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Status Future consideration
Created by Guest
Created on Oct 19, 2021

variable assignments in autoscripts should logged at the TRACE level

I believe it is good practice for automation scripts to log approximately 1 message at the INFO level per execution -- just enough to give a support person a clue that the script is running and that it did something. In addition to that, a script should be reasonably seasoned with DEBUG level messages, so the support person can turn up focused logging for the script to DEBUG and get a better idea of what's going on.


In Maximo 7.6.1.2, using the Automation Scripts application to specify that the Log Level of an automation script is DEBUG means that debug-level messages that were included in script code, per the above philosophy, will get logged. Unfortunately, Maximo will also log every variable assignment, which really clutters up the logs.


Instead of logging every variable assignment when the log level for a script is set to DEBUG, I recommend IBM change Maximo to log those assignments at the TRACE level. This will autoscripters and support personnel to collaborate better on achieving a balance of details going to the logs.

Idea priority Medium
Needed By Yesterday (Let's go already!)
  • Guest
    Reply
    |
    Sep 16, 2022

    continuing from my previous comment..

    For the record, I encourage developers to log to mbo.getMboLogger() when their script runs in the context of an MBO -- as is the case for all Object and Attribute launch points, and as is usually the case for Action and Condition launch points. But sometimes logging under maximo.script.SCRIPTNAME makes the most sense. And under maximo.script.SCRIPTNAME is where the service.log_<level>() methods log.

    Maybe a better solution is to be able to specify on the script, and override on the launch point, the key for which logger should be passed into the script in an implicit "log" or "logger" variable. Maybe I'll make a new enhancement request for that.

  • Guest
    Reply
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    Sep 16, 2022

    "Developers can create their own logger and log their own DEBUG messages to that logger."


    Yes, they can. But should they? If we jettison the idea of logging to a child of the OOTB maximo.script logger, then everyone and their dog is going to come up with a different place to log, making a mess for support personnel and maintenance programmers.


    However, perhaps we need an alternative to TRACE, to save the trouble of introducing that level to all of Maximo when we only care to distinguish that far for automation scripts. Perhaps instead of supporting the TRACE logger each script's default maximo.script.SCRIPTNAME logger needs to have a child "trace" logger. Or perhaps there should be a maximo.script.trace root logger that could have SCRIPTNAME child loggers.

  • Guest
    Reply
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    Nov 12, 2021

    I think there is a misunderstanding about the loggers.

    Developers can create their own logger and log their own DEBUG messages to that logger.

    The autoscript logger should be used to understand what the automation script engine is doing. The autoscript logger can record key details about when a script is run without affecting the number of messages that the script generates.

    TRACE isn't a log level that is currently available in the Maximo system

  • Admin
    Kim Woodbury
    Reply
    |
    Oct 21, 2021

    Thank you for your submission. We will consider this in a future release.