Log4j Multiple Appender Example

In one of our earlier tutorial we have seen about Using Log4j API Logger. In this tutorial we will about how to use Multiple Appender using Log4j API with examples. First lets see about package level appenders and next multiple appenders in same class. 

What is package level appenders?
Basically in our application we will write modules or packages according to our project needs. For examples lets take some online shopping application which will have Billing, Items listing, Registration, Test Cases etc., So if we thought of keeping separate loggers for each package or module then it can be achieved by Log4j Multiple Appender. In below log4j.properties file we have mentioned the package path each appenders separately which will take care of all logs to log into appropriate loggers which we have mapped.

log4j.logger.com.jd.billing=DEBUG,FIRST_APPENDER 
log4j.logger.com.jd.listing=DEBUG,SECOND_APPENDER 

Lets see simple log4j.properties file along with 2 different package and sample java code. 

log4j.properties file:

log4j.rootCategory=DEBUG

log4j.category.your.category.name=WARN

# FIRST_APPENDER - used to log messages in the admin-logs.log file.
log4j.logger.FIRST_APPENDER=DEBUG, FIRST_APPENDER
log4j.appender.FIRST_APPENDER=org.apache.log4j.RollingFileAppender
log4j.appender.FIRST_APPENDER.maxFileSize=10MB
log4j.appender.FIRST_APPENDER.MaxBackupIndex=2
log4j.appender.FIRST_APPENDER.layout=org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout
log4j.appender.FIRST_APPENDER.layout.ConversionPattern=[%d{ISO8601}]%5p%6.6r[%t]%x(%F:%L) - %m%n
log4j.appender.FIRST_APPENDER.File=D://logs/first.log

# SECOND_APPENDER - used to log messages in the report-logs.log file.
log4j.logger.SECOND_APPENDER=DEBUG, SECOND_APPENDER
log4j.appender.SECOND_APPENDER=org.apache.log4j.RollingFileAppender
log4j.appender.SECOND_APPENDER.maxFileSize=10MB
log4j.appender.SECOND_APPENDER.MaxBackupIndex=2
log4j.appender.SECOND_APPENDER.layout=org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout
log4j.appender.SECOND_APPENDER.layout.ConversionPattern=[%d{ISO8601}]%5p%6.6r[%t]%x(%F:%L) - %m%n
log4j.appender.SECOND_APPENDER.File=D://logs/second.log

# Mentions the package path to write logs separately
log4j.logger.com.jd.billing=DEBUG,FIRST_APPENDER 
log4j.logger.com.jd.listing=DEBUG,SECOND_APPENDER 

package com.jd.billing;

import org.apache.log4j.Logger;

public class ByBillingClass {

 public static Logger logger = Logger.getLogger(ByBillingClass.class);
 
 public static void main(String[] args) {
  
  logger.info("My billing starts ...");
  
  logger.info("My billing process ...");
  
  logger.info("My billing ends ...");  
 }
}

package com.jd.listing;

import org.apache.log4j.Logger;

public class MyListingClass {

 public static Logger logger = Logger.getLogger(MyListingClass.class);
 
 public static void main(String[] args) {
  
  logger.info("My listing starts ...");
  
  logger.info("My listing process ...");
  
  logger.info("My listing ends ...");  
 }
}

OUTPUT:

first.log file:

[2013-10-04 11:51:33,188] INFO     0[main](ByBillingClass.java:11) - My billing starts ...
[2013-10-04 11:51:33,193] INFO     5[main](ByBillingClass.java:13) - My billing process ...
[2013-10-04 11:51:33,193] INFO     5[main](ByBillingClass.java:15) - My billing ends ...

second.log file: 

[2013-10-04 11:51:38,031] INFO     0[main](MyListingClass.java:11) - My listing starts ...
[2013-10-04 11:51:38,035] INFO     4[main](MyListingClass.java:13) - My listing process ...
[2013-10-04 11:51:38,035] INFO     4[main](MyListingClass.java:15) - My listing ends ...

What is  multiple appender in same class?

Above we have seen about package level appender and its work. Suppose if we need multiple logger in same java file then we can create Logger instance specific to appenders which we have mentioned in log4j.properties file. Lets see simple example for using multiple logger in single java code. For this lets same log4j.properties file which we have used above. 

package com;

import org.apache.log4j.Logger;

public class MyMultileLoggerTesting {
 
 // First logger instance
 public static Logger fLogger = Logger.getLogger("FIRST_APPENDER");
 
 // Second logger instance
 public static Logger sLogger = Logger.getLogger("SECOND_APPENDER");

 public static void main(String[] args) {
  
  fLogger.info(" *** Logging messages for FIRST LOGGER *** ");
  
  sLogger.info(" *** Logging messages for SECOND LOGGER *** ");
 }
}

OUTPUT:

first.log file:

[2013-10-04 11:51:33,188] INFO     0[main](ByBillingClass.java:11) - My billing starts ...
[2013-10-04 11:51:33,193] INFO     5[main](ByBillingClass.java:13) - My billing process ...
[2013-10-04 11:51:33,193] INFO     5[main](ByBillingClass.java:15) - My billing ends ...
[2013-10-04 11:51:42,953] INFO     0[main](MyMultileLoggerTesting.java:15) -  *** Logging messages for FIRST LOGGER *** 

second.log file: 

[2013-10-04 11:51:38,031] INFO     0[main](MyListingClass.java:11) - My listing starts ...
[2013-10-04 11:51:38,035] INFO     4[main](MyListingClass.java:13) - My listing process ...
[2013-10-04 11:51:38,035] INFO     4[main](MyListingClass.java:15) - My listing ends ...
[2013-10-04 11:51:42,957] INFO     4[main](MyMultileLoggerTesting.java:17) -  *** Logging messages for SECOND LOGGER ***