log4j and Pivot

Here’s a simple way to consume log4j messages in pivot for use in a log console or similar.

First create a custom appender which sents a log message to the pivot message bus.

public class MessageBusAppender extends AppenderSkeleton {
    
    @Override
    protected void append(LoggingEvent event) {
        MessageBus.sendMessage(new LogMessage(layout, event));
    }

    @Override
    public boolean requiresLayout() {
        return true;
    }

    @Override
    public void close() {
       //nop
    }

}

public class LogMessage {

    private Layout logLayout;
    private LoggingEvent event;

    public LoggingEvent getEvent() {
        return event;
    }

    public Layout getLogLayout() {
        return logLayout;
    }

    public LogMessage(Layout logLayout, LoggingEvent event) {
        this.logLayout = logLayout;
        this.event = event;
    }
    
}

In any component needs to display log messages, just listen for the messages and update as appropriately. Here’s an example updating a textpane:

public class LogPane extends Border {

    @BXML
    private TextPane logTxt;
    @BXML
    private PushButton clearBtn;
...
...
        logTxt.setDocument(new Document());

        MessageBus.subscribe(LogMessage.class, new MessageBusListener() {

            public void messageSent(final LogMessage message) {
                ApplicationContext.queueCallback(new Runnable() {

                    @Override
                    public void run() {
                        String text = message.getLogLayout().format(message.getEvent());
                        logTxt.getDocument().add(new Paragraph(text));
                        if (message.getEvent().getThrowableInformation() != null)
                        {
                            StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
                            for (String s : message.getEvent().getThrowableInformation().getThrowableStrRep())
                            {
                                sb.append("  ");
                                sb.append(s);
                                sb.append("\n");
                            }
                            logTxt.getDocument().add(new Paragraph(sb.toString()));
                        }
                    }
                });
            }
        });

        clearBtn.getButtonPressListeners().add(new ButtonPressListener() {

            public void buttonPressed(Button button) {
                logTxt.setDocument(new Document());

            }
        });
 ...
 ...
}

Now tie it together in your log4j config:

log4j.rootLogger=ERROR, Pivot

log4j.appender.Pivot=sample.MessageBusAppender
log4j.appender.Pivot.layout=org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout
log4j.appender.Pivot.layout.ConversionPattern=%-6r [%15.15t] %-5p %30.30c %x - %m%n