Adding logging to your app

The IBM® QRadar® Python helper library (qpylib) contains two useful functions that you can use to add logging to your app.

The log() function

Import the qpylib helper library into your app’s views.py to use the log() function. This function writes messages at your chosen log level to the /opt/app-root/store/log/app.log file.

To turn on logging, your app must call qpylib.create_log() as part of its initialisation. Logging is set to INFO level by default. To add the ability to set the log level, you must add a log_level endpoint similar to the Hello World template sample app.

# This endpoint sets the app's minimum level for qpylib logging.
# Example call using curl:
#   curl -X POST -F "level=DEBUG" http://localhost:<port>/dev/log_level
@devbp.route('/log_level', methods=['POST'])
def log_level():
    level = request.form['level'].upper()
    levels = ['DEBUG', 'INFO', 'WARNING', 'ERROR', 'CRITICAL']

    if level in levels:
        qpylib.set_log_level(level)
        return 'log level set to {0}'.format(level)

    return 'level value {0} missing or unsupported. Use one of {1}'.format(level, levels), 42

After you set up the log level function, you can perform a POST to /log_level endpoint to change the log level.

The log() function uses the following format:

def log(message, level='info'):

from qpylib import qpylib

#in precedence order from lowest level to highest
qpylib.log('debug message', level='debug')
qpylib.log('info message', level='info')
qpylib.log('warning message', level='warning')
qpylib.log('error message', level='error')
qpylib.log('critical message', level='critical')

The set_log_level() function

You can use this function to set the current log level. This function is used by the POST /log_level endpoint but can also be called programmatically.

def set_log_level(log_level='info'):