Configuring logging

You can handle logging and tracing configurations by enabling tracing at server start up, enabling tracing on a WebSphere Commerce instance, or enabling logging on the WebSphere Commerce client library on a stand-alone program.

WebSphere Commerce Version 7.0.0.8 or later You can now configure independent log levels for classes as well as packages.

Note:

When you work with IBM to debug request processing problems, there might be occasions where low-level tracing components must be enabled to capture details for how the request is processed. These low-level Application server trace components do not know the request intent or the potential data within. Therefore, when enabled, it is possible that these tracing components might potentially include sensitive information, in plain text, in the trace file.

It is recommended that you do not enable these types of tracing components on a production system and attempt to simulate the problem on a quality assurance environment to capture the appropriate information. However, if the tracing components must be enabled on a production system, handle the trace files with caution. Before you send the trace, remove sensitive data that might be in the trace before you allow a third party to use the trace for diagnosis. Further, when the trace is no longer required, remove the files with a military-grade data wiping process. When the problem is found and the tracing component is no longer required, immediately disable the low-level tracing components.

Procedure

Enable tracing in WebSphere Commerce. These steps are duplicated from the WebSphere Application Server documentation. For more information, see the Working with trace group of topics in the WebSphere Application Server documentation.

Open the WebSphere Application Server Administrator's Console. To do so within Rational Application Developer, right-click the WebSphere Commerce Test Server and select Administration > Run administrative console.
Expand Troubleshooting > Logs and Trace. The Logging and Tracing page displays in the workspace on the right.
Click the server for which you want to enable the tracing (such as 'server1'). The window refreshes to display the logging and tracing options for the server.
Click Diagnostic Trace. The Diagnostic Trace Service window displays in the workspace.
Click the Configuration or Runtime tab.
Changes made to Configuration are stored on the file system and applied when the server starts. You must restart the server to pick up any changes. This is required for finding issues that originate or occur when the server is initiated. Modifications to Runtime are applied immediately and are lost after the server is restarted.

Optional: Select Change Log Detail Levels to modify tracing configurations for components or packages.

For component-based traces, use the component names. For a list of component-based traces, see Trace components.

For package-based loggers, find the package or class name and determine the appropriate logger name to use. Consider the following SolrSearchConfigurationRegistry class as an example:

com.ibm.commerce.foundation.internal.server.services.search.config.solr.SolrSearchConfigurationRegistry

Set the following trace specification:


Fix pack	Trace specification
	Class-level tracing is not available so you must enable tracing for the package. To determine the name of the logger: Remove the class name. If the class uses an "internal" package, remove the "internal" package name Use the following specification to enable tracing for all classes under the `solr` package.: `com.ibm.commerce.foundation.server.services.search.config.solr=all`
	Class-level tracing is enabled starting from Fix Pack 8. Use the exact match to the package and class name: `com.ibm.commerce.foundation.internal.server.services.search.config.solr.SolrSearchConfigurationRegistry=all`

If you are tracing multiple log detail levels, separate the traces with a colon. For example:


com.ibm.websphere.commerce.WC_SERVER=all:com.ibm.websphere.commerce.WC_ORDER=all

Tracking all helps in diagnosing problems so that multiple traces can be avoided. As an alternative to all, classes can also use warning and info traces, where info contains the least trace impact.

For more information about enabling tracing for the correct components and configuring the proper trace settings for your environment, see:

MustGather documents for resolving Problem Management Records (PMRs) (including component-specific information)
Avoiding pitfalls when collecting traces
Considerations for tracing on a clustered environment

Click Apply > OK to apply the changes to your server. If you selected to change the log details levels on the Configuration tab, restart your server.

Enabling logging on the WebSphere Commerce client library on a stand-alone program
You can debug problems when a stand-alone Java program has issues with the WebSphere Commerce client library by enabling logging.
The foundation logging helper, com.ibm.commerce.foundation.common.util.logging.LoggingHelper, is used to obtain logging objects. This class has helper methods that determine whether tracing and entry and exit tracing is enabled. Logging properties are overridden with a separate logging properties file.
1. Navigate to a directory of your choice and create a new file called logging.properties.
2. Paste the following contents into the logging.properties file:
```
#------------------------------------------
# Handlers
#-----------------------------------------
handlers=java.util.logging.ConsoleHandler,java.util.logging.FileHandler

# Default global logging level
.level=ALL

# ConsoleHandler
java.util.logging.ConsoleHandler.level=OFF
java.util.logging.ConsoleHandler.formatter=java.util.logging.SimpleFormatter

# FileHandler
java.util.logging.FileHandler.level=FINE

# Naming style for the output file:
java.util.logging.FileHandler.pattern=logs/loadData.log

# Name of the character set encoding to use
java.util.logging.FileHandler.encoding=UTF8

# Limiting size of output file in bytes:
java.util.logging.FileHandler.limit=25000000

# Number of output files to cycle through
java.util.logging.FileHandler.count=2

# Style of output (Simple or XML):
java.util.logging.FileHandler.formatter=java.util.logging.SimpleFormatter
```
  Default properties:
  
  Property Value
  
  Logging level FINE
  
  Encoding UTF8
  
  Log file size limit 25MB
  
  Log file scrolling 2
3. Restart your application, specifying the following generic JVM arguments in the WebSphere Application Server Administrator's Console.
  For example, Application servers > server1 > Process definition > Java Virtual Machine:
```
-Djava.util.logging.config.file="file_path/logging.properties"
```
  Include the following path into the class path of the Java application:
```
file_path/logging.properties
```
  Where file_path is the directory of your choice, created in the first step.

Property	Value
Logging level	FINE
Encoding	UTF8
Log file size limit	25MB
Log file scrolling	2