Audit logger for Express requests and Transactions
Table of Content
- Audit logger for Express requests and Transactions
Installation
npm i @dyihoon90/glogging
Description
Glogger is a wrapper around the popular winston logging library.
This library provide convenience methods for the following use cases:
- Structured logging
- Logging request & response using Express middleware
- Logging using decorators in functions, class & class methods
By using this library in an Express server, you get:
| Benefits | Using? |
|---|---|
| Redaction of sensitive data in SG context | Automatically redacts NRIC & sensitive info |
| Standardized log format | The standard logger.info() |
| Standardized request & response logging for Express servers | Adding the Glogger Express middlewares will automatically generate logs for incoming requests & outgoing responses |
| Unobtrusive logging for functions, class, & class method | Decorate functions & class methods using decorators will log the function invocation. Optionally it can also log what the function returns |
Correlate function invocations in Express server using trxId | Use the enhanceReqWithTransactionAndTime in Middleware to add trxId to incoming request. Pass the request object to as the first parameter in all decorated function & Glogger decorators will pick up the request context, such as the trxId. |
Correlate requests across microservices using trxId | Use the enhanceReqWithTransactionAndTime in Middleware to add trxId to incoming request.Pass this trxId to other Express servers that are using Glogger & they will output logs w the same trxId |
GLogger
Construct an instance of a logger. Similar to how winston does it.
Constructor
const logger = new GLogger({ loggingMode: LoggingMode.LOCAL });
When constructing a logger instance, there are 3 modes for different environments
| Mode | Description |
|---|---|
| LOCAL |
|
| DEV |
|
| PRODUCTION |
|
To override the default behaviors for each Mode above, you can use overrideDefault
const logger = new GLogger({
loggingMode: LoggingMode.LOCAL,
overrideDefault: { alwaysWriteToConsole: true, consoleLogSectionSeparator: '' }
});
Override default configs
| Config | Purpose |
|---|---|
| alwaysWriteToConsole | always write to console, regardless of environment. useful for AWS Lambda |
| consoleLogSectionSeparator | override the default section separator character for console logs. the default is newline '\n'. useful for AWS Lambda |
Instance methods
| Method | Purpose |
|---|---|
| debug | create log object of level debug |
| info | create log object of level info |
| warn | create log object of level warn |
| error | create log object of level error |
| toggleVerboseModeOn | toggle debug mode to see what is being sent to the above log methods |
| addLogTransport | add a winston log transport to transport the log object |
Instance properties
| Property | Purpose |
|---|---|
| winstonLogger | Expose the underlying winston logger object |
Express middlewares
This library exports the following express middlewares. See the middlware examples for how to place these middleware in your Express server
| Middleware | Purpose |
|---|---|
| enhanceReqWithTransactionAndTime | enhance request with req.reqStartTimeInEpochMillis & req.uuid (if req.uuid does not already exist) |
| responseErrorLoggerFactory | factory to create an error logger middleware. Error logger middleware does a logger.warn when it receives an error object from the previous middleware |
| responseSuccessLoggerFactory | factory to create a successs logger middleware. Success logger middleware does a logger.info when the response status code is < 400 |
Express middleware will log all incoming request and outgoing response of your Express server with the following metadata:
| Metadata | Full Name | What is it? | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| trxId | Transaction ID | A randomly generated uuidv4 added to the express request by the enhanceReqWithTransactionAndTime middleware. If using multiple microservices, can pass the ID on for tracking requests | 'e6c0ea38-f459-4f84-a9b6-873255e95896' |
| trxModule | Transaction Module | The transaction module | 'User' |
| trxName | Transaction Name | This will be the name of the decorated function | 'getUserList' |
| fileName | File Name | The name of the file | 'services/user.service.ts' |
| userToken | User Token | This is the JWT of the user. You are required to manually set the decoded JWT under the 'user' property of the Express request. | { "iss": "issuer", "sub": "subject", "aud": "audience", "jti": "tokenid", "exp": 123, "iat": 456} |
| timeTakenInMillis | Time Taken in Milliseconds | The time the request took from request received to response sent | 61877 |
| trxStatus | Transaction Status | Transaction success is defined by function successful execution, or returning a resolved promise. Transaction failure is defined function throwing or returning a rejected promise. | 'SUCCESS' / 'FAILURE' |
| additionalInfo.url | URL | The full URL path | '/list?types[]=leave' |
| additionalInfo.method | Method | The HTTP method | 'GET' |
| additionalInfo.result | Result | The result of the returned function. Only logged if options.toLogResult is set to true. Use options.redactedProperties to add object properties to redact from the logged result | { aPublicValue: 'OK', 'aSecretValue': '[REDACTED]' |
| additionalInfo.error | Error | The error thrown by the function, only when status is 'FAILURE' | 'new Error('error')' |
Class, Method & Function decorators for Express services (Works out of the box for Express/Koa servers)
Purpose
Glogger decorators give you standardized logging for functions in your application.
For example, one of your routes invokes a function that makes a call to persist an item in your a DB, then returns results from those systems.
You can decorate the function that makes that DB call to get a rich view of that function invocation, including which Express route your user called that invoked this function, the transaction ID, some details of the user that made the request (if available in the request), and results/errors
Works out of the box for decorating functions in an Express / Koa server.
Metadata
All functions being logged must take in an IExpressRequest object as its first parameter, even if the function itself doesn't require it.
You need to use the enhanceReqWithTransactionAndTime above for trxId & timeTakenInMillis to work.
Decorator will log functions with the following metadata:
| Metadata | Full Name | What is it? | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| trxId | Transaction ID | A randomly generated uuidv4 added to the express request by the enhanceReqWithTransactionAndTime middleware. If using multiple microservices, can pass the ID on for tracking requests | 'e6c0ea38-f459-4f84-a9b6-873255e95896' |
| trxModule | Transaction Module | The transaction module | 'User' |
| trxName | Transaction Name | This will be the name of the decorated function | 'getUserList' |
| fileName | File Name | The name of the file | 'services/user.service.ts' |
| userToken | User Token | This is the JWT of the user. You are required to manually set the decoded JWT under the 'user' property of the Express request. | { "iss": "issuer", "sub": "subject", "aud": "audience", "jti": "tokenid", "exp": 123, "iat": 456} |
| timeTakenInMillis | Time Taken in Milliseconds | The time the request took from request received to response sent | 61877 |
| trxStatus | Transaction Status | Transaction success is defined by function successful execution, or returning a resolved promise. Transaction failure is defined function throwing or returning a rejected promise. | 'SUCCESS' / 'FAILURE' |
| additionalInfo.url | URL | The full URL path | '/list?types[]=leave' |
| additionalInfo.method | Method | The HTTP method | 'GET' |
| additionalInfo.result | Result | The result of the returned function. Only logged if options.toLogResult is set to true. Use options.redactedProperties to add object properties to redact from the logged result | { aPublicValue: 'OK', 'aSecretValue': '[REDACTED]' |
| additionalInfo.error | Error | The error thrown by the function, only when status is 'FAILURE' | 'new Error('error')' |
Decorators
Glogger decorators allow users to log functions & class method invocations in a standardized way w/o littering logger.info() all over your functions. This makes your code cleaner and easier to read.
This library exports the following decorators.
| Decorator Factory | Purpose |
|---|---|
| LoggedClass | Decorate all class methods except constructor |
| LoggedMethod | Decorate a class method |
| LoggedFunction | Decorate a raw function |
All the above are decorator factories. In order to create the decorator, they take in the following parameters:
| Parameter | Explanation | Required? | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| logger | a GLogger instance | required | new GLogger() |
| metadata | metadata including transaction category, transaction module, & optional filename | required | |
| metadata.trxCategory | Transaction category | required | TransactionCategory.TRANS |
| metadata.trxModule | Transaction module | required | 'User' |
| options | Optional option parameter | optional | |
| options.toLogResult | whether to log the return value of the decorated function. Defaults to false. | optional | true/false |
| options.toLogSuccessTxn | whether to log the success of the decorated function. Defaults to true. | optional | true/false |
| options.redactedProperties | if options.toLogResult set to true, use this array for properties from the function return value you don't want logged. works for both objects with nested properties and objects inside of arrays. you can also pass in an integer to redact a particular item in an array | optional | ['mySecretProperty', 0] |
Examples
See examples folder for usage.
Or you can clone this repo and run:
npm ithen,npm run examplefor base logger and decorator demonpm run example-serverfor middleware demo
Troubleshooting
| Scenario | Resolution |
|---|---|
| Getting '' for the transaction ID | All functions being logged must take in the request object IExpressRequest as its first parameter, even if the function itself doesn't require it. |