Getting Commons Logging/Log4J working under WAS 6.1

It seems like every time I turn around I run in to class loading issues when working with Java. Trying to get something as simple as logging working for an application can turn in to a real chore. This is especially true of getting Apache Commons Logging (aka. clogging) to work on WebSphere Application Servier (WAS). Since I haven’t yet found that there was a single, straight forward, step-by-step guide to doing this I decided to write this article.

The Issue

The basic problem with clogging under WAS is that WAS in fact uses clogging for its own purposes under the covers. In doing so they’ve configured it to use their own logging class (the WsJDK14Logger I believe). By default this will dump any clogging activity out to the console and be recorded in the stdout log file. This is far from ideal if you wish to isolate the logging activity for a single application in its own log file.

The Bitter Taste of Defeat

Regarding myself as somewhat of a class loading expert (in a novice kind of way), I somewhat foolishly thought “I know I’ll just dump the log4j.jar file and the commons-logging.jar file into my WEB-INF/lib folder and put a log4j.properties file in my src folder. Then I’ll install the application on the application server and set the module class loader to application first”. Simplicity itself I thought! What could be easier? Bah-bow – WRONG! It crashed and burned in the worst way possible: it gave me nothing. Absolutely bloody nothing. The application just merrily went on its way happily dumping its logging information straight into stdout.

Feeling rather bitter about the resounding defeat I’d just been handed I resolved to see what was out there on the web – which led to even greater despair. This issue is the subject of much confusion and misunderstanding with very few good answers. Luckily I happend to stumble upon this forum thread and an IBM presentation which combined told me approximately what I needed to know.

Seven Steps to Success

In a nutshell this is what you need to do to get this working inside a web project.

1. Import your commons-logging.jar and log4j.jar files into the EAR project in which the module will be bundled. You can do this by right-clicking on the EAR project and selecting Import > J2EE Utility Jar if you’re using RAD or Eclipse. Otherwise you can just copy these JARs directly into your EAR project and it should have the same effect.

2. Create a folder called services inside the META-INF directory of your web project. Inside this folder create a file called org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory and copy and past the following into the file:

org.apache.commons.logging.impl.Log4jFactory

3. Add both the commons-logging and log4j JAR file to the MANIFEST.MF file located in the META-INF folder of your web project. For example:

Manifest-Version: 1.0
Class-Path: commons-logging.jar
  log4j-1.2.15.jar

4. Next if you’re using RAD open the EAR deployment descriptor and click on the deployment tab at the bottom. Then scroll down to the Applications section at the bottom of the page and change the classloader mode from PARENT_FIRST to PARENT_LAST. Save the file and close it. Note: if you can also do this once the application is installed from the WAS admin console.

5. Now make sure that you have your log4j.properties file configured and available somewhere on the class path inside your web app. Putting it at the root of the src directory is usually your best bet.

6. Install the application and restart the application server.

7. Profit.

Sorry, that last point was a complete waste of time but I needed another one to round out the seven. Anyway there you have it! Commons Logging running blissfully inside a WebSphere web container.

Free File Hosting

Today I thought I’d put up a few Joomla! extensions that I’ve been working on over the past few days. I thought I could just upload them directly to wordpress but it I can only upload media stuff, if I want to post anything else I have to host them elsewhere. Given that my hosting arrangement has just expired and I’m not willing to renew it I set out to try find a free file hosting site.

As it turns out it was surprisingly easy to find a good one. For now I’ve got all my stuff being hosted by Media Fire which seems like a pretty sweet deal. They’ve got a really clean no fuss UI (sprinkled with just the right amount of AJAX to make things easier) and it’s all pretty straight forward. Nice work guys.