Formatters

Formatters are responsible for formatting LogEvent data. An Outputter owning a Formatter will invoke the Log4r::Formatter#format method prior to writing.

Available Formatters

• Log4r::BasicFormatter - default
• Log4r::PatternFormatter - most flexible. See log4r/formatter/patternformatter.rb
• Log4r::SimpleFormatter - like BasicFormatter for Strings only (low noise)
• Log4r::ObjectFormatter - for inspecting objects
• Log4r::NullFormatter - twirls on its feet and does nothing

XML Configuration

Specify the Formatter and its class (as type) under an <outputter> directive:

  <outputter name="someout" type="sometype">
    <formatter type="Log4r::BasicFormatter"/>
  </outputter>

As explained in log4r/configurator.rb, the hash arguments you would normally pass to new are specified as XML parameters. Only PatternFormatter has any of these.

Custom Formatting

Building a custom Formatter is extremely easy. Just define a class that extends Formatter and override the Formatter#format method. Then give it to any interested Outputters.

If you’re interested in setting up your custom formatters in XML, please take a look at log4r/configurator.rb.

Data Available

See Log4r::LogEvent