Alternate Logging in Grails

For most cases, the Grails logging system, based on log4j, works fine, especially for development. But when in production, if you deploy using a single jar, it gets a bit trickier when trying to enable and disable logging. So, to that end, I have created a quick and dirty logging system using groovy's advanced file features.

Groovy Files: In java, log files are simple to configure, but you end up writing the same old try/catch/finally code--very old style. In groovy, all you need is a file name and you are good to go. Here is a groovy example:

def file = new File("test.log")
file.write("this")

No try/catch. No worrying about opening or closing. Just name it and write to it. Very groovy.

Applications Log Files: Each application has it's own specific configuration. So, in the grails-app/conf folder is the perfect place an for ApplicationConfig class to hold the application's configurations. Inside this class are a few methods that define the external logging system. The methods include getLogDirectory(), getLogProperties(), getLogfile(name), etc. For our purposes, getLogfile() is the only method we need to invoke. Again, an example:

def logger = new ApplicationConfig().getLogfile('my-service.log')
logger?.append("my message")

And that's it. So, logger? only appends the message if a log file exists. The log file is external to the web container, and easy to create (touch my-service.log) or remove. If it exists, the it gets logged to. If not, then no logging occurs. The sys-admin, armed with a list of available log file targets, can create or remove logs on the fly without touching the web server. Again, very groovy.