# Build a custom Logger

**URL:** <https://discourse.nodered.org/t/build-a-custom-logger/13173>\
**Category:** General\
**Created:** [11 July 2019 13:27 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/build-a-custom-logger/13173 "2019-07-11T13:27:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Symonn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de053/32.png) [@Symonn](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Symonn)\
**Post date:** [11 July 2019 13:27 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/build-a-custom-logger/13173/1 "2019-07-11T13:27:02Z")

</div>

Hi,

I'm using node-red quite a lot, and i'm planning to save all the logs that comes out from the nodes to a database, as i'm writing this post, i've learned how to create a custom log handler (settings.js) for the logs that comes to nodered and i'm able to save them to a Postgres database table, as shown below:

```auto
// Configure the logging output
    logging: {
        // Only console logging is currently supported
        console: {
            // Level of logging to be recorded. Options are:
            // fatal - only those errors which make the application unusable should be recorded
            // error - record errors which are deemed fatal for a particular request + fatal errors
            // warn - record problems which are non fatal + errors + fatal errors
            // info - record information about the general running of the application + warn + error + fatal errors
            // debug - record information which is more verbose than info + info + warn + error + fatal errors
            // trace - record very detailed logging + debug + info + warn + error + fatal errors
            // off - turn off all logging (doesn't affect metrics or audit)
            level: "info",
            // Whether or not to include metric events in the log output
            metrics: false,
            // Whether or not to include audit events in the log output
            audit: false
        },
        // Custom logger
        psql: {
            level: 'info',
            metrics: true,
            handler: function (settings) {
                // Called when the logger is initialised                
                const Pool = require('pg').Pool
                const pool = new Pool({
                    user: 'myuser',
                    host: 'db',
                    database: 'mydb',
                    password: 'mypass',
                    port: 5432,
                })

                // Return the logging function
                return function (msg) {
                    console.log(msg);

                    pool.query('INSERT INTO node_log (data) VALUES ($1)', [msg], (error, results) => {
                        if (error) {
                            throw error
                        }
                    })
                }
            }
        }
    },

```

And this is the generated log:

```auto
mynodered | { level: 40, msg: 'Stopping flows', timestamp: 1562850905500 }
mynodered | 11 Jul 13:15:05 - [info] Stopped flows
mynodered | { level: 40, msg: 'Stopped flows', timestamp: 1562850905503 }
mynodered | 11 Jul 13:15:05 - [info] Starting flows
mynodered | { level: 40, msg: 'Starting flows', timestamp: 1562850905505 }
mynodered | 11 Jul 13:15:05 - [info] Started flows
mynodered | { level: 40, msg: 'Started flows', timestamp: 1562850905507 }
mynodered | { level: 99,
mynodered | nodeid: '77ec42e2.7dc2fc',
mynodered | event: 'node.inject.receive',
mynodered | msgid: '350414b5.4b64ac',
mynodered | value: undefined,
mynodered | timestamp: 1562850912684 }
mynodered | { level: 99,
mynodered | nodeid: '77ec42e2.7dc2fc',
mynodered | event: 'node.inject.send',
mynodered | msgid: '350414b5.4b64ac',
mynodered | value: undefined,
mynodered | timestamp: 1562850912685 }
mynodered | { level: 99,
mynodered | nodeid: '595ebe6d.50593',
mynodered | event: 'node.file.receive',
mynodered | msgid: '350414b5.4b64ac',
mynodered | value: undefined,
mynodered | timestamp: 1562850912685 }
mynodered | { level: 99,
mynodered | nodeid: '595ebe6d.50593',
mynodered | event: 'node.file.send',
mynodered | msgid: '350414b5.4b64ac',
mynodered | value: undefined,
mynodered | timestamp: 1562850912688 }
mynodered | { level: 99,
mynodered | nodeid: 'c1a389bb.147b68',
mynodered | event: 'node.debug.receive',
mynodered | msgid: '350414b5.4b64ac',
mynodered | value: undefined,
mynodered | timestamp: 1562850912689 }
mynodered | { level: 99,
mynodered | event: 'runtime.memory.rss',
mynodered | value: 101470208,
mynodered | timestamp: 1562850912910 }
mynodered | { level: 99,
mynodered | event: 'runtime.memory.heapTotal',
mynodered | value: 74620928,
mynodered | timestamp: 1562850912912 }
mynodered | { level: 99,
mynodered | event: 'runtime.memory.heapUsed',
mynodered | value: 67069024,
mynodered | timestamp: 1562850912913 }
mynodered | { level: 99,
mynodered | event: 'runtime.memory.rss',
mynodered | value: 101470208,
mynodered | timestamp: 1562850927917 }

```

Now, my goal is really simple: i want to identify the parent flow name of those nodes, and the name/description (or better, the icon that it's shown in the node) of the node, parse the data and make it usable for log debugging/event inspection in my web application.

Many thanks!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dceejay](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/dceejay/32/38_2.png) [@dceejay](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/dceejay)\
**Post date:** [11 July 2019 13:46 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/build-a-custom-logger/13173/2 "2019-07-11T13:46:17Z")

</div>

Hi,

a) nice - would make a good snippet/example for the [flows.nodered.org](http://flows.nodered.org) site  
b) you should be able to use the admin api to get the flow and that will of course be a big json object containing all the ids, types and names (if set) - but not icons

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Symonn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de053/32.png) [@Symonn](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Symonn)\
**Post date:** [11 July 2019 14:05 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/build-a-custom-logger/13173/3 "2019-07-11T14:05:11Z")

</div>

Thanks,

So you suggest me to interface from my webapp to the nodered admin API to get all of these infos?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dceejay](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/dceejay/32/38_2.png) [@dceejay](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/dceejay)\
**Post date:** [11 July 2019 14:10 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/build-a-custom-logger/13173/4 "2019-07-11T14:10:44Z")

</div>

well something needs to get the flow info you wanted.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Symonn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de053/32.png) [@Symonn](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Symonn)\
**Post date:** [11 July 2019 14:24 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/build-a-custom-logger/13173/5 "2019-07-11T14:24:58Z")

</div>

It isn't quite clear what software-flow i need to follow, can you explain more about your idea?