Scribbler

RubyGems

Scribbler is a little utility for simplifying logging across one application or more. Currently it assists in:

• Dynamically defining methods for accessing the log files
• Centralized log method for file, message, and error checks
  • Currently also able to notify NewRelic, abstraction and extension to come

Scribbler was initially written with a lot of class-level (almost entirely) operations. For sanity sake, the version 0.3.0 is the big step towards dropping most of the gem into instances. There isn't much functionality change yet, but it will make expanding the gem much simpler to develop.

Scribbler::Base is now deprecated, look to remove. See Scribbler

Scribbler.configure now yields the configurator so you now want to change from:

Scribbler::Base.configure do
  config.some_config_options
  # ...
end

to

Scribbler.configure do |config|
  config.some_config_options
  # ...
end

In your Rails project add

gem 'scribbler'

to your Gemfile and

bundle install

Then

scribbler install # For options do `scribbler` first

You'll find your configuration options in config/initializers/scribbler.rb. Better, more documented examples in the template file provided by scribbler install As an example, with this configuration file in a Rails app called Blogger:

Scribbler.configure do |config|
  config.application_include = true

  # config.log_directory = File.new '/a/better/path'

  config.use_template_by_default = true # Default: false

  # config.template = proc do |options|
  #   <<-MSG
  #   ##########
  #   Cool template bro!
  #   Message: #{options[:message]}
  #   MSG
  # end
end

You are given a few methods for free. To get the production logfile location:

Blogger.production_log_location
# => <#Path: Rails.root.join('log', 'production.log')>

or

Scribbler.production_log_location
# => <#Path: Rails.root.join('log', 'production.log')>

More importantly you're given access to a sweet log method:

# Notifies NewRelic and drops the message in log found at Blogger.production_log_location
Blogger.log :production, :error => e, :message => "#{e} broke stuff"
Scribbler.log :production, :error => e, :message => "#{e} broke stuff"

# Only logs to log/delayed_job.log and doesn't notify NewRelic
Blogger.log :delayed_job, :message => "Successfully executed Delayed Job"
Scribbler.log :delayed_job, :message => "Successfully executed Delayed Job"

# Doesn't notify NewRelic but gives the method access to the error and logs the message
# to the given logfile
Blogger.log 'production', :new_relic => false, :error => e, :message => "#{e} broke stuff"
Scribbler.log 'production', :new_relic => false, :error => e, :message => "#{e} broke stuff"

# Logs to given file without using the fancy log methods
Blogger.log File.expand_path(File.join(File.dirname(__FILE__), 'logfile.log')), :message => "#{e} broke stuff"
Scribbler.log File.expand_path(File.join(File.dirname(__FILE__), 'logfile.log')), :message => "#{e} broke stuff"

Log options with the default template proc:

# options   - Hash of options for logging on Ngin
#             :error            - Error object, mostly for passing to NewRelic
#             :message          - Message to log in the actual file [REQUIRED]
#             :custom_fields    - Custom fields dropped into the default template
#             :template         - Whether or not to use the template at this log
#             :new_relic        - Notify NewRelic of the error (default: true)

With the template enabled (either during call to log [:template => true] or by setting to be used by default) you will have each log entry wrapped into a template to pretty-up and get some more boilerplate data. As you can see in the config above. See method docs and specs for more information.

• Configure the module/class receiving the include
• Configurable notification gem (NewRelic, Airbrake, etc.)
• Have default template cascade through hashes/arrays for prettier viewing
• Currently attempts to notify NewRelic if its there, abstract and allow custom services
• Allow a class to set default options for a log call within itself
• Allow there to be a log made without the option[:message], in case its all custom_fields or someting
• Allow event hooks on log call?
• Log4r support
• Bring class-level methods down to instance methods (More OO)