Time Indexing Data Logging

The Time Indexing Logging System is an application that extends the TIX Core to provide a new way to log data.

The data logger utilizes the Timeindexing Core, to allow the logging of any data. Unlike traditional logging methods, the data does not have to be converted into a single line of text to be logged. The Timeindexing Logger, allows data to be strings, text blocks, or binary data.

The size of an entry in the log can be any size allowable by the Timeindexing Core. This can be from 1 character, up to gigabytes.

As there is no need to be convert data into a single line of text, the Timeindexing Logger can be used to create XML based logs. This approach means that a single log entry can be a full XML document. The full structure and meaning of the data can be maintained through the logging system, rather than using a single line of text, which is usually a summarization of the original data.

The Logger can also be used to create binary logs. One example, is that based on serialaized objects. Using this technique, it is possible to log a serialaized object and then retrieve objects at a later date, in order to determine their values at a specific time. Binary logging can be beneficial in areas such as regression testing.

These new logging techniques can be used in a variety of applications, and allow the concept of logging to be expanded from its simple text orientation into a new arena.

Existing logs

The Timeindexing Core can utilize existing data files, without the need to keep its own copy of the data. This mechanism is used in the Logger to create a Time Index into logs files of commonly used servers.

The logging module comes with plugins to allow indexing of the following kinds of file:

• web server log files
• ftp server log files
• mail server log files

In some systems further integration is capable, and we have developed bespoke logging components for other systems. These include:

• a logger for the Tomcat web server, that replaces the simple logger that ships with Tomcat
• an access logger for Tomcat, that again places the simple one that ships with Tomcat
• a backend for log4j, that allows all logged data to be managed by Time Indexing.