf-logger

This library is a simple, configurable, node.js HTTP server compatible logging implementation that complies with the W3C's Extended Log File Format. Major HTTP servers like IIS and Apache have options to follow this logging format, and that has the advantage of log viewing software that has already been written for this format.

###Features###

• Log files produced adhere to the W3C's Extended Log File Format specification.
• Any number of loggers may be created for an individual http.Server instance.
• Highly configurable, from which fields to log, to where to save the files to, to which entries to log at all, etc.

---

node-elf-logger is configurable. Specifically which #Fields should be logged, whether to write to a stream or file, and the log folder and file naming scheme (organization). First look at a minimal example:

var http = require("http"),
    elf = require("elf-logger");
var httpServer = http.createServer(function (req, res) {
    // blah, blah
});
httpServer.listen(80);
elf.createLogger(httpServer);

This will make a node-elf-logger instance. All requests to the httpServer instance will be logged using the elf.defaultOptions object. That is all that is needed to get it going!

---

No doubt you are more interested in the configuration options of node-elf-logger. Supplying a second argument to the elf.createLogger function uses the options specified instead of the elf.defaultOptions:

elf.createLogger(httpServer, {
    dir: "/var/log/node/http",
    template: "{cs(host)}/{date}.log",
    fields: ['date','time','c-ip','cs-method','cs-uri','sc-status','cs(user-agent)']
});

###Options Argument###

dir: The root directory where node-elf-logger should store it's log files. This value will be prefixed onto the template value if present.

template: Defines where each HTTP request should be logged it. This can be a String as shown above, with special filter values surrounded by {} brackets. A / indicates a directory change.

For more fine-grained control, you may pass a function reference instead. This function will be called after every HTTP request has completed, and a log entry is about to be written. The function will be passed the #Fields as an object literal as an argument, and your function must return the path and name of log to write the entry to. You may also cancel any log entry by returning a "falsey" value.

stream: A ready WritableStream to log all HTTP requests to, instead of logging to a file. Supplying this property bypasses the dir and template properties, if present.

fields: The #Fields that should be logged as defined by the W3C Specification. Also look at these examples for some more ideas for fields to log. The value should be an Array of case-insensitive Strings containing an individual field to log per Array entry.