Chapter 15. Logging in a Struts Application

As dedicated and knowledgeable Java programmers, we always want to believe that the software we create will stand up to the utmost scrutiny. However, as human beings, we'll all fallible, so it's never a good practice to believe that our software contains no defects. The important thing is to use every means available to try to eliminate the defects, or at least reduce them to an acceptable amount.

Generating log messages that tell you what the application is doing can help you locate any defects that are present in your software. However, logging is important for other reasons as well. For example, security and auditing might depend on logging to provide information to the system administrators about what the authorized and, more importantly, unauthorized users of the application are doing. By providing real-time information about potential security attacks on the application, logging can give a much-needed edge to the system administrators and allow for quicker reactions to attacks. Finally, good logging practices can also play a role in solving some tricky performance problems. Knowing how many times a certain page or method is executed is helpful when tracking down why the application isn't performing up to expectations.

This chapter takes a close look at how the use of logging in your Struts application can help you identify defects before the application gets into production, or, if your software is already being used in production, how logging can help you to quickly identify problems with the software and arrive at solutions.