B Appendix: RPASCE Client Logging Configuration

This appendix describes the client logging configuration. It contains the following sections:

• Log Files

• Log Levels

• Logging Based on Application Layers

• Performance Logging

Logging in RPASCE Client application can be configured in the log4jconfig.xml. This file is located under the <RPASCE Client Install directory>/config folder. The configuration file provides the user with various levels of configuration options. Logging user actions generates information that is useful in troubleshooting application errors. Such logs may be requested by the RPASCE development group. It is not recommended to enable detailed logging by default.

Note the following:

• Logging can be configured at different levels and modes.

• Logging can be configured at different layers of the application. Different layers in the application can have different logging levels, as defined by a user's requirements.

Log Files

Log files can be specified by the customer. There are two default log files, both located in the log file path defined during the RPASCE client installation. It is <RPASCE Client install directory>/log by default. The main logging information goes to Edge-<wls-server-name>.log. The main log file is intended to capture data relating to user actions of significance. For debugging performance issues, another log file can be specified, called perf-<wls-server-name>.log. The name and location of each of these files is configurable.

You can change the file name by changing the value for the property in log4jconfig.xml, as follows:

<RollingFile name="EdgeAppender" fileName="${log-path}/Edge-${wls-server-name}.log" filePattern="${log-path}/Edge-${wls-server-name}-%d{yyyy-MM-dd}-%i.log" >

By default, the log file is a daily log. A new file is created each day. You can change the filePattern to yyyy-MM-dd-HH if hourly log files are desired. The use of the rolling file appender keeps the size of log files to a reasonable value. The file names are named <base-log-file-name>.<date>.

Log Levels

The RPASCE Client application supports different logging levels as part of the configuration. You can configure the log levels based on your needs.

Different levels and modes of logging in the application are listed in Table B-1 in order of severity. The warn level includes error, the info level includes warn and error, and so on.

Table B-1 Log Level Definitions

Log Level Name	Log Level Definition
error	Used to log errors. This is the default level that is set after installation. Critical errors and information are logged at this level.
warn	Used to show messages regarding potentially harmful situations. These situations do not affect the running of the RPASCE Client application but may not give the desired result. For this reason, it is preferable to warn the user about such situations.
info	Used to provide general information to the user (for example, if the login was successful or not). This level is used sparingly to provide information about main events. As mentioned in the Oracle Retail Predictive Application Server Security Guide, it is recommended that you set the security category to no lower than the info level, so that the users logging in and out are noted in the logs.
debug	Used for logging in debug mode. In this mode, much more logging occurs than in other modes. Debug information that can help in debugging is provided at this level. This must be used only for debugging purposes, as the number of logs generated may cause performance issues. When a customer wishes to report a defect, customer support can advise the customer to turn on logging at this level, run the problem scenario, capture the logs, and attach them to the trouble report.

Logging Based on Application Layers

For ease of configuration, the RPASCE Client provides the option of configuring different layers of the application at different log levels. The aim is to help the user concentrate on the layer that is of significance at any given point, while helping to reduce performance overhead by reducing logs that are not required.

The different layers in the configuration file log4jconfig.xml can be identified with the value of property in the xml file. Here is an extract from the xml file:

<Logger name="common.security" additivity="false" level="info" > - Layer Name  and layer logging level :: change the level here     
      <AppenderRef ref="EdgeAppender"/> - Where to log: choose where to log here    </Logger> 

Each layer has an appropriate entry in the xml file. You can change the parameters for level and appender, based on your requirements. The following layers are available:

• common.security

• common.view

• common.init

• common.services

• common.model

• common.data

• common.perf

• common.detailperf

• common.util

• common.i18n

• common.trans

• common.requests

• common.requestdetail

Note: The appender can be the console or another appender that has been declared in the file. If you want to logs to be written to Edge_ .log, then use appender (see Log Files) in the <appender-ref> property.

Performance Logging

To generate performance logging, set the log level for both the perf and the perfdetail categories to debug and set the property perftiming.enabled to true in the config.properties file (located under the RPASCE Client config directory).

For more details on performance logging, see to Customer Performance Issue Report - Note 1493747.1 on My Oracle Support.

Latency Logging

An option is now provided to the customer to enable the latency logging. This will help the customer administrator to work with Oracle support on any network latency related performance issues. It will be easier now to identify leniency related issues. To enable the latency logging the customer needs to log a Service Request.

The following properties are used for latency logging between the browser and the server.

# Turn on latency logging (between browser and Server)
#latencyLogging.enabled=true
#latencyLogging.interval=30
#latencyLogging.delay=10
# Latency logging interval and delay time in seconds

By default, each property must be commented. To enable latency monitoring, the following line must be uncommented and the value must be true.

latencyLogging.enabled=true

The latency is logged into the latency.log file using the values for the default interval and delay.

The default interval value is 30 seconds and the default delay value is 10 seconds. The interval represents the minimum time difference between the two latencies. The measurement and delay represent the amount of time it will take after the service call for the latency measurement. The delay is for internal use only.