Logging v7

• status: complete
• version: 7.x
• follows from: Views

Client-Side Logging

Client-side logging is controlled by the variable node.verbosity.

In general, the higher its value, the more information will be printed to the JavaScript console of the browser -- or to the standard output, if the client is executed as a bot or as logic on the server.

The following log levels are pre-defined:

• ALWAYS: -Number.MAX_VALUE,
• error: -1,
• warn: 0,
• info: 1,
• silly: 10,
• debug: 100,
• NEVER: Number.MAX_VALUE

By default, node.verbosity is set to 0, so that only warnings and errors are logged. Its value can be set directly, or through the setup function (which accepts also strings).

node.verbosity; // 0
node.verbosity = 100; // "debug"
node.setup('verbosity', 'debug');
node.setup('verbosity', 100);

Custom logging

To create custom logging for your game, you can make use of the function:

node.log(text, level, prefix)

where level is one of the pre-defined levels (default 'info'), and prefix is an optional text to display before the log message.

The default log message includes the name of the node instance, node.nodename (default: ng) and the current game stage.

node.log('Player did something strange.');
// ng@1.2.1 - 18:50:53:452 > Player did something strange. 

Shortcuts are available to log text only if node.verbosity is greater or equal to the corresponding level:

• node.err(txt)
• node.warn(txt)
• node.info(txt)
• node.silly(txt)

node.warn('Player did something strange AGAIN.');
// ng@0.0.0 - 18:53:12:7.1 > warn - Player did something strange AGAIN.

Remote logging

The variable node.remoteVerbosity controls what log messages are also sent to server. The same verbosity levels for local logging apply for remote verbosity, and by default only errors are sent to the server.

node.remoteVerbosity; // -1;
node.warn('Player did something strange AGAIN.'); // Log locally only.
node.err('Player is cheating.'); // Log locally and remotely.

Depending on the server's setting, the message can be saved to file system, database, other storage, or ignored. If saved, it is formatted as follows:

{
    "name": "ultimatum",
    "level":"info",
    "message": "{\"id\":751791,\"session\":\"8114737.7.875357.",\"stage\":{\"stage\":1,\"step\":2,\"round\":1},\"action\":\"say\",\"target\":\"LOG\",\"from\":\"530497.0184807\",\"to\":\"SERVER\",\"text\":\"error\",\"data\":\"FUNCK\",\"priority\":0,\"reliable\":1,\"created\":\"2017-03-19T23:01:42.7.4Z\",\"forward\":0}","timestamp":"2017-03-19T23:01:42.7.1Z"}
}

To visualize client errors on the server console, you can define an event listener on 'in.say.LOG':

// Log errors from remote clients to server's console,
// happening after the game has started (stage > 0).
node.on('in.say.LOG', function(msg) {
    if (msg.text === 'error' && msg.stage.stage) {
        console.log('Error from client: ', msg.from);
        console.log('Error msg: ', msg.data);
    }
});

Server-Side Logging

Server side logging is based on Winston.js, and can be controlled through the configuration file: loggers.js.

By default, there are 4 configuration files:

• servernode.log: contains info about loading the nodegame-server and its games, and all errors that are not caught elsewhere at run-time.

• channel.log: contains info and errors about loading channels, players moved within a channel, messages that failed delivery.

• messages.log: contains all messages that have been exchanged with the server, including those sent by bots and logics

• clients.log: contains all console output of bots and phantoms executed on the server.

You can know more about Server-side configuration here.

Sources

• Log Module for Client
• Log Configuration File for Server
• Winston Logging README

Next

Next: Configure nodeGame for live experiments

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