eel - EventEmitter Logging

eel is a logging "framework" that hopes to embody a few simple principles:

1. Logging should be easy.
2. Logs should record structured data.
3. Logging should be flexible.

It accomplishes these goals by decoupling the logging of events from the writing of logs in the simplest way possible: using an EventEmitter

Easy

The eel module exports a function that logs at the "info" level:

log = require('eel')
version = JSON.parse(require('fs').readFileSync(__dirname + '/package.json')).version
log("startup", {version: version})

To log at another level, use the log[level] functions:

process.on('uncaughtException', function (err) {
  log.error("uncaughtException", {err: err})
  process.exit(1)
})

The default levels are debug, info, warning, error, and critical.

Structured Data

The first argument to any logging function should be an event type. While this can be any type of object, it's recommended to use dot-separated names. The second (optional) argument is an object. This object will have the log level, the event type, and a timestamp assigned to it before it is emitted. Which brings us to principle number 3...

Flexible

In addition to the various logging methods, the eel object also proxies all of the node.js EventEmitter methods to an internal EventEmitter. In fact, none of the above examples produce any output, because nothing is listening to the events being emitted. To rectify this we can attach the simplest possible logging backend to the 'entry' event:

log.on('entry', console.log)

Now our prepared log entry objects will be printed to the console:

log('blah', {relephant: 'data'})
/* prints
{ type: 'blah',
  level: 'info',
  relephant: 'data',
  timestamp: '2012-05-31T23:49:01.523Z' }

TODO

Flesh out this document a lot more.