Custom Logger Plug-in
The preferred way to install a custom logger into a communicator is by setting the logger field of the communicator's IntializationData.
However, in some situations, you have no access to InitalizationData, for example:
you are writing an IceBox service
you want to install a custom logger without changing any source code
The plug-in facility allows you to inject your custom logger into the communicator at runtime, during communicator initialization.
Installing a Custom Logger
Ice provides a plug-in class, com.zeroc.Ice.LoggerPlugin, that installs a logger into the communicator in its constructor:
package com.zeroc.Ice;
public class LoggerPlugin implements Plugin
{
public LoggerPlugin(Communicator communicator, Logger logger) {
...
}
@Override
public void initialize() {}
@Override
public void destroy() {}
}The implementation of initialize and destroy in LoggerPlugin are no-op.
Now, assuming you wrote a CustomLogger class that implements com.zeroc.Ice.Logger, you can easily create a plug-in factory that creates a LoggerPlugin and installs your logger into the communicator:
package com.example.clearsky;
public class CustomLoggerPluginFactory implements PluginFactory {
@Override
public String getPluginName {
return "CustomLogger";
}
@Override
public Plugin create(Communicator communicator, string name, string[] args) {
return new LoggerPlugin(communicator, new CustomLogger());
}
}Then, package your CustomLogger implementation and CustomLoggerPluginFactory in a JAR file, and configure your communicator to load it at runtime. For example:
Ice.Plugin.CustomLogger=customlogger.jar:com.example.clearsky.CustomLoggerPluginFactory
Even though you didn’t implement the plug-in class (LoggerPlugin), you are in effect creating a new plug-in since you choose the logger given to the LoggerPlugin constructor. As a result, you can pick any name for the plug-in factory and the plug-in itself.