Re: Error reporting and/or internal logging

[Ivan Habunek <iv...@gmail.com>]

On 30.4.2010 23:29, Christian Grobmeier wrote:
 > Please feel free to add some documentation as patch. Just create an
 > new issue and attach it there. There are reasons why Log4PHP is
 > missing a -good- doc.

I know, everybody prefers coding to writing documentation. For starters, 
I'll add some more examples of XML configuration to the appenders page 
on the site. That's where most people will look first.

> There was such an option before r2.0. Log4J has this option too. But
> in the old code base it was badly readable and we doubted the sense of
> this "feature". We thought that Log4PHP needs to be so easy that a
> feature like "internal debugging" shouldn't be necessary. As a
> consequence we deleted the internal logging code out from the
> codebase. What you found is what we forgot. We should delete it out to
> finalize this step.

I think that log4php should at the very least report errors and warning 
when parsing the configuration file. Internal debugging might not be 
necessary.

I was checking out LoggerConfiguratorXml, looking for ways to add some 
error reporting. The code for parsing XML is very ... non-linear. :)

There are several problems with this method of XML parsing:
* it is quite difficult to implement error reporting (you have to 
examine the $state stack to determine which error message to use)
* the order of elements in the configuration is significant (then you 
get things like https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/LOG4PHP-114).
* it's difficult to discard a part of the configuration in which errors 
were detected

I presume the XML Parser extension was initially chosen for parsing 
because it is supported in both PHP 4 and 5. Is there any reason not to 
switch to a more user-friendly extension such as SimpleXML? I think it 
shouldn't be too much work to code, and the code would be much more 
flexible, not to mention more readable.

I am working under the assumption (and hope) that Log4PHP project does 
not support PHP 4. :)

> I think E_USER_WARNING would be an option. Things like:
> set_error_handler("customError",E_USER_WARNING);
> will work then

OK, we agree on this one.

> If you would go for this one I think this would be great. Log4PHP is
> not so easy enough as I (and maybe others) would like to see it.

Great. I also think that this is a good step towards making Log4PHP more 
accessible to the general public.

Regards,
Ivan

Re: Error reporting and/or internal logging

[Christian Grobmeier <gr...@gmail.com>]

>> Please feel free to add some documentation as patch. Just create an
>> new issue and attach it there. There are reasons why Log4PHP is
>> missing a -good- doc.
>
> I know, everybody prefers coding to writing documentation. For starters,
> I'll add some more examples of XML configuration to the appenders page on
> the site. That's where most people will look first.

Thats perfect. Actually I like to write docs, but I finally do not
have the time. Some more help on this project is appreciated, and I am
very glad you step up


> I think that log4php should at the very least report errors and warning when
> parsing the configuration file. Internal debugging might not be necessary.

True

> I was checking out LoggerConfiguratorXml, looking for ways to add some error
> reporting. The code for parsing XML is very ... non-linear. :)
>
> I presume the XML Parser extension was initially chosen for parsing because
> it is supported in both PHP 4 and 5. Is there any reason not to switch to a
> more user-friendly extension such as SimpleXML? I think it shouldn't be too
> much work to code, and the code would be much more flexible, not to mention
> more readable.

Actually this implementation hasn been modifeid to much when
refactoring Log4PHP to 2.0 version.
In the version you now face it was everything ready for PHP4 core
modules. After long time of zero
development we reanimated Log4PHP and tried to bring everything up for
PHP5. But this configurator "worked".
We didn't change much because there was so much work on all other
corners. But this does not mean I like what inside this one.

To be honest I would LOVE to see LoggerConfiguratorXml making use of
current PHP5 technologies like SimpleXml. Its not only more readable,
I also think its fatser because it works on C level. So, go for it,
and thanks much for it.

There might be other stenches around which need improvements. Feel
free to work on any of them if you find them. I think we agreed to
support PHP5. We have not agreed on a minor version, but I would think
5.2.x would be enough.  Maybe others have other thoughts on this.


> I am working under the assumption (and hope) that Log4PHP project does not
> support PHP 4. :)

Yes :-) You can also see it on the "private" keywords and other minor hints ;-)

>> If you would go for this one I think this would be great. Log4PHP is
>> not so easy enough as I (and maybe others) would like to see it.
>
> Great. I also think that this is a good step towards making Log4PHP more
> accessible to the general public.

Yes I think so.
Again, thanks much for your help and for sticking with the project.

Cheers
Christian