Custom Log Format for Request Logger

Javier Campanini

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Oct 27, 2014, 1:08:20 PM10/27/14

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I'm trying to get a custom log format for the Request Logger. In particular, something like this:

server:
  requestLog:
    appenders:
      - type: console
        logFormat: an-actual-log-format-here %m%n

This seems to be documented: http://dropwizard.io/manual/configuration.html#request-log

But in practice, I can't get the log format to be respected by the Request Logger. It seems the chain of events are:

RequestLogFactory#build calls the appender factory's build method with an existing Layout: https://github.com/dropwizard/dropwizard/blob/master/dropwizard-jetty/src/main/java/io/dropwizard/jetty/RequestLogFactory.java#L98
ConsoleAppenderFactory#build only builds a layout if one isn't provided: https://github.com/dropwizard/dropwizard/blob/master/dropwizard-logging/src/main/java/io/dropwizard/logging/ConsoleAppenderFactory.java#L110
It never sets the pattern: https://github.com/dropwizard/dropwizard/blob/master/dropwizard-logging/src/main/java/io/dropwizard/logging/AbstractAppenderFactory.java#L133

My questions are:

Is there a way to set the pattern for the Request Logger?
Is this a bug that the pattern for the request logger is ignored?

Thanks,

-javi

Jamie Furness

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Oct 27, 2014, 1:56:57 PM10/27/14

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Hi Javier. At current Dropwizard uses the Jetty NSCA request logger, that doesn't support custom formats. There is a pull request (#580) that changes Dropwizard to use logback-access which would do exactly what you want, though it's blocked on the next version of logback being released. I haven't had any word from the developers if this is likely to be merged once logback is updated, but I hope so.

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Javier Campanini

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Oct 27, 2014, 2:58:30 PM10/27/14

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Jamie,

As a temporary solution, I'm planning on writing a custom appender that extends Console, where the build method does one thing: calls the super.build() with a null for layout. That way it'll build a normal DropwizardLayout.

Would that cause any problems? Is this a viable solution?

Thanks!

-javi

Javier Campanini

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Oct 28, 2014, 2:01:00 AM10/28/14

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To go into more detail:

We're attempting to add the username to the request log. We're using Shiro for authentication, and using a Servlet Filter to pull the username into the org.slf4j.MDC.

Our resulting pattern is:

%mdc{user:-anon} - %m%n%xEx