Logging

Description

How to write log output from your Plone add-on program code

Introduction

Python logging package is used to log from Plone.

Log file location

By default, logs go to var/log folder under buildout.

If Zope instance is started in the foreground mode logs will be printed in the console (stdout).

Plone log filename varies depending on the installation mode (Zope, ZEO cluster). But for each instance there are two log files

  • Event logs (errors), normally called instance.log
  • HTTP request log (Apache compatible), normally called Z2.log

Viewing logs in real time

UNIX'y way for your terminal.

Open error log viewer using tail command (print content from file end) and wait for further file writes

tail -f var/log/instance.log

Press CTRL+C to abort.

Log level

Default log level is INFO. To enable more verbose logging, edit buildout.cfg,

Change log level by editing [instance] section event-log-level:

[instance]
event-log-level = debug

More information

Logging from Python code

Example:

import logging

logger = logging.getLogger("Plone")

class MySomething(object):
    ...
    def function(self):
        logger.info("Reached function()")
        ...

Logging from page templates and RestrictedPython scripts

Python logging module doesn't provide Zope 2 security assertations and does not work in RestrictedPython Python scripts.

However, you can use context.plone_log() method logging in the sandboxed execution mode.

Example:

context.plone_log("This is so fun")

Forcing log level and output

The following snippet forces the log level of Python logging for the duration of the process by modifying the root logger object:

# Force application logging level to DEBUG and log output to stdout for all loggers
import sys, logging

root_logger = logging.getLogger()
root_logger.setLevel(logging.DEBUG)

handler = logging.StreamHandler(sys.stdout)
formatter = logging.Formatter("%(asctime)s - %(name)s - %(levelname)s - %(message)s")
handler.setFormatter(formatter)
root_logger.addHandler(handler)

Temporarily capturing log output

You can capture Python logging output temporarily to a string buffer. This is useful if you want to use logging module to record the status of long running operations and later show to the end user, who does not have access to file system logs, how the operation proceeded.

Below is an Grok view code example.

Example view code:

import logging
from StringIO import StringIO

from five import grok

from xxx.objects.interfaces import IXXXResearcher
from Products.CMFCore.interfaces import ISiteRoot
from Products.statusmessages.interfaces import IStatusMessage

from xxx.objects.sync import sync_with_xxx

grok.templatedir("templates")

logger = logging.getLogger("XXX sync")


class SyncAll(grok.View):
    """
    Update all researcher data on the site from XXX (admin action)
    """

    grok.context(ISiteRoot)

    def sync(self):
        """
        Search all objects of certain type on the site and
        sync them with a remote site.
        """

        brains =  self.context.portal_catalog(object_provides=IXXXResearcher.__identifier__)
        for brain in brains:
            object = brain.getObject()
            sync_with_xxx(object, force=True)

    def startCapture(self, newLogLevel = None):
        """ Start capturing log output to a string buffer.

        http://docs.python.org/release/2.6/library/logging.html

        @param newLogLevel: Optionally change the global logging level, e.g. logging.DEBUG
        """
        self.buffer = StringIO()

        print >> self.buffer, "Log output"

        rootLogger = logging.getLogger()

        if newLogLevel:
            self.oldLogLevel = rootLogger.getEffectiveLevel()
            rootLogger.setLevel(newLogLevel)
        else:
            self.oldLogLevel = None

        self.logHandler = logging.StreamHandler(self.buffer)
        formatter = logging.Formatter("%(asctime)s - %(name)s - %(levelname)s - %(message)s")
        self.logHandler.setFormatter(formatter)
        rootLogger.addHandler(self.logHandler)

    def stopCapture(self):
        """ Stop capturing log output.

        @return: Collected log output as string
        """

        # Remove our handler
        rootLogger = logging.getLogger()

        # Restore logging level (if any)
        if self.oldLogLevel:
            rootLogger.setLevel(self.oldLogLevel)


        rootLogger.removeHandler(self.logHandler)

        self.logHandler.flush()
        self.buffer.flush()

        return self.buffer.getvalue()

    def update(self):
        """ Process the form.

        Process the form, log the output and show the output to the user.
        """

        self.logs = None

        if "sync-now" in self.request.form:
            # Form button was pressed

            # Open Plone status messages interface for this request
            messages = IStatusMessage(self.request)

            try:
                self.startCapture(logging.DEBUG)

                logger.info("Starting full site synchronization")

                # Do the long running,
                # lots of logging stuff
                self.sync()

                logger.info("Successfully done")

                # It worked! Trolololo.
                messages.addStatusMessage("Sync done")

            except Exception, e:
                # Show friendly error message
                logger.exception(e)
                messages.addStatusMessage(u"It did not work out:" + unicode(e))

            finally:
                # Put log output for the page template access
                self.logs = self.stopCapture()

The related page template

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en"
      lang="en"
      metal:use-macro="here/main_template/macros/master"
      i18n:domain="xxx.objects">
<body>
    <div metal:fill-slot="main">
        <tal:main-macro metal:define-macro="main">

                <h1 class="documentFirstHeading">
                        XXX site update
                </h1>

                <p class="documentDescription">
                      Update all researches from XXX
                </p>

                <div tal:condition="view/logs">
                        <p>Sync results:</p>
                        <pre tal:content="view/logs" />
                </div>

                <form action="@@syncall" method="POST">
                        <button type="submit" name="sync-now">
                                Sync now
                        </button>
                </form>

        </tal:main-macro>
    </div>
</body>
</html>