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Configuring Log Files and Filtering Log Messages

# Introduction and Roadmap

This section describes the contents and organization of this guide—Configuring Log Files and Filtering Log Messages.

- Document Scope and Audience
- Guide to This Document
- Related Documentation
- Logging Samples and Tutorials
- New and Changed Logging Features in This Release

# Document Scope and Audience

This document describes how you use BEA WebLogic Server® logging services to monitor server, subsystem, and application events. It explains how you configure WebLogic Server to write messages to log files and listen for the log messages that WebLogic Server broadcasts, and describes how to view log messages through the WebLogic Server Administration Console.

This document is a resource for system administrators who configure WebLogic logging services and monitor server and subsystem events, and for J2EE application developers who want to integrate their application logs with WebLogic Server logs. This document is relevant to all phases of a software project, from development through test and production phases.

This document does not address application logging or localization and internationalization of log message catalogs. For links to information on these topics, see Related Documentation.

It is assumed that the reader is familiar with J2EE and Web technologies, object-oriented programming techniques, and the Java programming language.

# Guide to This Document

The document is organized as follows:

- This chapter, Introduction and Roadmap, describes the scope of this guide and lists related documentation.
- Understanding WebLogic Logging Services, discusses the logging process, log files, and log messages.
- Configuring WebLogic Logging Services, describes basic configuration scenarios and tasks.
- Filtering WebLogic Server Log Messages, describes how to specify which types of messages WebLogic Server writes to its logs and to standard out.
- Subscribing to Messages, describes how WebLogic Server instantiates and subscribes a set of message handlers that receive and print log messages.

# Related Documentation

The BEA corporate Web site provides all documentation for WebLogic Server. Specifically, "View and Configure Logs" in the Administration Console Online Help describes how to view and configure log files that a WebLogic Server instance generates, and Using WebLogic Logging Services for Application Logging describes how you can use WebLogic Server message catalogs, non-catalog logging, and servlet logging to produce log messages from your application or a remote Java client, and describes WebLogic's support for internationalization and localization of log messages.

# Logging Samples and Tutorials

In addition to this document, BEA Systems provides a variety of logging code samples and tutorials that show logging configuration and API use.

## Avitek Medical Records Application (MedRec) and Tutorials

MedRec is an end-to-end sample J2EE application shipped with WebLogic Server that simulates an independent, centralized medical record management system. The MedRec application provides a framework for patients, doctors, and administrators to manage patient data using a variety of different clients.

MedRec demonstrates WebLogic Server and J2EE features, and highlights BEA-recommended best practices. MedRec is included in the WebLogic Server distribution, and can be accessed from the Start menu on Windows machines. For Linux and other platforms, you can start MedRec from the `WL_HOME``\samples\domains\medrec` directory, where `WL_HOME` is the top-level installation directory for WebLogic Server.

## Log4j Integration in MedRec

The MedRec domain installed with WebLogic Server is configured to enable Log4j logging. Several action classes and MedRec utility classes use the `weblogic.logging.log4j.Log4jLoggingHelper` class to create a new logger, access a Log4j Appender, and register the Appender with the logger. Classes extending the base classes then use the logger to write informational messages to the WebLogic Server log file.

## Logging Examples in the WebLogic Server Distribution

WebLogic Server 9.0 optionally installs API code examples in `WL_HOME``\samples\server\examples\src\examples`, where `WL_HOME` is the top-level directory of your WebLogic Server installation. You can start the examples server, and obtain information about the samples and how to run them from the WebLogic Server 9.0 Start menu.

# New and Changed Logging Features in This Release

There are no new or changed logging features in this release. For information about the new and changed features in WeLogic Server 9.0, see WebLogic Logging Services in What's New in WebLogic Server 9.0.