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FusionReactor Transaction Logger Plugin

The FusionReactor Transaction Logger Plugin is used to log transactions to a log file. These transactions logged can be filtered from logging by their type and duration. These log file entries can be used keep record of certain transactions (as an example either transactions of a certain flavor or transactions that have run for a long time). This information can be useful when trying to inspect the performance of certain parts of your application, or to keep a record of any long running requests for further analysis.

Log Format

Log entries are in a standard format which is shown below:

<Local-Date/Time of log entry> <UTC StartTime of Transaction (in ms)> <LogFile Version> <UTC ServerStart Timestamp (in ms)> <Duration (in ms)> <Transaction Global ID> <Transaction Per Type ID> <Parent Transaction Global ID> <Parent Transaction Per Type ID> <Transaction Type> <Transaction Description + QueryString/Sql Statement>

Note: Any field that is not present in a transaction log entry will be indicated by "".

Below can be seen an example excerpt from a transaction log:

As can be seen from this example these are two connected transactions. The parent transaction is WebRequest and it has a child HTTPClient transaction. This relationship is indicated by the >Parent Transaction Global ID & Parent Transaction Per Type ID fields on the HTTPClient transaction which match the Transaction Global ID & Transaction Per Type ID fields of the WebRequest. In this way the two transactions are linked together.

To define the meaning of these two different fields: Global ID is the the unique ID of the Transaction within the pool of all transactions, of all types. In contrast the Transaction Per Type ID is the ID of the Transaction in the pool of transactions of that type. To illustrate the above image shows that the HTTPClient is the 17th transaction to have been recorded by FusionReactor, but it is the 1st HTTPClient transaction in the system.

Below is another example which shows a JDBC transaction and its parent:

This excerpt shows a parent WebRequest transaction with its child JDBC transaction. Note how the final field changes for the JDBC transaction entry to show the SQL Statement executed rather than the URL of a WebRequest transaction.

Note: The log entries will appear back to front when looking at Parent & Child transactions. This is due to the fact that the log entry is not written until the transaction is finishing. As all of the Child transactions must finish before the Parent itself can be finished; Children will always be displayed above the Parent.

Configuration

The Transaction Logger | Configuration (accessible from the Active Plugins page) allows you to alter the following settings:

Configuration Description
Enable/Disable Transaction Logger This allows you to enable/disable whether or not the email is sent.
Transaction Type Whitelist The Whitelist of transaction types that should be tracked.
Transaction Type Blacklist The Blacklist of transaction types that should not be tracked.
Runtime threshold for transactions (ms) This setting effects the threshold of how long a transaction must be run for, for it to be logged.

Initial Setup

The plugin has a default configuration which is as follows:

  • Disabled and will not log transactions until it is enabled. 
  • Runtime-threshold is set to 100ms, and no transactions that run for a shorter duration than this will be logged.
  • Whitelist is blank by default and this means that all transaction types will be logged (if the plugin is enabled, the transaction duration is above the configured threshold and the transaction is not in the Blacklist).
  • Blacklist is blank by default and this means no transaction types will be omitted from the Transaction Log.

Whitelist/Blacklist Rules

The Whitelist & Blacklist are both case-insensitive, comma-separated lists of transaction types. The rules for filtering transactions are as follows:

  • Whitelist: Any type in the Whitelist will be logged. Default is blank and will log any transaction type that is not found in the Blacklist.

  • Blacklist: Any type found in the Blacklist will not be logged, regardless of it is also in the Whitelist.

Example Whitelists/Blacklists

  • Whitelist: WebRequest,HTTPClient,JDBCRequest
  • Blacklist: HTTPClient

The above example will log only WebRequest & JDBCRequest transactions. HTTPClient transactions will not be logged as this type is found on the Blacklist.

  • Whitelist: 
  • Blacklist: WebRequest

This example will log all transaction types except for WebRequest transactions as this type is found in the Blacklist.

Transaction Types

There are a number of FusionReactor defined transaction types:

  • WebRequest
  • HTTPClient
  • JDBCRequest
  • CFHTTP
  • MongoDB - (All MongoDB transaction types)
  • MongoDB:<Operation Name>
    • e.g. MongoDB:find - Will only filter MongoDB Find transactions.