Smarter collections logging

[derekm]

Logging parameters is really handy and encourages writing good toString() methods, but when the parameters are very large collections of these objects, logging-interceptor toString()s each object.

It would be nice to optionally log collection types and sizes instead of the string of each object in the collection.

[t1]

Nice idea... probably also applies to return values.

Do you have a suggestion as to what limits to use or how to configure it?

[derekm]

Actually, yeah, that's where I'm seeing it most, on return values from JAX-RS endpoints.

I'm using MicroProfile Config in my apps, which is CDI-enabled and a fairly nice config system. Geronimo Config Impl is a handy implementation of MP Config.

I kinda think collection size logging should be on by default... but maybe there are options for turning it on or off or setting thresholds, etc.

[t1]

MP Config is uber-cool! I hadn't thought of using it here, as everything else is configured statically in the code. Only the loggers are configured externally, and the interceptor doesn't know anything about that. Seems a bit oversized to use MP Config for only one aspect, doesn't it? Maybe extend the @DontLog annotation: @DontLog(moreThan=10). What do you think?

[derekm]

Sorry for the late reply!

@DontLog seems like a little bit of a mismatch, since I still want logging, I just want less logging: name & count (variable name or type name [type name might be hard given generics erasure, unless you get anonymous null extensions that prevent erasure]).

Probably you're right, though, that an additional annotation could configure collections logging. The only down side is having to use it everywhere. If I could place the annotation at the package-info level, I would be satisfied with this approach.