By default, Alfresco’s log4j configuration specifies that only the current system time, and no date, are output as the first entry in log messages output in alfresco.log, producing output such as the following.
12:21:23,658 INFO [org.alfresco.config.JndiPropertiesFactoryBean] Loading properties file from URL [file:/home/wabson/Downloads/alfresco-enterprise-tomcat-3.3.1/tomcat/shared/classes/alfresco-global.properties]
12:21:24,009 INFO [org.alfresco.config.JndiPropertyPlaceholderConfigurer] Loading properties file from class path resource [alfresco/alfresco-shared.properties]
12:22:40,726 INFO [org.springframework.extensions.webscripts.TemplateProcessorRegistry] Registered template processor Repository Template Processor for extension ftl
12:22:40,747 INFO [org.springframework.extensions.webscripts.ScriptProcessorRegistry] Registered script processor Repository Script Processor for extension js
12:23:09,470 INFO [org.alfresco.repo.domain.schema.SchemaBootstrap] Schema managed by database dialect org.hibernate.dialect.MySQLInnoDBDialect.
12:23:11,774 INFO [org.alfresco.repo.domain.schema.SchemaBootstrap] No changes were made to the schema.
This is the line responsible for setting the configuration in log4j.properties (found in the root of the classpath in the alfresco webapp)
log4j.appender.File.layout.ConversionPattern=%d{ABSOLUTE} %-5p [%c] %m%n
That’s fine in theory, since the configuration also specifies that the log file should roll over using a date-based suffix on a nightly basis. However, in practice the log rotation can sometimes fail on running systems, leaving log entries spanning more than one day in a single log file and ambiguity over which day a particular message was output on.
Fortunately, log4j’s PatternLayout is quite flexible, and allows you to specify a date-time format instead (in fact, this is the default if no date format specifier is given.
To print the date in ISO-8601 format, e.g. “1999-11-27 15:49:37,459”, use
log4j.appender.File.layout.ConversionPattern=%d{ISO8601} %-5p [%c] %m%n
For classic date format, e.g. “06 Nov 1994 15:49:37,459”, use
log4j.appender.File.layout.ConversionPattern=%d{DATE} %-5p [%c] %m%n
To also add dates into the console logging output (which is redirected into Tomcat’s stdout logs when running as a service), update the property log4j.appender.Console.layout.ConversionPattern.
Monthly Archives: July 2010
Refreshing Site Tags in Share
Sometimes the site tag data used in Share’s document library can get out of sync with the tags on the content itself, especially in older versions of the 3.x product.
I came across this today on the Partner Sales Enablement site that we’ve just launched fully today on partners.alfresco.com, but fortunately the tag scope data is easy to rebuild.
To do this, you need to create a small JavaScript file that will execute the ‘refresh-tagscope’ action against a space.
var refresh = actions.create("refresh-tagscope");
refresh.execute(space);
Once you’ve created this file (I called mine refresh-tagscope.js) in Data Dictionary > Scripts, use Alfresco Explorer to navigate into the documentLibrary space within the site you want to refresh, and click View Details from the More Actions menu.
You can then use the Run Action dialogue to execute the JavaScript file you’ve just created. You might also want to do the same for the site space itself, which also collects tag scope data.
Once that’s done you should be able to navigate back into the site document library in Share and you should find that the tag data has been fully refreshed!