Spring MVC - Using log4j

The following example shows how to integrate LOG4J with the Spring Web MVC Framework.

To start with, let us have a working Eclipse IDE in place and consider the following steps to develop a Dynamic Form based Web Application using Spring Web Framework −

pom.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
   xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
   <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
   <groupId>com.tutorialspoint</groupId>
   <artifactId>hello</artifactId>
   <version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
   <packaging>war</packaging>
   <name>hello Maven Webapp</name>
   <url>http://www.tutorialspoint.com</url>
   <properties>
      <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
      <maven.compiler.source>24</maven.compiler.source>
      <maven.compiler.target>24</maven.compiler.target>
      <org.springframework.version>7.0.0-M9</org.springframework.version>
   </properties>
   <dependencies>
      <dependency>
         <groupId>junit</groupId>
         <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
         <version>4.13.1</version>
         <scope>test</scope>
      </dependency>
      <dependency>
         <groupId>jakarta.servlet</groupId>
         <artifactId>jakarta.servlet-api</artifactId>
         <version>6.0.0</version>
         <scope>provided</scope>
      </dependency>
      <dependency>
         <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
         <artifactId>spring-context</artifactId>
         <version>${org.springframework.version}</version>
         <scope>compile</scope>
      </dependency>
      <dependency>
         <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
         <artifactId>spring-webmvc</artifactId>
         <version>${org.springframework.version}</version>
         <scope>compile</scope>
      </dependency>
      <dependency>
         <groupId>com.rometools</groupId>
         <artifactId>rome</artifactId>
         <version>2.1.0</version>
      </dependency>
      <dependency>
         <groupId>org.apache.poi</groupId>
         <artifactId>poi</artifactId>
         <version>5.4.1</version>
      </dependency>
      <dependency>
         <groupId>org.apache.poi</groupId>
         <artifactId>poi-ooxml</artifactId>
         <version>5.4.1</version>
      </dependency> 
      <dependency>
         <groupId>com.lowagie</groupId>
         <artifactId>itext</artifactId>
         <version>2.1.7</version>
      </dependency>
      <dependency>
        <groupId>log4j</groupId>
        <artifactId>log4j</artifactId>
        <version>1.2.17</version>
        <scope>runtime</scope>
      </dependency>
   </dependencies>
   <build>
      <finalName>hello</finalName>
      <pluginManagement>
         <plugins>
            <plugin>
               <artifactId>maven-clean-plugin</artifactId>
               <version>3.4.0</version>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
               <artifactId>maven-resources-plugin</artifactId>
               <version>3.3.1</version>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
               <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
               <version>3.13.0</version>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
               <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
               <version>3.3.0</version>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
               <artifactId>maven-war-plugin</artifactId>
               <version>3.4.0</version>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
            <artifactId>maven-install-plugin</artifactId>
               <version>3.1.2</version>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
               <artifactId>maven-deploy-plugin</artifactId>
               <version>3.1.2</version>
            </plugin>
         </plugins>
      </pluginManagement>
   </build>
</project>

HelloController.java

package com.tutorialspoint;

import org.apache.logging.log4j.LogManager;
import org.apache.logging.log4j.Logger;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Controller;
import org.springframework.ui.ModelMap;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMethod;

@Controller
@RequestMapping("/hello")
public class HelloController{
   private static final Logger LOGGER = LogManager.getLogger(HelloController.class);
   @RequestMapping(method = RequestMethod.GET)
   public String printHello(ModelMap model) {
      LOGGER.info("printHello started.");

      //logs debug message
      if(LOGGER.isDebugEnabled()){
         LOGGER.debug("Inside:  printHello");
      }
      //logs exception
      LOGGER.error("Logging a sample exception", new Exception("Testing"));

      model.addAttribute("message", "Hello Spring MVC Framework!");
      LOGGER.info("printHello ended.");
      return "hello";
   }
}

log4j.properties

# Root logger option
log4j.rootLogger = DEBUG, stdout, file

# Redirect log messages to console
log4j.appender.stdout = org.apache.log4j.ConsoleAppender
log4j.appender.stdout.Target = System.out
log4j.appender.stdout.layout = org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout
log4j.appender.stdout.layout.ConversionPattern = %d{yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss} %-5p %c{1}:%L - %m%n

# Redirect log messages to a log file
log4j.appender.file = org.apache.log4j.RollingFileAppender
#outputs to Tomcat home
log4j.appender.file.File = ${catalina.home}/logs/myapp.log
log4j.appender.file.MaxFileSize = 5MB
log4j.appender.file.MaxBackupIndex = 10
log4j.appender.file.layout = org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout
log4j.appender.file.layout.ConversionPattern = %d{yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss} %-5p %c{1}:%L - %m%n

hello-servlet.xml

<beans xmlns = "http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
   xmlns:context = "http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"   
   xmlns:xsi = "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
   xmlns:mvc = "http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc"
   xsi:schemaLocation = "
   http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans     
   http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
   http://www.springframework.org/schema/context 
   http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-3.0.xsd
   http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc
   http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc/spring-mvc-3.0.xsd">
   <context:component-scan base-package = "com.tutorialspoint" />

   <bean class = "org.springframework.web.servlet.view.InternalResourceViewResolver">
      <property name = "prefix" value = "/WEB-INF/jsp/" />
      <property name = "suffix" value = ".jsp" />
   </bean>
</beans>

hello.jsp

<%@ page contentType = "text/html; charset = UTF-8" %>
<html>
   <head>
      <title>Hello World</title>
   </head>
   <body>
      <h2>${message}</h2>
   </body>
</html>

Here, we have configured the LOG4J to log details on the Tomcat console and in the file present in > tomcat home → logs as myapp.log.

Output

Once you are done with creating source and configuration files, export your application. Right click on your application, use Run As → Maven Install option and save your hello.war file in Tomcat's webapps folder.

Now, start the Tomcat server and make sure you are able to access other webpages from the webapps folder using a standard browser. Try a URL http://localhost:8080/hello/hello and we will see the following screen in tomcat logs.