Laravel Log View Laravel Package

Getting Started

Minimal Steps

1. Installation:

   composer require zha/laravel-log-view
   php artisan vendor:publish --provider="Zha\LaravelLogView\LogViewerServiceProvider" --tag="log-viewer-public"
   

   • Publishes the required CSS assets to public/vendor/laravel-log-view.

2. Access Logs:

   • Visit /log-viewer in your browser to view Laravel logs in a web interface.
   • Defaults to displaying logs from storage/logs/laravel.log.

3. First Use Case:

   • Debug production issues by filtering logs via the UI (e.g., search by timestamp, error level, or keyword).
   • Quickly identify recent errors without tailing log files manually.

Implementation Patterns

Core Workflows

1. Log Filtering:

   • Use the UI dropdowns to filter logs by:
     • Level (e.g., error, warning, info).
     • Date range (predefined or custom).
   • Example: Isolate error logs from the last 24 hours to triage a critical issue.

2. Integration with Existing Logs:

   • The package reads Laravel’s default log files (laravel.log, laravel-*.log). Ensure your config/logging.php channels are configured to write to these files.
   • For custom log channels, extend the package by overriding the LogViewerServiceProvider to include additional paths.

3. Programmatic Access:

   • Access log data programmatically via the LogViewer facade:

     use Zha\LaravelLogView\Facades\LogViewer;
     $logs = LogViewer::getLogs(['level' => 'error', 'days' => 1]);
     

   • Useful for building custom admin dashboards or automated alerts.

4. Middleware/Route Protection:

   • Secure the /log-viewer route by adding middleware (e.g., auth or role:admin) in routes/web.php:

     Route::middleware(['auth'])->get('/log-viewer', [LogViewerController::class, 'index']);
     

5. Log Rotation Handling:

   • If using log rotation (e.g., laravel-log-rotate), ensure the package’s file scanner (Zha\LaravelLogView\LogViewer) is updated to handle rotated files. Override the getLogFiles() method in a service provider if needed.

Gotchas and Tips

Pitfalls

1. File Permissions:

   • Ensure the web server user (e.g., www-data, nginx) has read access to storage/logs/. Run:

     chmod -R 755 storage/logs/
     chown -R www-data:www-data storage/logs/  # Adjust user/group as needed
     

   • Symptoms: Blank page or "File not found" errors.

2. Log File Encoding:

   • The package assumes UTF-8 encoded logs. If logs are encoded differently (e.g., GBK), override the readLogFile() method in the LogViewer class to handle encoding.

3. Large Log Files:

   • Performance may degrade with log files >100MB. Optimize by:
     • Increasing PHP’s memory_limit temporarily during log viewing.
     • Using the limit parameter in the UI or API to paginate results:

       LogViewer::getLogs(['limit' => 1000]);
       

4. Custom Log Paths:

   • The package defaults to storage/logs/laravel.log. To include additional paths (e.g., storage/logs/custom.log), extend the LogViewer class:

     namespace App\Services;
     use Zha\LaravelLogView\LogViewer as BaseLogViewer;
     
     class CustomLogViewer extends BaseLogViewer {
         protected function getLogFiles() {
             return array_merge(parent::getLogFiles(), ['storage/logs/custom.log']);
         }
     }
     

     Bind the custom class in a service provider:

     $this->app->bind('logviewer', function () {
         return new CustomLogViewer();
     });
     

5. Caching Issues:

   • Logs are read directly from files (no caching). For high-traffic environments, consider caching log entries in Redis or the database, but ensure cache invalidation on new log writes.

Debugging Tips

1. Check Published Assets:

   • If the UI appears broken, verify the CSS was published:

     ls public/vendor/laravel-log-view/
     

   • Re-publish if missing:

     php artisan vendor:publish --tag="log-viewer-public" --force
     

2. LogViewer Facade Not Found:

   • Ensure the service provider is registered in config/app.php under providers. If using Laravel <8.x, manually add:

     Zha\LaravelLogView\LogViewerServiceProvider::class,
     

3. Route Conflicts:

   • The package registers /log-viewer automatically. If this conflicts with existing routes, override the route in your RouteServiceProvider:

     Route::get('/custom-log-viewer', [LogViewerController::class, 'index'])->name('log-viewer');
     

Extension Points

1. Custom Log Parsers:

   • Extend the LogViewer class to parse structured logs (e.g., JSON). Override the parseLogEntry() method:

     protected function parseLogEntry(string $entry): array {
         $data = json_decode($entry, true);
         return [
             'level' => $data['level'] ?? 'info',
             'message' => $data['message'] ?? $entry,
             'context' => $data['context'] ?? [],
         ];
     }
     

2. Add Log Actions:

   • Integrate with the UI to add buttons for common actions (e.g., "Clear logs" or "Download as JSON"). Extend the LogViewerController:

     public function downloadLogs(Request $request) {
         $logs = LogViewer::getLogs($request->all());
         return response()->json($logs)->header('Content-Type', 'application/json');
     }
     

     Add a route and JavaScript to trigger this action.

3. Multi-Tenant Logs:

   • For multi-tenant apps, filter logs by tenant ID. Override the getLogFiles() method to include tenant-specific paths:

     protected function getLogFiles() {
         $tenantId = auth()->user()->tenant_id;
         return ["storage/logs/tenant_{$tenantId}/laravel.log"];
     }