Logging is hard. In order for logging to be effective the following properties should exist,

  1. Good and consistent information
  2. Keep application clean
  3. Easily consumable
  4. Improve fixing problems
  5. Enable deeper understanding
  6. Add prioritisation

Good and consistent information

A logging entry must have all the information that you need in order to understand the event.

Some examples,

  • On exception we should include the page or the route that caused it.
  • Parameters that affect the behavior should be included.
  • The user that was logged in.
  • Machine name etc.

Most importantly it should be able to give answers to following questions,

  • What where you doing?
  • How did you get there?
  • What did you type on the form?

Keep application clean

Avoid try-catch everywhere.

To create default entries that you are interested in,

  • Use global handlers
  • Filters
  • Attributes

Logging should not affect the performance or the behavior of the application.

Easily consumable

Logging entries should be easily consumable by a variety of audiences.

  • Developers
  • Testers
  • Business Analysts
  • Product managers

To be achieved a web interface is needed where you will review and aggregate the entries.

Improve fixing problems

Understand and fix the problem simply by looking at the log entry and the code.

Enable deeper understanding

Good logging helps you surface anomalies and features performance.

Prioritisation

Good aggregation help you with prioritisation.

  • Which error should I fix first
  • Which should be the next performance improvement.

You can base your aggregation upon,

  • Shared volume of activities.
  • Which users are effected.

References

Effective logging, Erik Dahl