Native XSLT Appended Error Log

iceandrews · February 2nd, 2012, 06:14 PM

We have an adapter that's in a multi-threaded container running many messages in and out simultaneously. We have a desire to do some error catching in this adapter and build a constantly growing error file (without actually halting the execution of the adapter).

If it were not multi-threaded, we could just pull in the current Error Log, copy its contents and then add on the errors from the current message at the bottom and dump it back into itself. However, being multi-threaded, we don't have that option.

Is there any native XSLT instructions/function that build a growing error log by just writing/appending to an existing static document? I couldn't find anything directly that would achieve this kind of dynamic error logging. I know there are other ways to handle this kind of thing outside of XSLT or in other OOLs, but is there any native way to do this purely in XSLT? My gut says it's outside the scope of what XSLT is designed to do, but wanted to check with the experts!

mhkay · February 3rd, 2012, 05:12 AM

This kind of thing is going to be very environment dependent. You don't tell us anything about your environment - Java, .NET, IIS, Apache - or wht XSLT processor you are using. You might be able to interface to the logging services of the host environment using xsl:message, but it all depends.

iceandrews · February 3rd, 2012, 10:33 AM

I figured as much. We're using a ESB product called Sonic (which I don't know a ton about since it's outside my responsibility), but it is a java based ENV. It runs Saxon 8.9 and we are allowed to use saxon extension.

mhkay · February 3rd, 2012, 10:46 AM

I don't know too much about Sonic either, though I had some contact with the developers years ago. Saxon 8.9 is a little old now but still viable. If you're prepared to explore the Saxon Java APIs, you'll find interfaces that allow you to redirect xsl:message output to a destination of your choice, and no doubt if you explore the Sonic APIs you'll find something that allows you to write to log files. Sorry I can't give you any more detailed help than that.

iceandrews · February 3rd, 2012, 12:06 PM

Thanks for your help. We thought we'd have to go to that level to get the kind of error logging that we're looking to do. We were already using the <xsl:message/> instruction, so nice to know you can force output restrictions through the APIs. We'll look into it!