Is there a way to output multiple items in a single message?

[tukusejssirs]

When we run console.log('some data:', object) it outputs some data:, a space and the object in ‘JavaScript format’ (i.e. not in valid JSON format, but similar to it).

Now I’d like to use Ogma similarly, i.e. to output two or more items in one call. I understand that we cannot do it same way as we do it with console.log(), however, could we use, e.g., an array as the first parameter of Ogma logger methods, potentially with a flag/property in the Ogma options object (you call it meta) to make Ogma output the array items individually, rather than as an array?

I would be okay if any object/array would be output as a valid JSON.

[jmcdo29]

Currently, this functionality doesn't exist. However, I think we could take the meta object and add an each property to it, and if true, then iterate over the array as you mentioned. I'll try to get this whipped up this week

[jmcdo29]

Just don't want to add in a for loop. The join method is also slightly faster than a for loop is (at least it was in the small benchmark I was doing). I could definitely throw the for loop in there, really just wanted to keep the code looking simple. This is the current implementation

    if (Array.isArray(message) && each) {
      for (let i = 0; i < message.length; i++) {
        message[i] = this.stringifyObject(message[i], i === 0);
      }
      message = message.join(' ').replace(/\n ([^ ])/g, '\n$1');
    } else {
      message = this.stringifyObject(message);
    }

I'd have to fix the message.join(' ').replace() call to be something like

    if (Array.isArray(message) && each) {
      for (let i = 0; i < message.length; i++) {
        message[i] = this.stringifyObject(message[i], i === 0);
      }
      let trueStr = '';
      for (let i = 0; i < message.length; i++) {
        trueStr += `${message[i]}${/[^\n]$/.test(message[i]) && i + 1 < message.length ? ' ' : ''}`
      }
      message = trueStr;
    } else {
      message = this.stringifyObject(message);
    }

Actually, thinking about this, I should be able to move the addition of the space up into the stringifyObject call, and then just join('') as everything should already have the space added if necessary and we just need to take the array to a single sting. That way, we don't have to loop over the array twice (not efficient at all) and we can just pass a condition of if a space should be added based on index to the method, while doing the test in the method itself.

[jmcdo29]

Also! Saw that my example was actually wrong. ['goodbye\n' 'world'] was supposed to be ['goodbye\n world'], single string with a newline and a space. If we wanted to keep the formatting of it, with the join(' ').replace(...) it's difficult. With the idea you gave me above, it's trivial.

[tukusejssirs]

Actually, thinking about this, I should be able to move the addition of the space up into the stringifyObject call, and then just join('') as everything should already have the space added if necessary and we just need to take the array to a single sting. That way, we don't have to loop over the array twice (not efficient at all) and we can just pass a condition of if a space should be added based on index to the method, while doing the test in the method itself.

I’d suggest that myself. 😉

['goodbye\n' 'world'] was supposed to be ['goodbye\n world']

I that case it is similar to my case of ['asdf\n\tasdf', 'asdf\n{\n a: 1\n}'] (the last item).

[jmcdo29]

Cool. Updating the test suite to look better, everything is passing though. I'll throw up some sample output soon and let you know when the PR is up so you can take a look yourself. Thanks for that great discussion around this

[tukusejssirs]

Thanks, @jmcdo29! 🙏

Thanks for that great discussion around this

I thank you! I feel at least a bit helpful, albeit it is actually you who help me. 😉

[tukusejssirs]

@jmcdo29, I have been using each for a quite while and I noticed that I prefer using it by default (i.e. without appending {each: true} to each log command).

Would it be possible to define the default value of each, e.g., in the Nest module (either in OgmaModule.forRoot() or OgmaModule.forFeature()) and execute this.logger.info([1, 2, 3])?

Thanks! 🙏

[tukusejssirs]

Yes, I use JSON, but I was looking for the ability to cleanly "multi-output" JSON objects.

If by cleanly you mean pretty-print (like JSON.stringify(o, null, 2)), AFAIK that is not an option when using JSON output. JSON output is IMHO intentionally minified. It should be processed by a log analyser/visualiser.

If you want to pretty-print some log messages, you should not use JSON output (json set to false).

Ultimately, @jmcdo29 has more knowledge if it is possible to achieve what you what.

[jmcdo29]

Just wanting to mention that if you want JSON logs but still want it to print out in a "clean" manner (kinda like pretty-print with pino) you can use the @ogma/cli like nest start --watch | ogma so that it translates the JSON into ogma's string format.

I do think I still have a bug with it and multiple @nestjs/common installs due to how nest-commander works through, so be warned about that (and let me know if it's still an issue that I need to get back to fixing)

[tukusejssirs]

I didn’t know about that, @jmcdo29. Not that I need such feature, but I didn’t read about it anywhere. Is it documented? 🤔

[jmcdo29]

I didn’t know about that, @jmcdo29. Not that I need such feature, but I didn’t read about it anywhere. Is it documented? thinking

Shoot, looks like I forgot to add that functionality to the docs. Just another thing to update 😆 There is a mention of it in a CHANGELOG though

[tukusejssirs]

I am using Ogma logger since August 2022 (v2.1.0 was released on 4 Nov 2021), therefore I haven’t read changelogs / release logs before that that. 😉