proper web application logging

["Campbell, Lance" <la...@illinois.edu>]

Tomcat 8.0.35

The below question is not about logging Tomcat internal activity.  This is about logging web applications running within Tomcat.

I have been using tomcat forever.  I have been manually adding the Log4J 1.2 JAR file into my web application.  Then using Log4J for web application logging.  I have been thinking about upgrading from Log4J 1.2 to Log4J 2.2 .  The more reading I do the more I am concerned about other JAR files and Tomcat itself getting confused if I make the change to 2.2.

Then it hit me.  Maybe I have been doing this all wrong to start with.  Maybe I should see if I could have my software somehow use whatever the default Tomcat 8.0.35 logging mechanism is.  Then I could avoid this issue completely.

Questions:

1)      Is there a preferred way to log web applications from within Tomcat 8?

2)      If so could someone recommend a how to web page?

3)      My main two requirements for logging are: be able to set the logging level to debug or error and send logging data to a database.

Thanks,

Lance