How can you log from a Neo4j Server Plugin? - neo4j

Question

I'm trying to debug a problem in the Neo4J Server plugin I'm writing. Is there a log I can output to? It's not obvious where or how to do this.

Answer 1

Good question. I think you could use Java Logging? That should be routed into the normal logging system.

Answer 2

Just inject org.neo4j.logging.Log in your class containing implementation of your Neo4j stored procedure.
public class YourProcedures {
#Context
public Transaction tx;
#Context
public Log log;
#Procedure(value = "yourProcedure", mode = Mode.READ)
public Stream<YourResult> yourProcedure(#Name("input") String input) {
log.debug("something");
}
}
Logs are then dumped into standard Neo4j log file.
The level is controlled by GraphDatabaseSettings.store_internal_log_level configuration.
The level can be also changed in runtime. Just inject DependencyResolver bean and define this admin procedure. (The framework has listener hooked to config change which reconfigures the internal logging framework. This is the simplest solution I could find.)
#Context
public DependencyResolver dependencyResolver;
#Procedure(value = "setLogLevel", mode = Mode.DBMS)
#Description("Runtime change of logging level")
public void setLogLevel(#Name("level") String level) {
Config config = dependencyResolver.resolveDependency(Config.class);
config.set(GraphDatabaseSettings.store_internal_log_level, Level.valueOf(level));
}
UPDATE:
This ^ solution works, however it is insufficient when one wants to use logging the way usual in Log4j - different loggers organized in hierarchy, each logger at its own level. The org.neo4j.logging.Log component is just a wrapper of Log4j logger for the GlobalProcedures class. This logger is only one of many loggers in hierarchy. In fact, the wrapper blocks access to richer features of underlying framework. (Unfortunately, to define multiple #Context Log fields in YourProcedures class distinguished by some annotation qualifying logger is also impossible because field injection is driven by Map<Class,instance> so there is only one possible instance to inject for any #Context-annotated field according to field type.)
Solution 1:
Use JUL as in accepted answer. The disadvantage is, JUL redirects log event to underlying Log4j anyway so if logger hierarchy is defined in JUL, Log4j must be set to lowest possible level in order to make JUL levels sensitive.
Solution 2:
Use Log4j directly (i.e. public static final Logger logger = LogManager.getLogger("some.identifier.in.hierarchy") in YourProcedures). There are some issues with redefining configuration programmatically though it is possible, I dropped this solution only because I had some trouble deploying this solution in non-docker environment.
Solution 3: (finally chosen)
I defined custom component LogWithHierarchy (it can be built from own ExtensionFactory loaded using ServiceLoaders - I was inspired in APOC config implementation). This component provides API of the form debug(loggerName, message), info(loggerName, message) etc. The component knows original Log, drills down into its log4j LoggerContext and redirects all logging requests to particular logger in this LoggerContext. Log messages finally end in debug.log. With this solution the original log4j logger hierarchy is fully utilized, levels can be changed dynamically in runtime (setLogLevel must be changed to operate on aforementioned LoggerContext) and still everything is implemented using standard Neo4j plugin support.