Flexible logging, such as for a web server

摘要

A flexible logging system is described herein that operates with a web server to provide activity logging in a way that is customizable to include a variety of data fields, can capture both client and server log information to a single location, and can provide data to an analysis engine directly to provide near real-time reporting. The system captures events within the web server as they occur and can provide reporting before the final response occurs. During request processing in the web server, server extension modules raise log events whenever an event occurs. The system matches the received data to a log definition and writes the data to any log that matches. Thus, the flexible logging system provides a rich, flexible, and fast platform for content providers and administrators to get a real-time view of the state of requests to their web servers.

主权项

1. A computer-implemented method for reporting log data to one or more destinations, the method comprising:
receiving, at an analysis engine, a log definition that specifies one or more report destinations to which to store log data and a format for storing the data at each destination and further specifies fields to be included in a log; receiving, at the analysis engine, one or more captured log events, the log events being related to requests and other events within a plurality of software components as each log event occurs in real-time, wherein the analysis engine is a unified software component running on a server that centrally receives the log events as direct notifications from the software components without waiting for the log events to be written to a log file or database and provides a real-time view of the state of the requests to an administrator; for each of the one or more report destinations, performing by the analysis engine the steps of:
selecting the format for the report destination from the log definition;determining whether the received log events include information matching at least one of the fields included in the log definition; andupon determining that at least one of the log events includes information matching at least one of the fields in the log definition, reporting the information matching at least one of the fields to a report destination specified by the log definition.