3 A client implementation for Loggly in node.js
7 ### Installing npm (node package manager)
9 $ curl http://npmjs.org/install.sh | sh
12 ### Installing node-loggly
14 $ [sudo] npm install loggly
19 The node-loggly library is compliant with the [Loggly API][0]. Using node-loggly is easy for a variety of scenarios: logging, working with devices and inputs, searching, and facet searching.
22 Before we can do anything with Loggly, we have to create a client with valid credentials. We will authenticate for you automatically:
25 var loggly = require('loggly');
27 subdomain: "your-subdomain",
29 username: "your-username",
30 password: "your-password"
33 var client = loggly.createClient(config);
37 There are two ways to send log information to Loggly via node-loggly. The first is to simply call client.log with an appropriate input token:
40 client.log('your-really-long-input-token', '127.0.0.1 - Theres no place like home', function (err, result) {
41 // Do something once you've logged
45 Note that the callback in the above example is optional, if you prefer the 'fire and forget' method of logging:
48 client.log('your-really-long-input-token', '127.0.0.1 - Theres no place like home');
51 The second way to send log information to Loggly is to do so once you've retrieved an input directly from Loggly:
54 client.getInput('your-input-name', function (err, input) {
55 input.log('127.0.0.1 - Theres no place like home');
59 Again the callback in the above example is optional and you can pass it if you'd like to.
61 ### Logging Shallow JSON Object Literals as a String
62 In addition to logging pure strings it is also possible to pass shallow JSON object literals (i.e. no nested objects) to client.log(..) or input.log(..) methods, which will get converted into the [Loggly recommended string representation][1]. So
80 ### Logging Objects to JSON Enabled Loggly Inputs
81 It is also possible to log complex objects using the new JSON capabilities of Loggly. To enable JSON functionality in the client simply add 'json: true' to the configuration:
85 subdomain: "your-subdomain",
87 username: "your-username",
88 password: "your-password"
94 When the json flag is enabled, objects will be converted to JSON using JSON.stringify before being transmitted to Loggly. So
112 { "foo": 1, "bar": 2, "buzz": {"sheep": "jumped", "times": 10 }}
116 [Searching][3] with node-loggly is easy. All you have to do is use the search() method defined on each Loggly client:
119 var util = require('util');
121 client.search('404', function (err, results) {
122 // Inspect the result set
123 util.inspect(results.data);
127 The search() exposes a chainable interface that allows you to set additional search parameters such as: ip, input name, rows, start, end, etc.
130 var util = require('util');
133 .meta({ ip: '127.0.0.1', inputname: test })
134 .context({ rows: 10 })
135 .run(function (err, results) {
136 // Inspect the result set
137 util.inspect(results.data);
141 The context of the search (set using the `.context()` method) represents additional parameters in the Loggly API besides the search query itself. See the [Search API documentation][9] for a list of all options.
143 Metadata set using the `.meta()` method is data that is set in the query parameter of your Loggly search, but `:` delimited. For more information about search queries in Loggly, check out the [Search Language Guide][4] on the [Loggly Wiki][5].
146 Loggly also exposes searches that can return counts of events over a time range. These are called [facets][6]. The valid facets are 'ip', 'date', and 'input'. Performing a facet search is very similar to a normal search:
149 var util = require('util');
151 client.facet('ip', '404')
152 .context({ buckets: 10 })
153 .run(function (err, results) {
154 // Inspect the result set
155 util.inspect(results.data);
159 The chaining and options for the facet method(s) are the same as the search method above.
161 ### Working with Devices and Inputs
162 Loggly exposes several entities that are available through node-loggly: inputs and devices. For more information about these terms, checkout the [Loggly Jargon][7] on the wiki. There are several methods available in node-loggly to work with these entities:
166 // Returns all inputs associated with your account
168 client.getInputs(function (err, inputs) { /* ... */ });
171 // Returns an input with the specified name
173 client.getInput('input-name', function (err, input) { /* ... */ });
176 // Returns all devices associated with your account
178 client.getDevices(function (err, devices) { /* ... */ });
182 All of the node-loggly tests are written in [vows][8], and cover all of the use cases described above. You will need to add your Loggly username, password, subdomain, and a two test inputs to test/data/test-config.json before running tests. When configuring the test inputs on Loggly, the first test input should be named 'test' using the HTTP service. The second input should be name 'test_json' using the HTTP service with the JSON logging option enabled:
186 "subdomain": "your-subdomain",
188 "username": "your-username",
189 "password": "your-password"
194 // Token and ID of your plain-text input.
196 "token": "your-really-long-token-you-got-when-you-created-an-http-input",
201 // Token and ID of your JSON input.
203 "token": "your-really-long-token-you-got-when-you-created-an-http-input",
210 Once you have valid Loggly credentials you can run tests with [vows][8]:
216 #### Author: [Charlie Robbins](http://www.github.com/indexzero)
217 #### Contributors: [Marak Squires](http://github.com/marak), [hij1nx](http://github.com/hij1nx), [Kord Campbell](http://loggly.com), [Erik Hedenström](http://github.com/ehedenst),
219 [0]: http://wiki.loggly.com/apidocumentation
220 [1]: http://wiki.loggly.com/loggingfromcode
221 [3]: http://wiki.loggly.com/retrieve_events#search_uri
222 [4]: http://wiki.loggly.com/searchguide
223 [5]: http://wiki.loggly.com/
224 [6]: http://wiki.loggly.com/retrieve_events#facet_uris
225 [7]: http://wiki.loggly.com/loggingjargon
226 [8]: http://vowsjs.org
227 [9]: http://wiki.loggly.com/retrieve_events#optional